I want to rescue a once great watch. The dial is already redone and in bad shape. I am considering International Dial Company for the restoration work. Anyone have any experiences with them or anyone else that can do a great job on a chronograph dial? Or, better yet, anyone know where to find a Longines Antimagnetique dial for a 38mm 13zn? I couldn't pass up this junker. It's a rare stainless steel 38mm antimagnetique case! It is like looking at a Volkswagon Beetle and realizing its got a Porsche 356 SC inside it.

 

@Seiji, can't see the pics! can't think without pics.

 

Agreed, this thread is useless without pics!

 

Well I need to know who makes a good dial restoration. I've let pass some watches I wanted for my personal collection because of the dial, and I'm not as finicky as most when it comes to my own keepers.

 

Nope, but I confess to once buying one, and not a particularly good one
In my defence a visit to the opticians was way overdue.

 

for me the dial is the watch, so I avoid watches with bad dials.

 

It's been over 5 hours and still no pics

 

I have one in "project state" at the moment. Expect to be able to show it in a couple of weeks.
Will be interesting to see if you spot it. The "original" dial had been ruined earlier by some dial artists lacking hugely in the talent dept.
I decided to have it redone to as close to original condition I can, while searching frantically for a used/original one.
The rest of it was simply too good to let linger in a drawer while waiting.....

 

@ulackfocus , show us again that gorgeous JLC that you sent to redial! @Seiji , this is not a Longines but nevertheless it was a fine redial job!

 

Let's see the end result first?
PM sent.

 

As found:




After Le Sentier worked their magic:




Another fantastic job by the JLC factory - so good that my wife often pilfers this watch:

 

^^^^ here you go! not all redials are the same!

 

Some years ago I had a 2627, and had the dial redone a couple of times. I let myself be lead astray, quite honestly, by Omega themselves. It was a stainless case missing its bezel, and they they told me it was originally gold-capped. If I had used my head and left it all stainless (and got a stainless bezel), I would have been much better off.

But that was then, this is now.

If I recall right, I had International do it once and Kirk-Rich the other time but other than "these don't look like the factory did it", neither was all that much better than the other.

You know what impresses me are the redials you see on eBay watches... done somewhere in the "far East"... some impressive work.

Tom

 

Yes but who else besides JLC and Vacheron will do a redial THAT good? It almost qualifies as something else altogether.

 

Are you sure that's a redial and not a complete new (NOS?) dial?

 

In all honesty. These are so perfect, so fantastic as to beg the question as to what they are exactly. Factory restorations from the watchmaker? Or redials? I'd imagine all of the top like VC, Patek, JLC Ect do a killer job. I struggle to imagine how work this stunning would hurt the resale value. Regardless it's a pleasant reminder of why I love JLC.