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Re-colour replaced hands or keep on an Apollo XI Numbered LE?

  1. blubarb Nov 29, 2017

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    No doubt this topic has been covered in numerous ways, directly and indirectly over the years, but what is your current thinking on re-luming/recolouring Omega service replaced hands.

    Aside of future seller disclosure (which is a given) does recolouring/reluming to suitably match the tritium plots raise any issues for you that haven't been noted elsewhere?

    This watch, not mine, is a 1989 Apollo XI USA 2000 numbered LE (full set with all service papers, etc) that was purchased with hands replaced at a Chronosweep hand fix in 2010 at an Omega Service Centre in the US.

    So what is your preferred state for this watch, whether you see yourself as a collector or not? For me, colouring the hands would make it more uniformed and aesthetically pleasing to the eye - what do you think you would be tempted to do?

    ::popcorn::

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  2. Foo2rama Keeps his worms in a ball instead of a can. Nov 29, 2017

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    Search eBay for Tritium hands.
     
    BenBagbag likes this.
  3. repoman Nov 29, 2017

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    I was in this position, and found a beautiful set of tritium hands here on the forum, but I was preparing to have the service hands relumed as a fallback if I couldn't find tritium hands. Anything is better than superluminova on an older watch.
     
    Edited Nov 30, 2017
  4. wsfarrell Nov 30, 2017

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    What bothers me about superluminova is the glow as much as the color: you come in out of the sun to a dark room and the hands look like neon compared to the dial. That said, it's getting really hard to find a nice set of tritium hands these days. I might contact an expert like James Hyman and ask if he can match glow as well as he matches color.
     
  5. lillatroll Nov 30, 2017

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    I would look for replacement hands first, The lume on the plots change colour but those hands won t colour making the contrast even starker. The important thing is full disclosure regarding the hands if you ever want to sell it.