I agree with Abel's comments;

- It's a nice transformation, and better that the case wasn't repolished. It's at the discretion of the owner of course, but personally I'm a fan of leaving the battle scars in place.

- I too preferred the old lume, but the question then is, what to do about the lume in the new hands? It is possible to colour match the lume on the dial and relume them, but it still looks new and the dial lume looks old. If the lume is dirty it is possible to take off just the top layer to leave cleaner lume underneath, I've done it in the past, but it only works if the lume is thick. I think in this case all the old lume has been scraped off and the markers are now just the paint/transfer print on the dial.

I too have an Autavia before and after to share, here's my "before" photo... but I'll let Abel go first. ;)

Regards,

Rich.

: Hello Jeff,

: 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.