What would posses someone to do this

Yes , if professionally done , ok . I can understand people wanting that kind of look on a new watch , not something i would do on a expensive watch , but ok i understand .
This is certainly not done with any thought . Looking at the case lugs , pic 3 , you see the case is ruined . It isn't ages , it is just plain ruined . You can make this watch working again and even get it to be appreciated by some , but in fact this is a throw away watch . This isn't even done by somebody who loves this watch , nobody would do that to a 7000$ watch like that . Unless they got too much money and they don't care and try something by themselves .

Its like that ugly, mistreated puppy on "The Dodo" raised by junkies or insane people that gets a new home and becomes a georgeus, happy dog. Let us see that ending please.

This kind of story: Naked Street Puppy Is So Big And Fluffy Now | The Dodo - YouTube

Looking at it like that, we truly understand why astronauts like Donald Slayton, Walter Schirra, James Lovell and Frank Borman didn't bother at all when the "Tachymètre" bezel was lost on their Omega Speedmaster chronograph... Time for a practical bezel ! ! !
☕
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Personally, a moveable 12 hour bezel to give dual-time functionality would be my suggestion.

But that's probably heresy 😁

a Telemeter or Pulsometer bezel are more practical than any Tachymètre bezel 😗

I used the tachymeter bezel on my Seiko Pogue to tell how fast we were travelling between mile markers. It almost always matched the speedometer. Imagine that.

I spotted this one floating around too and wondered what on earth had possessed someone to do this.

Or more perhaps, what had possessed someone to do this to a nearly new £5k plus watch.

Just seemed and incredibly weird thing to do.

Is the case ok @bags1971 or is it worth asking them to replace everything but the movement and just return it to as new?

Yes the case is ok just the dial hands and bezel I fitted a crystal as the old ones fit and it was cheaper than omega to get a nos one

it also has the 3861 chrono problem testing it stopped a few times

I also couldn't wrap my head why to do this to an almost new watch, so I came up with a possible scenario:
- Since the crystal was changed to the not original one, while originally this model also had hesalit, it probably means that it was not done to change appearance (because it wouldn't change a look that much) but because of the need (the previous glass was broken).
- Going further, if the glass was broken and it was replaced to not the original one, it means that the fix was done with as low budget as possible. So the whole thing probably was not initiated as a passion project, but because of broken parts in the watch.
- I think it makes sense to assume that it was some kind of blow to the front of the watch. In the effect of which, glass, bezel and hands were broken. It's possible that maybe this brushing of the step of the dial was also in the small part an effect of the accident, but to "fix" the appearance it was brushed entirely by hand.
- I wouldn't be surprised if the blow was more to the 3 o'clock side, as small hand there is replaced and that maybe hour and minute hand were also on this side and that's why they had to be replaced and chrono second hand was only stripped of paint.
- Another thing is dark lume plots, my guess here is that the lume was partially removed and what was left was made dirty by black pigment from the dial (from brushing the step). It's visible that somebody was touching the minute track while doing this as painted minute markers are also faded.

I just can't accept the idea that somebody did this deliberately and while doing mod/fix he took the cheapest (almost random) elements that he could find. In my opinion, it was more about using the lowest amount of money to make that usable (and in some way acceptable visually - like brushing manually the whole "step" around, instead of leaving part of it brushed) so he can sell it, instead of paying extra money to get it fixed properly.

So you bought the watch just for the case and dial? lol for me that's more time and money to be on it

No it’s a complete watch just the dial is damaged hands and Crystal wrong missing bezel

the sub dial hands are different on the new 3861 there all one size now

Wild

96 more useful posts like this and you'll hit the 200 post count needed for posting in the For Sale section

good stuff

Update

£1300 later it’s back all restored 😀

Looks new to me.