This question is about Cases that have a design on the back. Did the designs always line up with the stem / crown or were they crooked? I have two Cases, one base metal and one gold filled and both have a design that is not aligned with the stem / crown. Was this normal or did years of opening and closing these Cases distort the threads causing the designs to be crooked?

Screw back & bezel cases as you are talking about came from the factory with the "design" being left of dead center usually 10-15 degrees. After quite a bit of normal wear the design should be fitting close to straight up and down. And after considerable wear and near the end of its life the design generally will now be past "dead center" and somewhere to the right of straight up and down by a few degrees to perhaps as much as 15 degrees.

regards,
bb

Thank you sir. Interesting information.

So, along the same lines, is a case that has a "design" that is not dead center valued less than one that is dead center?

Jeff Buster is right (as usual). Now the big question is why is it mot aligned? I don't think the value would be affected unless it went way past dead center. That would indicate a heavily used case and it should have other signs of wear if this were the case so the value would be affected. IMHO. Now if the numbers on the 3 parts of the case do not match the value would be reduced. A lot of people sell cases where the back has been put onto the frame of another case.

The first case valuation requires that the case serial numbers all match. Often the Crystal Bezel has Roman numerals of the last few digits (only) hacked into the backside and these can be a little difficult to read.

If the back cover is a little "off" and closes a little "short", a little cleanup or de-burr of the case and cover flange faces may encourage the backside to thread on slightly farther and match up better.