Restoration of a 1st gen Eterna Kontiki. UPDATE: ENDRESULT

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Thnx. Appreciate your opinion and everyone who reacted.
 
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Thnx. Appreciate your opinion and everyone who reacted.
I would send your pics to James Hyman and get his opinion before you commit to anything. Better to measure twice and cut once.
 
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Calling @cristos71

Do you think Nico (dutch watchmaker) could do something like this? I've send him a email.

I will also consider James Hyman. I saw great things from him. Thnx for the tip.
 
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I’m not an expert, but have had a few dials like this really brought back to life without going full Monty- just a clean, wax and relume. Every tradesman has their tricks, and you have to be of the mindset that you have nothing to lose. I think a re-lumer can get this looking great.
Will it be perfect, no. But it can look 10x better without destroying the original dial.
This is surely the way to go. But the five "ball bearings" will be important too. (Happily, a donor dial shouldn't be too problematic.)
Looking forward to the result already!
 
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Calling @cristos71

Do you think Nico (dutch watchmaker) could do something like this? I've send him a email.

I will also consider James Hyman. I saw great things from him. Thnx for the tip.

I'd say he could and I've had him do lume restorations for me before, however they were hands only or perhaps the fill of one or two markers. For a full dial relume like you need I'd think JH would be a better bet.

I know other Dutch collectors who use NR but still go to JH for their lume work.
 
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I'd say he could and I've had him do lume restorations for me before, however they were hands only or perhaps the fill of one or two markers. For a full dial relume like you need I'd think JH would be a better bet.

I know other Dutch collectors who use NR but still go to JH for their lume work.
Ok. Thnx!
 
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Update:

Today I went to my watchmaker and we agreed that he will do the restoration. But he is convinced the dial was refinished a long time ago. If he's right (and it would not surprise me if he is) then nothing stands in my way to fo a full refinishing of the dial. He can send the watch to a dial refinisher in Germany. I forgot the name. Something with a A in the name. Here's the text from my watchmaker. What do you think?

I took another look at the dial under the microscope and concluded that it was made up. You can see this especially in the minute indexes, which are very irregular, but also re-drilled after the dial has been sprayed black. They didn't do this like that before.
There are no holes in the dial for the 5 balls. These should then be pasted. They didn't before!
The printing of the name, hmmmm not nice and regular in thickness.
 
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I've been reluctant to say this, but now that it has been said, I agree that the dial has already been refinished.
 
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I guess Causemann: http://causemann-zifferblaetter.de/

If he has the correct cliches, the result will be fine.
However, you should ask yourself, if it's worth it?
Good question. It's still a very rare watch. I did'nt pay a lot for it. A couple of hundred. And I never restored a watch so maybe it's a interesting project. But will I enjoy a refinished watch with put together parts? Somehow I want to give this old lady a new life. Hmmm...
 
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I've been reluctant to say this, but now that it has been said, I agree that the dial has already been refinished.
I think I agree...
 
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It would probably be a very painstaking job, but I have a couple of Eterna dials
with the same applied logo if you need a donor.
PM send... : )
 
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Crown... Check
Dials with metal balls... Check

Hands.... ?

Does anyone know where I can find these hands or similar hands? I've been searching ebay with no result.

@Archer

Can you help me?
 
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Here's a update. I found some hands, crown and dials (thnx to @Radiumpassion) and now my watchmaker is going to relume it. We're not going to refinish the dial because we dont know what clichés the company in Germany will use. And they wont have a cliché for the very first kontiki. Besides that, we're not even sure how the first kontiki dial looked like. Was it with or without 'kontiki' and 'swiss'? We're going to leave it as is. Of course the hands will be relumed as well. It could be a total disaster. We will see. But I gave it a shot...
 
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Here's a update. I found some hands, crown and dials (thnx to @Radiumpassion) and now my watchmaker is going to relume it. We're not going to refinish the dial because we dont know what clichés the company in Germany will use. And they wont have a cliché for the very first kontiki. Besides that, we're not even sure how the first kontiki dial looked like. Was it with or without 'kontiki' and 'swiss'? We're going to leave it as is. Of course the hands will be relumed as well. It could be a total disaster. We will see. But I gave it a shot...
This is fun to see you lean into this. I have a watch I recently bought (overpaid) had a few issues (I should have known better) and have decided to double down- new old stock dial and hands, full service, etc. The end product will cost me twice what it’s worth, but it will be awesome!
 
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This is fun to see you lean into this. I have a watch I recently bought (overpaid) had a few issues (I should have known better) and have decided to double down- new old stock dial and hands, full service, etc. The end product will cost me twice what it’s worth, but it will be awesome!
Haha. Yes. I'm a bit obsessed. I could throw this watch away. Financially that would be the smartest thing. But how many of these 1958 kontiki's are still out there. When I'm old I hope somebody will do the same for me....
 
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So today I've received a picture from my watchmaker of the final result and I must say the restoration has been done sympathetic. Within the limitations we had (hands, dial, etc were unobtainable) we've reached a good result. We did'nt do a refinishing of the dial because chances were big the end result would be worse. I'm very pleased with the outcome. And it's nice to give a grand old lady a new life. Again, I hope somebody will do the same for me when I'm old and I need a restoration.

Of course this thread will be closed with a wristshot. The watch is now on test week and I will pick it up next week.