Vacheron Constantin

anon438
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cross check the dial facts for authentification

I'm going to look at the dials by starting in the lower row with the white/silver looking ref. 6179 which is communicated by V&C itself for a sample from 1957.
If you would like to compare please look at the V&C timeline here: heritage.vacheron-constantin.com find that sample dial at 1957.

That mean I start to compare the dial with a sample which has the probably best proper authentification and age classification, since I have no direct access to the Vacheron archives.

Further sources could be books on the topic, auction houses or offers for sale in the internet or at dealers with complete authenticity certificate from Vacheron Constantin itself or discussions of authentification in the news groups. But once again, don't trust only one source - you are mislead easily. There are many myths with the collectors which are quite questionable - therefore try to stick with the facts only - collectors tend to see what they expect or used to see quite often.

Furthermore an extract of the archive, as seen often with the offers, is for this check certainly not sufficient, because the extract compares the case numbers to the movement (ground plate) numbers only, and will give an indication of the production date of the case & ground plate combo. If you would like a reliable reference from V&C, you have to send your watch in for a fully authenticity check. This is a little bit more expensive and certainly, due to the costs, only recommend for the more expensive refs (>=~10k EUR/GBP/USD).

So when to compare the samples in the bottom row, you can recognise some differences in the print. For example the SWISS is missing and the accent in GENÈVE is missing.
This lead probably to the the conclusion, in the best case it simply indicates a bad cleansing procedure for the dial - in the worst case it could indicate a refinish of the dial. It certainly not indicates a redial - a wrong and misleading statement heard often by critics and wish to be experts.

Why not a redial?
Please compare for the fact check some more authentification marks (as many as you could find):
- compare the positions (print, indexes) on the dial: it is similar
- how wide is the print in total of the script 'VACHERON & CONSTANTIN': it is the same
- compare the script itself: it is a similar type
- compare the height of the script: it is the same
- compare the spelling: it is the same
- compare the ampersand: it is similar
- compare the print for the second indication, the cross, in size and line width: it is the same
- compare the index type, orientation and position: it is similar

That in fact means, it is just something (the SWISS and the accent print) missing and a lot of other characteristics are perfectly untouched or replicated.
So if replicated perfectly (no redial could do to 100%), I need to question why the rest (the SWISS and the accent) is not replicated perfectly as well - so it is simply unbelievable that it's replicated, in my opinion the SWISS and the accent must have been removed.

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