Hi all, this is my first time venturing out of the Vintage Omega side of the forum, but I've been increasingly drawn to the world of vintage Polerouters.

I ended up submitting an offer and mistakenly buying this Polerouter and was wondering if some of you could give me some advice and tell me how I did. I bought the watch pictured for a little less than $500. Does this seem too high? It seems like these steel models go for alot more than the gold capped varieties and they're harder to find. I recognize that it is a little worn, but I was happy to see that it had an original UG crown and the dial wasn't aged up.

Second, I noticed that the dial looked odd and upon closer look I think the dial has been repainted. Can anybody corroborate this? Do you think it would be worth getting it redone?

Lastly, this is the second Polerouter I've bought and I seem to always have issues with them after shipping. The last one arrived to me losing about 5 minutes and this one arrived losing 2 minutes. Do I just have bad luck or are these Cal 69 microtors a little temper-mental? I notice that when I try to wind them, I never feel the tension of a fully wound mainspring...it seems as if the spring is slipping and I can keep winding. Is this something unique to these microtors that is supposed to happen?

Apologies for the seemingly dumb questions, but after two busts I really want to learn from some more seasoned collectors/enthusiasts. Thank you!

 

Hello and congrats on venturing off from Omega and giving UG a chance!

Regarding your watch: the dial has been poorly redone. According to this configuration, this watch should be a 204612/1, but your case back says it is a /2, which corresponds to a black dial. This could be either because the whole watch is a franken or that the dial was changed by a repainted one at some point (it's likely the latter is true). The crown, gladly, is correct I believe; the 204612 series have these big crowns and, trust me, the crown alone is worth a couple hundred. All and all if you purchased this for less than $500 you couldn't expect it to be all original. You can enjoy it as is or find a correct dial for it.

I'm not the most knowledgeable about bracelets, but 90% sure it's not UG.

 

Completely agree. Had it been all original, it's at least a $1000 watch. And in good condition, you can probably double that again. In short, you typically get what you pay for.

As for the movement, I assume that every watch that I buy will need a service (particularly at this price point) and occasionally I am pleasantly surprised. Does it definitely have a Cal 69? It's likely to have originally had a Cal 218-2.

 

This is totally correct.

The reference 204612 has been commanding higher prices lately. The minty black dials I've seen them sell for <$4k. Silver dials have experience a large increase as well, but not as high as black dials.

 

I really appreciate the insight! Considering how expensive the steel variants are, I assumed that it wouldn't be perfect and the condition made me write this one off as a wearable "beater" where I wouldn't have to worry about ruining a nice/rare example. All in all, It doesn't seem like $500 is all that bad. If the crown and model is valuable as you say, I'd say the watch at worst could be parted out to recoup the value. I'm sure some people would find the case, crown, and movement useful for a repair/restoration.

I'd like to try to fix it up. It seems like the odds of finding an original black dial is very slim and would likely be prohibitively expensive. Do you think it would be worth getting it refinished again? If so, do you have any recommendations?

 

Here is a movement shot. Bummer about the mismatched movement. Since it'll never be a perfect show piece, I guess it doesn't make too much of a difference from a functionality standpoint, but I'll stay on the lookout for a spare 218-2. I was happy to find no rotor rub, but now it is clear that is because somebody replaced the movement.