A couple of years ago, I began looking at vintage watches. I had no knowledge on what to look for in vintage watches, except for making sure the movements, hands and cases were correct to the brand. I never thought about the dials though, I looked for perfect dials. I didn't understand that a re-dial would take the value of a watch down a lot. I saw people saying to only get a re-dial if it was necessary. The watches I found were radium dials originally, so I thought a redial was not a bad thing. What I didn't understand on these re-dials was; they were not re-dialed to the same look they originally had. I basically have artist's free liberty dials. The movements, hands and cases are brand correct, so if I ever get a watch in one of these brands that needs parts, I may be good on that.
Here are my 3 re-dials.
Roamer Popular. 32.5mm.

HMT, 33mm.

Favre Leuba Sea King, 33mm.


My learning lessons. Fortunately, they were not expensive learning errors and if I or anyone here ever needs parts from one, I have 3 watches that may be able to help out. I still wear them occasionally and it served a lesson that if I don't know, ask someone who does.

They look good to me man. What do you mean when you say "artist's free liberty dials"?

DBCooper wrote:They look good to me man. What do you mean when you say "artist's free liberty dials"?

They were not re-dialed to how the original dial looked. Who ever re-dialed them, made them look like popular dials on other watch brands so they would sell faster.

Very interesting stuff. Thank you for sharing. The first one looks so perfect to me.

To be honest, i really dig the look of the Roamer re-dial.

I would say that a redial with a more modern look is ok as long as the seller states it was done.

I was told not to have my Rolex dial relumed as that alone could cause it to lose value. Was grateful as I did not know!

Thanks for sharing your experience!0

I got these from India. They make watches there, so they have the ability to do good work. Military look watches sell, so that is the redial a lot of them get.

They look very good to me, Svagy. I have one re-dialed watch, also from India:









I don't worry so much about resale value, as I figure that we invest a whole different kind of capital in watches; that of time, and most of all, that of enjoyment. When it comes to selling a watch, getting anything above fifty cents on the dollar is good stuff; anything above 75 cents on the dollar is gravy, and profits are something everybody else seems to make -- just like I seem to be the only guy who always seems to come home from 'Vegas in the hole. (I hate being trapped in that big cloud of smug, having to listen to friend A tell friend B, "Yeah, I ended being up only about $330 for the weekend." And, of course, it's all bullshit...)

Sorry, got off track there...