Very nice transformation.

The Dauphine hands are beautifull and attract immediately almost all your attention, very nice. Ofcourse the bezel swap is very impressive too!

Case seems to be untouched too. This is a very hot topic this moment....refinishing cases, as there are a lot of people pro and contra. There are always reasons to NOT refinish a case, and ofcourse there are always some reasons for refinishing a case. When I buy a watch from a "stranger" or another collector I don't mind to refinish the case as the scratches on case and crystal don't really have much emotional influence on me (however there sometimes can be exceptions). While a watch that has all its scratches due to wearing it yourself does have an emotional package and I would never polish it for sure. For example...I would never repolish my wedding ring only for the reason to let it look new again...never, every dent and every scratch is there due to personal handling and specific situations... The only point is that IF a case is being refinished it has to be done with great respect to originality!

In this situation the Autavia still resides in the possesion from the original owner and as far as I understand it he owned the watch since it was new...so I think NOT repolishing the case it is the only right thing to do here. Very nice.

As for the dial...I did like the lume on the dial before restoration much more then after the restoration. I really don't understand how the lume could have been "cleaned" without removing it (or some of it) as the discoloration of the lume is not only the top-layer of the lume because lume mostly discolours completely. In case of dirt it's more likely to clean it, but then again you won't see this much difference. If this dial has not been re-lumed then the old lume has just been removed completely (or almost completely). Ofcourse I could be wrong...maybe it would be interesting to ask for an extra detailed picture of these "lumed" hour-markers?? I'm very curious about this...

Anyway a great watch and I hope the owner is very happy with this transformation. Once again...those Dauphine hands are really a pleasure to see!

I'm also planning to make a little "Before and After" posting on a project I finished last week...here's already a picture to tease ;-)

Best regards from Belgium,
Abel.

:
: So what do our experts think of this one, first execution Autavia .
: . . Before and After restoration.

: Watch is still in the hands of the original owner, who bought it in
: Switzerland, in 1964. Sometime during its life, the hands were
: replaced with incorrect ones. And now:
: the hands have been replaced with the correct hands,

: the bezel has been replaced with a genuine Heuer decimal minutes
: bezel (NOS)

: the dial, numerals and markers have been cleaned, but the lume has
: not been re-painted . . . only the dirt and discoloration has
: been removed.
: So how do we like the before and after on this one? Amazing
: transformation, I would say.

: Jeff

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