Speedmaster Grading ‘Good’, ‘Very Good’ and ‘Fair’ — discussing 2nd example

I think the single biggest surprise in your comments is how strong a factor the lume loss to the hands is.

I’ve been very reluctant to relume hands unless it was really really necessary.

Like many of us, I still struggle with the originality boundary. I’ve turned away many a Speedmaster (to say nothing of Rolex Subs) whose dial and hands looked too nice for the condition of the rest of the watch.

Thank you again everyone. This has been very enlightening to me.

Oh, and for those of you who have made it this far in this thread, here’s where I found it about eighteen months ago and what it looked like then:



Yeah, so let the ‘told you so’s begin. (Some of the lume loss occurred when my watchmaker removed the hands to service it.)

🍿

For me this one is a fair-good and if the lume was better it would be a good-very good. But this remains subjective and I think @spcefruit wanted it this way. And btw I would vote no on reluming this 100% of the time. I commend you for posting one of your speedies with this query, I would be too chicken 😀.