I studied this one long and hard, especially when the watch was sitting at $355, and in the end came to the conclusion that the dial has been refinished. Questionable aspect of this watch are as follows:

• "flat" monochromatic paint on the dial, at a time when the dials were "terraced" (almost "pie-pan"), with distinctly different paint finishes for the outer track of the dial (5-10-15-20-etc. and hash marks) and the center of the dial
• military hands at a time when the Seafarers had transitioned to “pencil” hands (and these military hands look too clean); chrono neeedles also questionable
• flat yellow and blue paint on the tide dial, at a time when the Seafarers had yellow and blue, but also shades in between
• radial numerals on the hour recorder, at a time when the numerals were placed with the bottoms of the numerals horizontal / flat
• script on the Abercrombie & Fitch is horizontal / flat, rather than arched; script on the "Seafarer" is just plain wrong (or different from any that I have seen to date) . . . in both instances, refinisher got lazy or did not have the skill / patience to match the correct original scripts
• something weird about the sizes of the registers

: WOW . . . $2,738 for a Seafarer, with seven bidders in the final
: 17 seconds of the auction. This one features either a rare /
: unique prototype dial, or perhaps a refinished dial,

: http://cgi.ebay.com/270711036854

: Difficult to make the "rare vs. refinished" call from the
: eBay photos, so we will hope that the winner is a member of our
: community who will come forward.

: What do you see . . . rare or refinished?

: Jeff

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