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Vintage watch restoration
In Response To: yes, yes and no ()

Although I did not follow this auction as I am not into Silverstones, IMO this Silverstone and its restoration perspectives have aroused a very interesting discussion of much broader application.

I agree with most of what's been written: sure you can get the majority of faults out with a proper restoration job, but there arise two kind of questions:
- how much is this going to cost you
- how do you wear the restored watch afterwards.

Apart from these, it's hard to get a new dial for some older models and some faults do not seem to go away no matter how hard one tries (e.g. deep dents). Don't know anything particular about Silverstone dials though.
Restorations can be quite hefty, but you do sometimes get to have near-NOS watches again, with all the perks most NOS ones can't actually don (e.g. perfect lume). Most depends in my opinion on the watch rarity and the price you've paid for it.

Putting the cost of restoration aside, then the next question indeed is: now it's so beautiful again, how and when am I going to wear it?
Sure it's not going to be a daybeater any longer, but most people currently have such jobs where you can actually wear a nice watch in weekdays as well and expect it to suffer only from minor blemishes.
I've recently had one vintage Omega Speedmaster Mark IV (ref. 176.0009) from the early '70s restored to its pristine original conditions and it's come back spotless, really NOS-like. Now, the first few times I wore it again I felt the urge to be very, very careful (e.g. shield it from intense sunlight) which was very clumsy indeed.
Then it got some (very light indeed) wear signs, and I can tell you I feel more comfortable now that it's still almost perfect but no longer NOS-like.

Cheers.

Fabrizio

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