Dear kjkjt3 I have several Rolex OQ trough my life. Because I am a Gerald Genta MEGA FAN And can tell you for sure 3 options:
1. Someone very smart and agile and gentle with your hands remove the tritium plots. My brother in love have done that several times. Because some people are afraid of the Tritium because of radioactivity. And in some cases because the tritium plots are broken or missing in some parts of the dial. So the best options to make it look even its to take all the rest of the plots off.
In some dials you CAN DO NOT EVENT TELL WITH A LOUPE like your Rolex OQ 1700 and in some díals you can notice a little shadow.
2. Option 2 which it’s the coolest one it’s a Rolex MISTAKE which would make your Rolex price increase incredible well in a Sotheby’s or similar auction.
3. Option 3 in that back in that time Rolex only SEEM TO HAVE HAD 3 rubbers with which they put the serigraphy and they used to Read: T SWISS T or T SWISS MADE T or SWISS T < 25 even if the watch did not have tritium and had diamonds or just normal stripes.
Sorry for my bad english and send you my congratulations for the great piece of history that you have in your hands and blessings.
Mike