My aunt gave me this watch. Her Dad bought it in a jewelry store in Dallas, Texas in 1960 or thereabouts. It keeps time but loses a few seconds a day. An experienced independent watch repairer offered to fix the time problem for around $250. He said the old oil was too thick. I wonder too if the spotting on the face can be cleaned. Have no interest in selling but would be interested in a rough appraisal. I think it is gold plated because I can see where the gold color has worn of the back of the band connection prongs. I know very little about watches.
Watch looks very nice and all original. Unfortunately, there is little you can safely do about the patina on the dial. Any treatment would be a risk that I wouldn't take. The case is gold capped, not plated. Relatively thick gold layer over steel. Look at a U.S. dime or quarter, it's a similar process. Omega would charge you about $1,000 to fix it up. Some would charge more than $250, some would charge less. Without knowing exactly what is to be done, I can't judge the fairness of the price. Hope this helps, gatorcpa
Absolutely DO NOT let anyone touch the dial! It looks fantastic just the way its. Actually except for servicing the movement I wouldn't do anything to it, looks lovely especially with the history.
OK. I'll leave it as is. I like look too. @gatorcpa: I can see clearly now this is gold capped. I have looked over hundreds of images of old Seamasters on Google and Ebay and have yet to see another identical to this. Is this unusual or is that just the way Omega did things?
NO, the dial looks fantastic and has the skin tone of an ageing sun bunny from Florida! Patina is infinitely more appreciated on watch dials than ageing sun bunnies though. So enjoy the tan and liver spots and have it cleaned and oiled. Not a particularly uncommon model and value would probably be in the mid 500s if serviced and regulated. Cheers Desmond
Heh, no, the dial does not look "fantastic". That's just opinion. If a person wanted to have a better looking dial from Omega, that's a valid choice too. Tom
If it's a family heirloom you don't want it to end up like Triggers brush. When the aged dial has a nice warm patina like yours, I'd also be leaving it as is.
Loosing a few seconds a day would not worry me unduly tbh. And the $250 price to "fix" the problem would depend on whether that involved a full service or something much less. As above, I'd not bother too had trying to much to remove the patina, maybe try blutac only.