Amazing how Marco Matarese restored the line angles to the CB case. Just curious, is the amount of metal removed in order to reestablish the line angles and the facet at all noticeable?
He didn' t remove material, but added material to restore the CB typical angles.
In my opinion:
Original > expertly restored > over-polished
In my book the O.P. is making a good choice, I look forward to the end result.
And along the way this watch will somewhen by someone sold as NOS. Nice for you to have it restored, but overall pretty much the reason why I don't buy vintage "NOS" Rolex or Omega from Italy, or elsewhere. Or "stupende onditione" as they like to call it.
There are very good artisans also in Germany..
Once again raises the question what originality really means if restorations like these become common practice.
Well, this is already quite common with Rolex sport models, so that market may serve as a model. On the one hand, people become more proficient at distinguishing refinished from original cases, and honest sellers indicate whether the case has been refinished. At the same time, it does make the condition of the case a bit less important, since it can be restored. I am noticing that collectors are becoming more tolerant of restored cases, certainly much more so than refinished dials. Vintage Rolex watches with professionally restored cases are sometimes selling for very high prices (although obviously not quite as high as excellent original cases), while collectors are still not interested in a watch with a refinished dial.
