Here are two Speedmasters that have very special characteristics, brought out more by being next to each other. Often photos of single watches do not let my eye truly appreciate an unusual colour, but side by side in a photo I can.


Here we can clearly see the blue bezel and brown dial, something that I like. It is interesting that blue bezels are becoming more valued - although to me I am careful as while they can be blue in certain conditions they are not always. And so I have to ask how much is that worth to me?

The brown, as always, is special to me but I know others see no value in it. It is also true that the browns I have bought, "by accident" rather than design always give greatest pleasure.

 

I think it is much harder to find a great tropical dial than great normal dial for obvious reason. The animosity against natural variation in color of the dial doesn't have that much sense to me (if instead is just a personal taste, that is a different story)

It is interesting how the watch with the blue bezel seems to have the dial as well with light tone of blue (but i guess is the photo or my screen)

 

Hmm, I was wondering (only slightly related to your post) -- with how much people pay for tropical dials, I'm sure artists/forgers have figured out how to fake them. Do we know how to spot fake tropicals? Or, a better question might be: are there any dead giveaways that it's a fake tropical dial (since I am sure the digger we deep, we'll find more and more creative ways to tamper with dials to make them look tropical and authentic)?

 

Quoting from this article about rolex dials: http://rolexpassionreport.com/14962/the-vintage-rolex-buyers-guide-by-philipp-stahl/
"A true tropical dial has perfectly matching original luminous, an untouched top layer of the dial and chanced color because it used to be worn in a very sunny area and then got stored for many years in a dark place ( safe ). Up close this original tropical dial will look the same as a perfect non tropical brown, the surface is still intact, luminous is original and when you loupe it 100X you see the original one has a brown and a blackish pixel next to each other, there where artificial ones will show you only brown pixels. There’s thus a big difference between an original tropical or damaged dial, only original ones deserve a premium!"

I'm sure though that Spacefruit will add more detailed information about this argument

 

I guess it's all just consumer perception, which goes up and down with trends and in waves (to a degree)

not that long ago, worn out areas of old watches were looked upon negatively. worn out rolex bezels would've been thrown away to be replaced in servicing. now this and 'tropical dials' have been deemed 'cool', and personally I do like it, but there is a hype involved that drives up the prices I think, which is not always related to aesthetic attraction, sometimes more just mass-perception or perceived rarity

i.e. are vintage rolex 1019 milgauss's that much different to an old smooth-bezel datejust? not really, but they're still 10-20x more expensive due to rarity/perception!

 

I have to say that the blue bezel in real life is something I never seen before, just through picture. But now I can tell you that it is just crazy to admire. If you couple with a tropical dial , a beautiful one, we are close to even.

 

quite True!

 

I think there is a distinct difference between 'Tropical' and knackered. They do, like a venn diagram meet at some point, but to have a nice valuable Tropical dial, it needs to be in great condition, and if you were to create one, a dial in great condition would be the starting point. You would be a brave forger to risk a nice dial.

Having said that there are some Omega Seamaster 2913 service dials that appear to have been cooked or baked to make them appear original. The Omega script and logo appears yellow, so that would be a potential indicator if you were suspicious.

 

Just to illustrate the even ... credit : Fratellowatch

 

That's a crazy bezel/lume combination! is it a relume because it really looks perfect!

It seemed to me blue bezel mostly appeared on ed white, does someone know anything about this?
Of course, DON bezel can be swapped and anyone could declare he has a blue bezel on his 145.012 but with the amount of purists and connoisseurs in this forum I am pretty sure we could have a rough idea

 

Both look very nice to my uneducated eyes. What I cannot understand is how these old bezels have so much wear (damage) while the cases look almost new. I have 2 modern Speedmasters that I wear often, each bezel is perfect while the cases have several small marks on them. If I extrapolate out what I assume would happen in the next 50 years, I would expect very different final results...

 

We focus a lot on evaluating the quality of a tropical dial but I would argue that
we should treat all speedy dials this way, as I alluded to in my earlier post:
https://omegaforums.net/threads/on-brownish.80890/

In other words, think of dial color like hair color. There are slight variations in dial color, both "black" and " brown".
We each have a highly subjective threshold for what looks really good and what looks not as good.
No question there are outliers that all agree look spectacular or are dogs, but most are more nuanced.

Some (me) like a more leathery brown as seen on the earliest speedies. Others prefer milk chocolate or dark shiny chocolate. Same with black, some like it jet, some more grayish-brownish, etc. All answers equally valid Imo.

And lets not forget each of our visual cortex's see color slightly different.

BTW, those blue bezels are stunners!

 

I think what this also highlights is the difficulty in photographing the colours of dials and bezels.

My 105 012 inside under artificial light

The dial looks more chocolate than to the naked eye.

Outside in natural light


Less of a chocolate colour

Outside in comparison with two others



And finally against a white background


In the flesh the bottom photograph is closest to the appearance. The top two photographs above don’t really show the blue bezel to my eye, but it is there!

 

That photo is wildly over-saturated, and can't possibly come close to accurately portraying the colors. Can you provide a more accurate one?

 

Speaking of true colors, here is the same image, 2 of which were manipulated and the other I worked really hard to dial in my camera to show the true color. Which one is the true representation?

 

The last one looks the most natural to me. But....

 

Which photograph best resembles the watch in the hand?

 

Yes sir

 

When I look at the two watches, in the original post, photographed side by side, my eye is drawn away from the detail of the watches. Immediately It is the blue and brown of the bezel and dial that hold my attention.

The trouble with comparing these two watches together is that I want to see that blue bezel on the left hand watch transferred onto the brown dial Speedmaster, on the right. Would they enhance one another or detract?

Well (as I've mentioned several times before on this forum ) That is almost the story of my Dad's 105.012-65 Omega Speedmaster Professional.
1960's until 2003: Worn, everyday, by my Father, out and about in 'sunny London, UK'.
2003 until 2016: put away (by me) in a soft spectacles case, in cupboards and draws.

I've never looked at the dial x100 but here it is photographed using an Android telephone camera. I've photographed it many times over the past couple of years, (Using the same Samsung telephone camera) and it looks a different shade of brown in every picture, depending on the light. I've only ever had the chance to compare it side by side with other, vintage, black dial, Speedmasters. It would indeed be interesting to compare it, placed, in watch case full of other, brown dial, Speedmasters, but 'who the fakk' has a watch case full of those? ...... Probably somebody on this forum!