I was wondering if any of you could share the signs that a dial has been refinished. I'd really appreciate your input.

Ronda,

This is a great question, and should be thought about more by many dealers. I see tons of watches with decent but incorrect dials, and have dealt with many of the refinishing companies. While I see nothing wrong with restoring a dial that is so worn as to be visually distracting from the overall look of the watch, the implication that it's "original" is often included in a sales pitch.

We must also remember that many of these watches had their dials refinished as part of their regular service during the fifty or sixty (or more) years that they may have been in use. I receive a good many watches that have nice dials, but that I decide are older refinishes.

There is one common misconception in detecting redials, that being the old idea of "Swiss" or "Switzerland" appearing only on the bottom of factory original dials. This should be put to rest by the fact that most dial compaines will gladly add that text for an extra dollar, even on watches that never had it originally, including some that were made in the USA.

I think the key lies in observing lots of known original dials, even worn ones. Of the many dial refinishing companies, there are a few that can do work that is almost impossible to discern without pulling the dial. Most of the moderately priced refinishers do decent work, but produce something that can be readily identified. My tips would include...

1. Under magnification, check for proportion and alignment on things like minute tracks, seconds markings and text. Often, the minutes track will be slightly off to one side, or skewed so that it isn't quite "square". If a dial has a sunken subseconds dial, check to see that any incremental markings are centered within the sunken portion, as they sometimes are off-center, or even overlap the edges. Also look at the edges of the lettering. Factory dials have text with sharp, clear edges. Some refinished dials tend to have fuzzier letter edges, with some looking sloppy, having ink bleeding "outside the lines" as it were, to the point that letters run into one another. Inconsistencies in the depth of color or boldness of text are also clues.

2. Use the "3", "9" and "12" markers (on applied marker dials) in relation to the center hole, as reference points to make sure that all text is centered and level.

3. Look for text that is too late or early for the watch. Waltham, for example, used a very different text font (with an odd "W") on their late fifties Swiss imports. If you see that font on a USA made piece from the forties or earlier, you know it's been redone. Hamilton, Gruen, Omega and others all had different logos or texts over time.

4. Compare the overall condition of the watch with the condition of the dial. A watch with significant case wear, showing signs of hard use, but with an excellent dial, would be a definite warning sign. Also, any dial with a high gloss finish will likely be recently done, as the original dials used a glossy varnish that naturally oxidizes over time. Even excellent original dials are rarely slick and shiny looking, while newly redone ones usually are.

Note also that some high quality original dials used hard enamel figures, baked to a (usually) sterling base. When these are refinished, the dial is stripped, but the text and figures remain. The new base coat is applied and you have a "refinished" dial with all original text. Very difficult to detect, but then again, is it a problem? I don't personally mind a nicely done re-dial, as long as I know it was done, and it's not presented as original.

I know that others will have their own tips,which I look forward to seeing.

Hope this helps,

Cary

One of the easiest dials to detect refinished are those with a pearled track - this is the circle of 60 tiny, usually domed, often gold color, convex dots marking the seconds. These sit on an invisible circle at the outside edge of the dial, and in an original dial are extremely precisely positioned.

Now when this style of dial is refinished the refinishers usually overspray the entire dial with the relevant color enamel, which results in the "pearls" also being oversprayed. The dial pearls are then cleaned out of enamel using a tiny drill, resulting in 60 now pits, concave. This is rarely done neatly enough and results in some pearls out of line from the correct circle.

These out of line, concave, pearls are easily spotted.

If you can remove the dial,look for a number scratched on the back.I can't remember seeing a refinished dial that did not have that number.It is the control number used when it was refinished.
J Smith