When I was young (about 20 years ago) my Chilean grandmother gave me a vintage Omega pocket watch that belonged to her father. I was still too young to be a real watch aficionado, but I was old enough to know that the watch likely needed some servicing. So when I got back to the US I took it into a local high end jewelry store. They sell luxury watches there (in addition to other jewelry) like Rolex, Omega, JLC, PP etc. They have a servicing department, and have been around forever (since 1912 I think) so I figured they would know what they were doing. I brought it in and told them to clean it up, which in retrospect was a poor choice of words. The dial had some corrosion or something going on, and when I went to pick it up they had redialed it!! I was heartbroken, but too young and awkward to confront them about it.

Does anyone have suggestions on restoring the dial? Any recommendations on repainting the dial in the original style? Or might anyone have a lead on a donor dial? Based on what I have tracked down, this is a 30mm caliber from 1944 - 45. Thanks!

 

Quite honestly, the original dial was really in rough shape and they did a decent job with the redial.
Your chances of finding an original dial are extremely low. I would just leave it as is and enjoy it.

 

Personally I'd prefer the original one, damaged and all, but once redialed... chances of re-redialing to something better are very low so I would leave it as is and enjoy. It's your grandgrandfather's watch after all.

 

Too bad! The redial is really wrong - if I may be honest.

I would try to find a replacement original dial. It will be difficult because pocket watches with a 30 T2 SC are rather rare.

But I will add that originality may not be as important for heirlooms. And it remains an interesting watch!

 

Thanks for the replies! It seems a consensus is growing to leave the dial as-is or if I'm lucky find an original dial to replace it, but not to attempt having someone try to redial it in the original style (Too risky?). It's too bad as I really preferred the aesthetic of the original dial in addition to my desire to maintain the originality of the watch as an heirloom.

 

i will not touch up the dial, would instead just leave it as is.. aged and battled. but in any case if you'd like to restore it, you can check out Michael Young of Classic Watch Repair. he is based in Hong Kong. check out his website/instagram for examples.