Were the head-on photos also taken prior to the service? The way the dial/movement sits in case looks to be way off - look at the uneven gaps between dial and retention ring.
Do you have production numbers for this reference at hand? Or are you taking about the total number of 551s?
Total 551s. I think that we discussed this with Noddyman in another thread.
37,000 sounds like a huge number to me, but I guess it's all relative. Just another reason not to say something is rare.
I never said that the reference was rare. What I did say is that it’s a tough reference to find in good all original condition and I stand by that. That’s certainly also true of many vintage references, but good examples of some are harder to find than others. In my opinion, 37,000 is not a big number for worldwide production of a reference that is nearly six decades old, but we can agree to disagree.
Don't get defensive, I'm not criticizing you or even disagreeing with you, just pointing out that we have different interpretations of what "rare" or "hard-to-find" means. When I think of hard-to-find references, I'm usually thinking of production numbers like 2,000, which is quite often the situation for watches that I'm hunting, where one is lucky to find a handful (or fewer) coming to market in a given year.
