The only Illinois "Mate" I have seen had radium numerals and hands. This one looks like it never had radium in the numerals and the hands are gold. The case is a Special Model H Illinois made by Fahys and looks green gold filled. Illinois experts, does it look correct?
Posts: 785 | Location: Tijeras, New Mexico USA | Registered: July 12, 2005
One needs to remember that it is likely that the MAJORITY of what we think of as an originally finished dial is likely not original at all -- but rather merely a dial refinished LONG ago so it has "age". The best way to tell what you have is look at the reverse of the dial... and in the case with most Illinois Mate dials, if it has a dae stamp on the reverse, it is likely original. It it has number or letters scratched on the reverse, it has likely been redone. We also need to remember that in the 20s, 30s, and 40s, during a watches annual service, it was quite common to have the dial refinished at least every few to 10 years.
All of that said, the Mate also came originally with luminous OR enamel numerals. In fact, there are 2 good examples of Mates with with blue and green filled numerals on custom dials. (I owned a blue-filled Mate dial on the past myself.) And since these numbers could have been filled with paint, the paint could have been white also... and, frankly, a Mate dial willed with gold leaf would also not surprise me. Therefore, I think this dial looks great, aged, and correct... whether original or not.
The thing about this Mate that is likely wrong are the gold hands. I would bet that at some point this nice example was fefinished, and the gold hands were likely swapped onto it to replace the original luminous-filled hands... as I don't think I've every seen a Mate without luminous-filled hands, and I have likely seen at least 50 Mates. But again, this is not a big problem as 3/0 hands are failry easy to replace, but in this case I think the current hands look nice with the green case.
Regards,
Rick
Posts: 141 | Location: Michigan in the USA | Registered: October 13, 2005