Sean100
6
Do I let Blancpain service my 1960s Fifty Fathoms?
Hi everyone
Although I've owned a Blancpain for a while, I don't really know much about them. If any of you have a moment, I'm interested in reading your advice about who should service my watch, and what I should ask them to do:
I inherited a 1960s civilian No Radiations Fifty Fathoms some years ago, and I've worn it on and off ever since.
Recently it stopped working. I took it into the Blancpain boutique in London and they sent it off to Switzerland to be assessed.
The quote the Swiss factory has sent me (which is very expensive!) breaks down into two parts:
1. complete service, buffing and cleaning of the case
2. restoration of the dial, which may include replacement of the parts of the dial which contain radium
What they've actually written to me is this:
"Technical analysis of the vintage watch has revealed that certain components contain a radium-based luminescent material that has not been used in watchmaking production since the early 1960s. For this reason we suggest restoring the dial and watch of your watch (sic) using Super-Luminova luminescent material. We would also like to draw your attention to the fact that this restoration may result in certain overprints and change the original look of the parts that we treat.
"Please note that if the state of the dial or the hands does not permit this restoration for various reasons, they will be replaced by parts enhanced with Super-Luminova paint. In this case the original parts containing radium will be eliminated."
If I've read this right, it looks like they may fundamentally alter the appearance of the face of the watch, which was not in particularly bad condition (it had some patina to it, as you would expect, but nothing major).
I'm leaning towards just getting option 1 done - service the watch and get it working again. Option 2 is both super-expensive, and risks wrecking the watch dial.
On the other hand, in the email that accompanied the quote Blancpain mention "decontaminating" the watch. I wonder if there's a safety issue with having radium in a watch?
What would you guys suggest I do?
All the best
Sean
PS - watch below...
This message has been edited by Sean100 on 2015-11-28 05:53:12 This message has been edited by Sean100 on 2015-11-28 06:03:00
Do I let Blancpain service my 1960s Fifty Fathoms?
Hi everyone Although I've owned a Blancpain for a while, I don't really know much about them. If any of you have a moment, I'm interested in reading your advice about who should service my watch, and what I should ask them to do: I inherited a 1960s civil...
1960s FF information leaflet
Here's the info leaflet that came with the watch. I notice the picture of the watch on the leaflet does not match the actual watch (absence of "no radiations" marking, etc). Sean This message has been edited by Sean100 on 2015-11-28 05:54:05 ...
If it were me, I'd get my watch back
and have a competent local watch repairman inspect, clean and adjust it. Otherwise you'll end up with a newish looking watch with new dial, hands and no patina. That's my opinion which is not necessarily what you might want to do. Cazalea
A bit confused...
If the watch has a "no radiations" dial as described, how could it contain any Radium?
Yes, good question, I had not thought of that Dave
Maybe radium was not considered to be as heavily radioactive as the substances used in the Milspec watches (e.g. Promethium 147)? I wonder how a dive watch in the 1960s could be luminous without using some kind of radioactive element on its dial...?
Yes, I had not thought of that Dave
Maybe radium was not considered to be as heavily radioactive as the substances used in the Milspec watches (e.g. Promethium 147)? I wonder how a dive watch in the 1960s could be luminous without using some kind of radioactive element on its dial...?
Tritium first, Radium later...?
Here is what the nice guy at Blancpain vintage department said in answer to this question: "The no-rad sign which appears on your watch should be an indicator of the use of Tritium instead of Radium. Our attached analysis reports clearly show, however, th...
Or... They reloaded your tritium indexes. I highly doubt they replaced tritium with radium.
While it would be less curious and more logic to have radium replaced with tritium. Best, Nicolas
Blancpain,
I am not an expert with Blancpain but based on my experience with Rolex and Patek Philippe watches I would not restore the dial or hands of this watch . Never,ever. I am not sure about the health issues with radium used on the watches in 1960s but I am su...
Yes it seemed an odd suggestion from Blancpain...
... to mess about with the dial, Tom. The nice people in the store mentioned that there aren't many of these "no rads" 1960s Blancpains around, and that the company had to appeal to collectors to get some together for an international show they held a whi...