You never really know with Speedmasters. Here’s my 1996 3590.50. The tritium markers have patinated to a beautiful pumpkin shade while the hands, and especially the chrono hand are turning a much darker shade.

Then here’s my 1971 145.022. It’s 25 years older than the 3590.50 and the tritium still looks new and the markers and hands match perfectly.

 

My ‘72 is like your ‘71 where the color has only shifted to pale lemon and no deeper- which is fine with me. Although it has gotten crumbly and half a piece on the 2 detached

 

Lume on my 3590.50 is the exact same.

 

there is a very thin line separating "patina" and "damage" concerning gold (-tone) aka dress-watches.
patina and steel is more common.
I would proudly wear the 5513 shown by G. Fowler in A Man And His Watch page 166 or this 6202 from C24



true story-tellers!

 

I like a bit of patina. The lume on the numerals is heavily darkened but I think I know roughly where they are on the dial ;-)

 

Discoloration is ok but I can’t get past damage. Lost lettering.

 

I have 3 that I would say is as far as I would go. My Rolex is crackling and I think adds to it. The two omega are tastefully old. I draw the line at rust brown.

 

That. Is. Gorgeous.

 

Personally I don't mind a fair bit of patina as this often makes a watch that would be unobtainable for me in excellent condition within my reach. Also if a watch is almost pristine It would inhibit the joy of wearing it somewhat for me. I'd rather a piece with a few miles on the clock.

 

That is providing that the old metric of Damage=lower value were still in place, but that isn’t necessarily how it goes anymore.

 

my OWN dress-watch-patina limit

 

This is crazy. Assume this is water ingress?

 

Probably, name it: atlantic-dial

 

A little late to the conversation but enjoyed the pictures of patina and hearing opinions on where the wear crosses the line. This one teeters on the line for me but I do enjoy it and the case still has it's bevels which makes it feel like it isn't hiding anything.

 

Stunning!

 

Went from "A little patina is OK" to "Only watches with patina" in no time. My wabi threshold I'd say is somewhere in the bottom of the Mariana trench . Not even sure I could ever like a new(-ish) looking watch anymore. They're just so.. lame Sorry about the bomb

 

I like the dial to be as clean as possible.
Also I like the case to be unpolished, so it's ok with some scratches and dings.

 

Hulk-ish

 

Don't you mean jolly green giant

 

Great topic and thread. Always interesting to see the different tastes and preferences.

My patina threshold has always been rather low, but I have to differentiate. Black dials that turned into a tropical brown I do quite like but I would not want to pay a premium for it, the same goes for even creamy / champagne like patina. It becomes more difficult when it comes to freckles. These need to be fairly evenly spread and not too distracting to be acceptable. What I cannot handle at all are bubbles and blisters.

Here are my post patinated watches.

Two tropical dials that I like very much:


Fairly even creamy patina:


Some mild spotting, but not disturbing:


My most patinated dial and pretty much borderline case. If it wasn't for the very sharp case I wouldn't have bought it: