My watchmaker believe it is a franken watch: gold plate 145.034 case sanded down, correct 861 movement, 145.014 caseback. The weirdest thing is the dial. It is black with applied logo. I have seen gold color one but never black one. Searched online and did not find a match. I would assume it is a redial but it looks so good. Any ideas what it is? Thanks.
It looks perfect. All the printing is lined up perfectly and the applied markers are dead straight. It's hard to believe it's a redial. Did you get this on eBay? I remember seeing one like it about a month ago.
Case shows no sign of the original finish let alone any resemblance to sharp lugs. I've never heard of the dial like this and there is a trace of the old lume at the 7 o clock. Why does your watchmaker think it is a 145.034 with the gold scrubbed off? did he find traces of it in other places? That might be your best clue. My feeling is that someone modified a watch at some point in the late 70's. And no they are not perfectly aligned... I see at least 3 that are off, most noticeable 6 and 7, they should be biased the other way based on that angle.
I got it on eBay without noticing the dial. I sent it directly to Tanner Morehouse to refinish the case. He found traces of gold plate and told me it is a 145.034 case. I then noticed the dial. https://www.ebay.com/itm/272546362656Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network
Odd watch for sure... reminds me of this one. http://m.ebay.ca/itm/Lemania-Omega-...873-Wristwatch-Dial-NOS-/351926494624?txnId=0Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network
My best guess is that someone took a normal Mark II black dial and put on the logo and hour marks exactly where the lume marks are. But I am amazed at the effort and can't help thinking 'who would do that!'
I cant help thinking the same thing, why go to all that effort with the dial when standard MkII dials are pretty cheap anyway. I really like the dial and would keep it just for that. Would be good to see some photos of the dial out of the case. Case wise, I think you would be better to get an original steel case instead of trying to do anything with that one
There is a completely restored MkII case on ebay for $600 with all new crystal, pushers etc - might be something to think about
You don't spend a lot of time on eBay lol. I think a lot of people had watches from around 1970 that got tired and raided the parts catalog in the 90's some like this one maybe earlier in the 80's. Back then they where not valuable and no one cares about originality. Same as no one cares if you got rod a mid 90's or newer speedy today.
Someone went to a lot of effort to create that dial. My guess is that its a gold 145.034 dial which has been repainted but the metal indices are steel colour and the 145.034 are gold, not sure how easy it would be to change their colour. It also has the 'T Swiss made T' in the correct place for an early black MkII dial but the 145.014 black dials have the markers further out than the gold dial.
From the pictures, someone had a gold plated MKII and has stripped the case, and taken the batons off the dial and stripped the plating off them too, then reapplied the black pieces (they're not all straight), and attached them to a black dial. I have no idea why you would do this... no matter how cheap the watch was... unless you had a lot of free time on your hands. I'd be tempted to quit whilst you're not too far behind...
Amazing. The only thing I might disagree is 'strip the plating off the batons'. This is just way too much work. oh also where to find the markers?! The gold plate one has gold plated markers.
I don't think these batons occur anywhere else, and all the inserts are off... weird hobbyist project when these were worth sub $500...
Do we even know if the markers are stainless underneath? They could just as well be a base metal, making them dull and grey when stripped. Polishing them, well... I'd leave that as a distant possibility. Very distant.
Fair point. I think the only think that can be said with any certainty, is that this puppy is a mongrel...
Here's the 145.034 that I've just taken off my wrist to compare against yours: I've tried to get the same angle that you've given on your photo. The facets on the side of the case seem to match well, but you're totally missing the flat facet against the crystal, so yours has definitely been heavily polished. The hands also look a little short - that minute hand is a long way short of the track As for the applied indices ... never seen them before (might not mean much, but I have looked at many, many examples online). The Mark II didn't have the applied logo either The second track doesn't line up with the tachy scale at the bottom of the dial - this might be down to the glass being imperfectly fitted but I'm thinking that it's more likely we're looking at a partial redial at best. If the question of the watch having been plated is down to the reference, there is a steel version of the 145.034 as well as the plated and solid gold. If there are traces of plating in places we can't see ... then that's different. Hope this helps.