Omega Watches – Do Refinished Dials Lessen the value of your respective Investment?
A SMILE On The DIAL?
A dial is, arguably, the most essential visual function of a watch. Irrespective of the excellence of the movement or its timekeeping qualities, if the dial is badly discolored or flaking it makes the watch look sub-standard, tired or worn out and definitely diminishes its value.
Often Collectors are put off by flaking and badly discolored dials on otherwise very original Omega Constellations. A lot of shy away from such watches due to the common assumption that moisture is the primary trigger of dial disintegration. The theory goes, that badly discolored dials offer an excellent outward clue of a possibly rusty movement and are very best avoided.
There is certainly one more doable trigger of dial discoloration that behooves the canny buyer to appear a lot more closely at imitation omega seamaster watches with discolored dials.
Sun damage is yet another cause of paint failure and sun can mimic water harm to the dial paint in numerous cases.
A stunning movement with no water harm can lay below, and this type of paint failure, whilst not good for collectors of original watches, is really a wonderful candidate for restoration. Nonetheless, even seasoned buyers want to be cautious when getting watches with badly deteriorated dials – you’ll want to decide extremely carefully regardless of whether the watch dial is damaged from sun or moisture.
So, the first thing that requirements to be done when chancing upon an Omega with a badly discoloured dial are look below the bonnet with a jewellers loup. A clean, rust cost-free movement is effortlessly identified, and if the seals on the case have held up well, there will be no tell-tale rust spotting on the non-copperiest parts of the movement and no corrosion of the case, particularly in the case back seam.
If the movement has stood up effectively to the components and history or use, you’ve a choice: Get and restore (or have restored) or continue on your journey to find a vintage Omega with an original dial. In the event you take the restoration route, you could have the watch sent to Omega in Bienne, wait for quite a although, and ultimately receive the watch back with a new factory dial.
In the case of Pie Pan Constellations, however, it is believed that Omega has run out of factory dials and will replace old Pie Pan Dials with convex Constellation dials from the same period. Given the growing likelihood of not becoming in a position to source an original Pie Pan dial, you might choose to opt for a re-dial.
So in case you choose to re-dial, what are you letting one in for? In the event you can source an superb re-dialer – they are couple of and far between – then a dial refinished to look precisely like an original will indeed make a watch look far more attractive.
But, from the standpoint of collecting original Omegas it may not enhance the value of the watch – there is an exception and we’ll evaluation that later. From a vintage collector’s point of view, a refinished dial diminishes the value of a watch when compared with a watch with an original intact dial that may possibly have a good patina.
Why is this? Nicely, typically, refinished dials are not of exactly the same top quality as the factory originals. Numerous refinished dials don’t last as long and aren’t as durable as original dials. Factory dials could have baked-on, anodized along with other manufacturing finishes including clear coatings covering each the dial and markers to inhibit the ageing method.
Refinished dials are typically painted, have ink stamped script and are finished to a lower level of high quality and durability. They might mark much more very easily and usually don’t contain the degree of detail of the originals.
Also, many original dials have the markers soldered towards the dial, whereas in really quite a few refinished dials I’ve seen, the markers have been glued back rather than soldered (for the apparent reason that the soldering method could damage the paint on a re-dial) On occasions the glue is so thick on the back of the dial that it interferes with the operating of the watch, especially with date models.
A poor re-dial with inaccurate detailing can have the value of your watch dropping quicker than a soufflé placed in a refrigerator! It’s fair to say that there are numerous a lot more slap-dash, incompetent and inferior refinishing houses than you’ll find high quality re-dialers. So, in case you opportunity upon one, treat him like royalty.
Now, to the exception mentioned earlier. As a result of the globalization of the vintage watch market place and accessibility of stock, many more individuals have the opportunity to buy Omega watches. A brand new niche has emerged within the vintage watch market for vintage imitation omega Speedmaster watches that look nearly showroom new. This industry is driven, largely, by newcomers. I can attest to that from a continuous flow of emails from such individuals, and, to them, ‘look’ is extremely essential and ‘patina’ and originality is frequently overlooked. These buyers will pay large money for look and wear ability, so you will see on occasions very high rates getting paid for watches with refinished dials.
I envision though that fairly quite a few newcomers to collecting, if they are critical, will ultimately create a greater level of collecting sophistication and grow to be thinking about the finer points of detail, originality, richness of patina and other collectability factors.
Due to the diminsihing provide of new-old-stock Omega dials, particularly Pie Pan Constellations and other early models, re-dialing will increasingly turn out to be a fact of life. Never-the-less, from a long-term collectability standpoint, re-dialing ought to be an option if you have no other choices.
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