Hello all! I have another Tri-Compax with what to me looks like an original dial. Let me know what everyone thinks! Also, with a dial like this, is there anything you can do to clean it up a bit without altering its originality and integrity? I like it's look but would prefer a slightly cleaner dial. The watch is offered at a good price though so if I could make it work it would be great! Thanks again.
Not sure you can do much about that dial I am afraid without risking to damage it further... Hands clearly need a relume, they lost all of their original lume, central chrono hand should be blue instead of gold color, and moon disk is surely later as with this serial number (mid 40s) the moon should have the face for sure and this one is face-less. Not a huge deal if you ask me but just pointing out all that is not 100% correct on the watch. What are the dimension? 35 or 36mm? The biggest issue is clearly the dial, it all depends on you: can you leave with it or not? I personally couldnt but I am known to be very fussy on conditions... it all depends on price and what you want at the end of the day...
Depends on the price. If really good I would flip it and look for something better, if not, pass. Dial is everything, this one has crossed over imo.
What I would pay and what the market might pay are very different. I might consider that tri at 1500 usd. Others would probably pay more. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
depends on the serial number, if it is mid 40s it surely should, it is very late 40s it still should but there are example without, if it is 50s than the moon should be faceless. Roughly speaking with serial south of 1.45m-ish I expect the moon face, with serials north of 1.5m I expect face-less moon, in between you could see both but closer to the bottom of the rance the more likely they have it and closer to the top the more likely the dont.
Also from what I understand if it was serviced it likely got a faceless moon because they did not hold up well. Correct?
They indeed didnt hold very well: in the best of cases they really discolored and got a muddy/brownish kind of color, often they completely vanished and got replaced with later faceless ones that kept pretty well the blue sky. To find an original moon with face from the 40s with still a blue sky is a real rarity indeed, but the do exist out there
I wonder what the issue is, UV light? If it's just unstable and a matter of age, you would think they all fade regardless of environmental conditions. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Most likely a combination of light and himidity acting on a paint that had some issue to begin with. Different batch from perhaps different suppliers might have had slightly different paints that in time might have reacted differently to lights and stuff. Though to know for sure. But then again this is a similar thing to tropical dial: why some are and some are not and the ones that are some ore uniform and some not?
As @Mlafra exposed i think so but, although i prefer one with a moonface, it's not a big problem or deal breaker for me