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Blancpain

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 while back (along with all the other old Blancpains - Milspec, Aqualung etc).
If they're so rare, presumably the last thing you'd do is daub a load of new lume on the face of the watch - like using whitewash to restore an old painting.
I had a look at some pics of the old watches exhibited in the show, and they had not been restored, from what I could see.
Maybe the fee-earning part of Blancpain saw this as a chance to make some money, and failed to consult the bit of the firm tasked with protecting the history of the brand.
Anyway, I appreciate your advice - I'll tell BP to send it back untouched.

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11 Comments view entire thread 

Do I let Blancpain service my 1960s Fifty Fathoms?

 
By: Sean100 : November 28th, 2015-05:42
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

 
By: Sean100 : November 28th, 2015-05:50
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

 
By: cazalea : November 28th, 2015-07:48
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...

 
By: Dave G : November 28th, 2015-08:58
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

 
By: Sean100 : November 29th, 2015-08:13
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

 
By: Sean100 : November 29th, 2015-08:23
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...?

 
By: Sean100 : December 6th, 2015-08:30
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.

 
By: amanico : December 6th, 2015-08:37
While it would be less curious and more logic to have radium replaced with tritium. Best, Nicolas

Blancpain,

 
By: Mizur9999 : November 28th, 2015-09:02
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...

 
By: Sean100 : November 29th, 2015-08:23
... 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...