Let's share some Before and After Photos of some of our vintage restorations.
Here's a nice broad arrow Ranchero 2996 I bought from Chrono24. It has a lower-quality redial, sloppy re-lumed hands and a crappy strap:

My indy Omega-authorized watchmaker replaced the dial with a still-not-original, but much truer-to-form dial, re-lumed the hands to match the pseudo patina of the dial and with a nice strap, I now have a poor-man's Railmaster complete with the Naiad crown and RM second hand:

It pairs nicely with my all-original 2996...


Let's see some others!

 

Interesting, wouldn't mind a piece of this.

 

Very nice "Railmaster" you have there. I'd show you my Omega-restored 168.022, but the dial is being re-worked in Bienne, so it's not re-assembled yet. I'll post here when it's done.

 

I have a bullhead that has gone to Bienne for a full service keeping all original parts. At the moment I only have before and after polishing the crystal. Will update once complete.


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OMG, that´s a beautiful piece! I do hope that they won´t ruin it in Bienne . It´s a great risk for that involved, none the less how detailed and careful you´ve been in your instruction before it went in. I.e a polish of the case is irreversible, and it looks fantastic now with all its patina and wearmarks. NB this is my opinion. You may think that it´ll benefit from a polish, and it´s your watch.

 

Thanks I have had the quote back and they understand about not replacing any parts and the polish. New glass service and strap only.


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That's pretty impressive, I like the new dial a lot. Nice strap BTW !

 

Thanks!
And thanks to everyone for posting...add here as you get your restoration projects finished....

 

Have posted this before but worth another look............

Omega Switzerland (Bienne) are often maligned on this forum but occasionally they pull the rabbit out of the hat....................

 

Wow!...that's stellar!

 

Ok..

So they replaced everything on the watch? Wouldn't call this a vintage Omega anymore..

 

Ridiculously good! What a transformation!

Here's one Bienne did for me:

BEFORE:









AFTER:

 

And another one:

BEFORE:










AFTER:

 

Bought this


Restored to this - can see it (average dig camera at time), but raised numbers and blued hands