WatchTech

Dear fellow Purists,

one might expect there are so many watches around that anyone of us would be able to find a suitable one.

On the other hand, the more about watches you come to know, the more you will notice details that you overlooked before and that do disturb you now.
External observers might even judge you as being fussy whereas you would probably describe yourself as being sophisticated .

Well, I am a big fan of blued hands as well as luminous hands, the combination of both being almost irrestible for me.

So I sometime ago became the owner of this Stowa Flieger:

 
The combination of the blue steel and the light colour of the lume - it´s phantastic for me (now Nicolas knows why I adore his GO Rimowa LE).

What I regret: the dark dial does lessen the effect of the hands considerably. I looked for a simple watch with a white dial and the blue luminous hands.

Not that many affordable ones around, I can tell you.

My search revealed this Longines LE (Expeditions polaires), not easy to get:

I  finally found and ordered the watch, but what disappointed me were the cheap buckle, the oversized and uncomfortable strap, some scratches on the polished steel case - triffles you may say. But as the watch was no bargain at all, I returned it.

It then crossed my mind that a nice and reasonably priced watch was well obtainable, it just had the "wrong" hands. Again it is a Stowa, the Partitio:

The problem - of course - the hands are not blue.

I wrote to Stowa, but there is no possibility to get the watch with the same hands as a blue version.

I saw a local dealer who supplies watch makers and he said it would be very difficult to find these hands as blue ones.

What do YOU think: am I fussy, passionate or a bit of a lunatic to chase this "ideal watch"?

In case you sympathize with me, do you have any ideas how to procure the blue and luminous hands?
The movement is an ordinary ETA 2824-2, so that should make things a bit easier.

Any helpful ideas will be greatly appreciated!

Kind regards

anaesdoc

What you need is to find a watchmaker who does restoration or work on vintage watches.
I would:
- remove the lum from the hands
- heat blue the hands
- relum the hands.
finished.

If the hands aren't made of steel they will not blue with heat, then they can still be blued with translucent paint.
But that works too.

Have fun!
Don

Thansk a lot, Don, for this proposal!

I was focussed on finding the matching blue hands, but if that shall turn out to be impossible, the procedure you recommend seems very well worth trying!

Kind regards

anaesdoc

Hello anaesdoc!

I agree with you 100% and would love to know if you've found a supply of blue luminous hands.  I own the Stowa Partitio Automatic with a black dial and white luminous hands and would love to own a white handwinder, provided I could put blue hands on it.  I really like the Longines Expeditions Polaire Francaise as well, but as you pointed out, it's nearly impossible to find these days.  And based on your report, it may not be everything it seems in pictures.

And just a note about my Partitio Automatic:  it's the most accurate and comfortable watch in my entire collection.  I own chronometers by several manufacturers and none are as accurate or as comfortable as my humble, old school Partitio. 

Good luck with your blue hands project!  Please post if you're successful.

Sincerely,

Time4Jake

Hi Time4Jake,

it´s good to hear I am not the only crazy watchnut who is fascinated by blue hands.

The hands were not available in a blued version, but I had the steel ones removed and blued by a watch supplier in Germany. The minute and second hand became stunning, but the hour hand a bit less good. You can spot the slight irregularities at the hands´ margin.

This is how the watch now looks like:

The original looks like this.

As I am not fully satisfied with the result I am trying to sell the brand-new watch now.

So, in case you are interested ...

Kind regards

anaesdoc

Hello anaesdoc!

Thanks very much for sharing photos of your watch.  I'm sorry the project didn't work out to your satisfaction, but I'll keep you posted with regards to my own search for suitable blue hands.  I live in Europe, which has a much more robust watch culture than the U.S., so I hope my local Uhrmachermeister can help me out.  He already put some great non-lume blue hands on my Junghans Max Bill (handwinder), which replaced the standard silver hands and made the time much easier to read. 

Here's a thought I had regarding blue hands for the Partitio:  on line you will find many companies that offer replicas of high-quality European watches.  Occasionally, I've seen decent replicas of the Longines Expedition Polaire Francaise that aren't too expensive (say between $200 and $250). What about buying the watch for just the hands and then cannibalizing it?  Of course, you'd be paying about 40 times the standard price for watch hands, but if you're like me, when you get a itch, the thing just has to be scratched.

Finally, thank you for making your Partitio available for sale, but I already own the Automatic version and will be looking for a handwinder next...after I get my daughter a car (if only our money was truly OUR money!).

Thanks again for the reply post.  Best wishes on scratching that itch!

Sincerely,

Time4Jake