Hey everyone,

I'm looking at a vintage Vacheron from the 1940s and was wondering if you guys could help out with identifying the originality of the attached dial. I'm finding it hard to distinguish between originals and redials.

Thanks in advance!

 

Likely original.

 

Dials like this are virtually impossible to redial.

 

Just curious- why is that?

 

It's all about the textured surface

 

nice. movement and caseback pics?

 

Not really - look again...

 

The plate and logo?

 

The "plank" and subdial are flat, so no problem (re)printing.

Having said that, I see no obvious evidence of a redial in this case.

 

As Tony says, the textured parts have no print to redial. If anything, it is actually a fairly easy dial to repaint - completely flat surface for the logo uncomplicated, bold text and no minute hashes. I don't know enough about VC to say anything about it being original, but it appears fine

 

Vintage VC definitely brings up questions, between no Swiss marking on some dials, and the exact cutoff date for dropping the “&” it’s tricky.

 

the dial and print is looking pretty good to me.

In the same vein, i have seen this VC Ref. 7397 and the dial looks doubtful to me - it is just too perfect condition and the print is not completely regular. The O is Vacheron is taller then the other letters and the S iin Constantin is very wide. Looks like a reprint to me. What is your opinon?

Stefan

 

Very likely original, especially given the apparent condition of the rest of the watch. While it may seem odd, neither V&C nor AP, despite being two of the "Big Three" early/mid 20th century manufacturers, employed particularly high quality or consistent dial signatures.

 

Thank you for your comment Tony. However i remain doubtful. i just dont see how an original print can be so irregular. My impression / feeling is, that this watch may have seen a full refurbishment, which leads to the excellent conditon of the case, movement and so on.
best,
Stefan

 

It is possible that it is a redial, but given the apparent condition of the hands and movement, I see no reason why a clean dial might seem out of place.

As I mentioned previously, quality control of signatures was not perfect at V&C, but to my mind, the strongest argument for it being a redial is the use of a serif font, while the signatures were typically sans serif.

 

This ^^^

 

the font seems correct to me, when comparing to reference pictures. But the O has a different shape, which made me think it is a redial. below pictures are taken from the web.