Check out this low technology aided brown dialage on my recently acquired 1964 birth year Echo Whiskey...the lighting makes all the difference...93.7% of the time the dial appears black...
MD we have v little in common what with me not being either an ex Navy helo pilot or beat cop, (though I fraternise with both here in the UK) but I too have a EW which occasionally shows brown around the subdial. Beers all round!