John,

It is a true Blackstone -- just with (seemingly) an old cushion dial. Frankly, it is still a beauty, and I bet not many people other than those of us most-taken with the illness (known as Illinois collectors) would EVER notice the dial! I would suggest that you keep it as is and see how long it takes to locate the proper dial for it -- I bet not long if you watch the lots of Illinois dials which show up on Ebay from time to time. (Your local watch shop might only charge around $10 or less to swap the dials.) As far as the movement goes, your 21-jewel Motor Barrel Illinois IS the top of the line, so enjoy it! One of these days if you continue to collect Illinois, I bet you will locate a 17 jewel engraved Consul (or similar) that it just BEGGING for the better time keeping that this 21-jewel movement provides, and you can swap it out then. (Too bad, I traded one not too long ago.)

All of that said, how about beachfront property in Michigan???

Regards,

OK folks

As we are all always learning and lets face it there are some very good re-dials out there.

Could I ask what you experts look for when you are trying to work out whether a watch has been re-dialled - leaving out the obvious i.e. that the design is simply wrong.

The older the watch the more non-originality you may have to accept. Some nice watches may well be a collection of the makers' parts, but those parts might not have started life all in the same watch !

We have to recognise that a thirties watch has had up to 70years of attention from a legion of watchmakers and bodgers.