Following on from the very useful Rachero dials 101 thread, I'm interested in having a few pointers on this watch I might have accidentally bought, and how much of a mistake that was

What do you make of the dial? Definite relume? Omega script too weighty to be correct? Swiss made obscured by the rehaut/crystal, or worse not present. Maybe just angle of photo.
(Other issues are replacement hands clearly, but these can be replaced, movement in dire need of a service at best, but it's everything else I'm worried about here.)

Anything I've missed based on these photos? Cheers!

 

Well I had my finger hovering over the BIN button too !

I hesitated because of the lume, but I am VERY far from being an expert on these.

 

WOW!!! This is a tough one. I would certainly put alot of weight in PitPro's advice here if he should add to this thread.
The dial and script really look correct. The only exception might be the "12". Yes, the arrow plots look a bit sloppy, so possibly this is an original dial that has been touched up. The sub hand looks perfect. The "SWISS MADE" script is hard to catch in photos and is clearly missing in the angles that are shown. The hands seem to be the correct length, but yes, there were definitely repainted at some point. And of course, the winding crown has been replaced by a non-Ranchero one which is pretty common.
I would be bold and say that this is real McCoy, but perhaps it was someone's "first day" at the Ranchero bench or the guy who paints the Ranchero dials were out with the flu that week and so you got a dial that's just a bit less consistent than usual. I would put a black light on the dial and see if there is a faint glow. A Geiger counter would certainly be a good tool here as well.

Sorry I can't give you a more definitive answer, but to me (and I'm still learning), it looks more original than fake.
PitPro---are you in the house?

 

I messaged the seller who could not confirm the dial had original radium lume. He also said there was no Swiss Made on the dial. So I passed.

 

Thanks folks, even if that wasn't what I wanted to hear gemini4!
To be honest just about anything other than a redial would have been acceptable at that price. Oh well.
Rancheros are tough, man

 

Yes they are. The watch is returnable so you have options. Unfortunately, the lume does not look similarly aged as these other examples.

2990.1



2990.1

 

Ok. Here's what I see.
Here is a blow up of the 3rd picture.
Looks like the dial was stutter printed twice.
Doesn't it?

Fonts, spacing, etc., all look correct but how is that printed twice like that?
Then I looked at the side view. The crystal is incorrect and has a much steeper
edge. The original crystal covered half of the Swiss Made as it was. If the
crystal is even the least bit different the Swiss Made could be covered completely, easily.
The hands look original but refilled. The hour markers shape look ok except the 12,3,6,9.
Those should be triangles with the legs a bit longer than the base. But these look terrible.
Then I looked at the 1st picture rotated. Hey! the thick double fonts are gone!
The printing looks real nice now.
The 12 marker looks almost normal. If you allow that the curve of the edge of the crystal
is real steep and could be causing an optical distortion, maybe the shape is ok?
But wait, look at the 9 marker in the 1st picture! Look how skinny it is now.
There's a lot going on here. It could be that the 6 marker(which looks the worst) and the
3 and 9 could all be distorted by the crystal. It's therefore impossible to tell you
without holding it it my hands, preferably dropping the movement out to look at
the dial without the distortion, to tell you if it's been re-lumed. But that's the
worst case with this watch is that it might have been relumed. The color is not
what I would expect but the photography is so bad that it's hard to tell what the real color is.
The case looks decent and the movement is in the right serial range.
If the hand lume fell out, and the age showing in the movement, at this point I would guess
that it might be touched up. But it might not be either. Although it the lume lack of ageing is suspect.
I want to see that dial with the glass off it though.
Maybe you got lucky.

 

DIV, if you want to page someone, put an @DIV in front of the users name
and they will get an email of the post. In case you or others didn't know
about this feature.

 

Ah, thanks PP, I didn't know that...very cool...and thanks for joining the conversation. I think you raise a very good point about the distortion from an incorrect crystal.
And by the way, 72c, have you looked at my Ranchero that I've listed?

 

The hands are blurry too, look at the tips and the tails, I think it's just a blurry picture. I believe the dial print is ok, the lume looks surely distorted by the crystal, but it's also a little fatter all along the index, not just along the edge. It may be ok or not, we'll see it with better pictures.

 

pitpro I appreciate your insight, thanks.

I've never hoped for a crystal so incorrect that it's obscuring part of the dial on a watch I've bought until today.

I'll be sure to update this thread with more detailed (and in focus!) photos when it arrives, so we can see all see the calculated risk paid off, or not.

Then I'd be so curious to go for the Russian Roulette of an Ranchero extract. More drama to follow, I'm sure.

 

I contemplating this one as well. I hope it works out for you.

 

The SN seems to be right as well....

 

I have this in hand now and it's passed the first important Swiss made test. It's actually quite well hidden, so I can see how the seller missed it, you have view from an angle on via the top side to see it (hence quick upside down photo below).

In person the lume has that richness/flakiness in places I was hoping for and the seller's slightly over exposed images didn't capture.

I'm still wary when it comes to Rancheros so I've ordered an extract, then it's onto a straightforward cleanup service with correct crystal. I'll either live with or do something about the hand colour mismatch, and try to source a correct crown (that part may take a while). A lot to play for with the extract results still an unknown, but so far it looks promising.

 

I asked the Seller about the Swiss Made and was told it wasn't there. How could he not see it??.

Sorry I passed. I think you got a big score! Congrats.

If you have access to a Geiger Counter (they are about $100 on ebay), the lume question would be answered in seconds.

 

Beautiful watch and I think your gamble paid off! Someone that knows what they're doing can match lume color on hands if you so choose. I could be wrong, but the crown may be new replacement style offered by Omega.

This is where I first found any info on Ranchero, written by Bill Sohne...(sorry if pics don't display. May have to be logged into site.) Still a good read on earliest recognition of a now sought after watch.

http://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=tree&goto=1021&rid=0

See link:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-Om...334417?hash=item4890e15f51:g:aLUAAOSwrklVLwR0Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network

Here's link for plexi:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Replace...863310?hash=item211461a10e:g:R3YAAOSwX~dWju4kPurchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network

One of my 2990's...I believe hands are original and were also available on non Ranchero models


Here's an a link to 2015 post showing my Ranchero
https://omegaforums.net/posts/272281/

 

Yes sir. I think you got lucky for sure.
The incorrect glass was really messing
the look of everything up. I'm pretty confident
the dial is untouched. Congrats/

 

@wwhntr thanks for the links, most helpful. Your $127 score makes it look like I positively overpaid, I can only imagine how few collectors were buying these back in 1998. In an ideal world I'd like to source some og radium hands (I'll be in for a long wait, I realise), so knowing other 2990s shared them is a bonus.

@gemini4 before he shipped I was curious and asked the seller too about the Swiss made, he was certain it wasn't there with me also, which I expected based on his reply to you but at that stage he would have had the two opportunities to double check . I went ahead regardless of course, but knowing after the event that you were in the running I certainly consider myself fortunate he didn't have an eye for such details. A positive from a Geiger counter would make my day so it's definitely part of the plan.

@pitpro the seal of approval coming from you counts for a lot

I can't think of anywhere other than this forum where I could get such unbiased and detailed info on an uncharted (to me at least) Ranchero purchase, all credit to the contributors here.