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White dial 2598.20.00 - any comments please?

  1. tikkathree Nov 27, 2019

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    This has just landed from planet EBay.
    It feels right and it looks right but I'm open to the voices of experience guys.
    Specifically, 1. Do the hands look original or service hands and, 2. The chapter ring has an orange tint to it: has it faded from pure white? 20191127_120936.jpg 20191127_113848.jpg 20191127_113328.jpg 20191127_113337.jpg 20191127_113449.jpg 20191127_113634.jpg
     
  2. Archer Omega Qualified Watchmaker Nov 27, 2019

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    Serial number: 60000884
    Article ref: 25982000

    Looks right, but I don't think I've seen the ring that colour before. It's actually part of the dial, so not sure why it turned that colour.

    The hands never end up the same colour as the lume plots on the dial on this eras of Seamaster. Looking at the lume on the hour and minute hands, it seems like tritium, but the fact that the hands with red have not faded the same as the dial would tell me they have been replaced at some point, possibly early in the life of the watch. You should be able to see if they glow too much if placed under a light to be sure...

    Cheers, Al
     
  3. Meme-Dweller Nov 27, 2019

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    I just started a thread about a Great White with a similar wave dial that looks to be yellowed... and now we have one where the outer ring is yellowing. Maybe older Omegas with white dial components are starting to change color like the older white Explorer IIs?
     
  4. tikkathree Nov 27, 2019

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    So not a separate chapter ring? Interesting.

    I'm on desk work in the house today in overcast England and I'd say the minty green glow of the hands is both slightly surprising and stronger than the hour dots. The square-ish orange marks at the upper and outer edge of the chapter ring thing offer no lume whatsoever. Oh where's my LED torch.... I'll insert a photo from the android here... but a ten second blast with an LED dazzler has way more effect on the three main hands than on the hour dots and has no visible effect on either the running seconds or the 12 and 6 subdials.

    Thank you Al. 20191127_143006.jpg
     
  5. tikkathree Nov 27, 2019

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    More knowledge will impart more information I hope. The colour/discolouration is so well defined that I'd be suspicious of self-coloured material forming the chapter ring but Archer Al is clear that it's part of the dial. Mystery....
     
  6. Archer Omega Qualified Watchmaker Nov 27, 2019

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    When I said it's part of the dial, I meant that the ring is not available separately, and not designed to be removed from the dial. It's a separate part that is affixed to the dial...

    [​IMG]

    Note that the dial I am showing was in a flooded watch, so there is discolouration on it from rust...

    Hard to tell with the lighting in your first pics above, so usually the tritium on the hands of this era tends to have a slight green tint, rather than being bright white. That's what I thought I was seeing in those first photos, but the lume shot appears to show Luminova hands. I guess how long the lume stays bright would be another indicator.

    Cheers, Al
     
  7. tikkathree Nov 28, 2019

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    I am shortsighted and a spectacle wearer: there was enough lume in a very dark room to allow me to read the time at three am and four am. The watch had received only low ambient light through the afternoon. Hour and minutes hand clear, stopwatch seconds hand clear (stopwatch running all night is how I know. Not Seiko bright but legible. Then the bezel lume pip and weakest but still visible the hour dots.

    The dial and the chapter ring colours as in the first two photos are accurate; the ring shows up pale apricot with square orange dots every five minutes above the minute track.
    Overnight accuracy hasn't been an issue of concern: not timegraphed but monitored against the clock on my android phone.