Hi all, A few weeks ago, I posted about the Medicus that I'd bought to restore and wanted to poll advice and opinion. In my own opinion, the dial is too far gone and I've decided to restore it by way of refinishing. Apologies to those purists out there, but there are times when there are few choices - I'd prefer not to but see no way out of it. Okay....someone has been there before me and has stripped off most of the dial finish. I've written to Omega to see if they have any visual reference for this dial, but haven't heard back; I may never, of course. Their archive says that my watch was made on 18th Feb, 1938. I have hunted high and low and located the missing drive over wheel, replaced the complete balance - even a vintage second hand (!!!!), so the movement is well underway to good health. My dial pic is _MDH2534 - as you can see, the numerals are raised gold colour, with a tiny amount of black residue showing at the base of them. The field they are in is slightly textured, pebbled, I suppose you might call it. The centre second track is single track, the residue of which is white, but with some black showing. The background is plain, stripped silver. My own guess is that the main background to the numbers was black, the numbers more polished gold. The center I would guess was originally white, the number markings black. But all the Medicus' on the Omega db have railway track seconds. Do you think this would have been single, that the traces still evident on my dial are original and correct? Am I right to guess that the number b'grnd was black? Any thoughts or opinions out there? I've enclosed a couple of pics I found out there. 'dial_a' looks genuine, applied numbers, whereas mine are raised. 'dial_b' seems correct, but might have been refinished. 'dial_c' seems correct, but might have been refinished. Both 'b' and 'c' say Swiss Made at the bottom of the dial, which I understood was a much later practice (c1950 onward?) and so perhaps this confirms that they are redials. I welcome your thoughts on this. I'd like to get it as correct as possible, of course. Many thanks in advance, Michael
IMO, all three are redials. The last example is just a very old one. The first one is the look you should be going for. However, your dial looks to be of a different construction that the others. They all seem two dimensional, whereas yours has raised lettering and an engraved minutes track with filled in enamel printing. Seems to be similar to the "Butler" finish used on many Hamilton dials in the 1930's. You might want to consider contacting International Dial in Wilmington, OH. They specialize in American watch dials, but might have some ideas on the best way to re-do this type of dial. http://www.internationaldialco.com/Pages/Public/Default.aspx Good luck with your restoration project, gatorcpa
Yes indeed, I'm sure Robert @ ID is good, but as he's had my Suveran dial since August (I'll just check and make sure of the year...), I'm not in a big hurry to try him on something even more complicated. He's not one of the world's great communicators.
Oops...sorry about that. I don't do redials, so don't have a lot of experience with any of the dial companies. I suspect that the first one was done in Europe by whoever does the Omega factory work. Ultimately, despite the cost, that may wind up being the only option if you truly want an exceptional looking watch. You'll note that all three minute tracks have different printing, my guess is that is because none of the firms have the proper dies to replicate the original. These weren't exactly common when they were new, so no one bothered to make printing dies for them years later. Don't know what to tell you on this one. Maybe just take off the dial and use some clear spray synthetic lacquer to keep it from getting any worse than it is? gatorcpa PS - Think I've seen that style of numerals before:
You may well be right. Don't know who does Omega's work - sadly. I will keep hunting....there's always someone out there who knows more than I do, so.... nice dial, by the way. I really hate having dials re-done, but in the case of the Suveran and this Medicus, both had been stripped or had gone so far that they looked too sad. One of my watch maker heroes said, when asked, that 'it's okay to re-dial when you can't bear to look at the watch anymore...' and I agree. In both cases, I consider that I'm saving them from worse than re-dialing.
i`d keep it the way it is. you will not gain value with a redial. if you have to, use causemann or bethge in germany. google will show it to you.... kind regards. achim
For those interested in this thread, I've found some more CK651 pictures on the French watch forum FAM. The all-white dial comes from the Richon Omega book, the others look very authentic. It's a definite characteristic of the Medicus series that they always have a railway second track and so this suggests that those I posted earlier are even mmore likely to be redials.
I think that the AJTT picture is as close as you will find to what your dial originally looked like, even though I'm 99.9% sure it is also a redial. If you are real stickler for originality, I think your only choices are to plead with Omega for contact with their redial firm (doubtful), send the whole watch to Omega for restoration (most expensive) or just leave it alone. gatorcpa
Thanks very much. There are small differences between the different dials, I presume that this stems from the different periods of production. My dial dates from 1938 and has raised numbers like the all-white 'Omega Saga' picture I posted herein. I presume this image comes from the actual Omega archive, as the style of photography is consistent with theirs. Anyway... I have already written to Omega and perhaps, just maybe, a long shot, but still.. they may answer me yet. Thanks again, folks, appreciate it.