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Cracked dial
I recently purchased a pre-owned PAM 051 from a well-established pre-owned dealer. The dealer offers its own 1-year warranty, and also has its own in-house watchmaker. I have had the watch less than two weeks, and have only worn it three times since receiving it. The third time I wore it, I noticed an imperfection on the dial that only shows up when the light hits it a certain way. In many lighting situations, it is fairly unnoticeable, which is why I did not see it right away. However, it is also the kind of blemish that, once you know it's there, you see it every time you look at the watch.
Under a loupe, I can see the imperfection is actually a hairline crack in the dial, resulting in a slight upward buckling of the dial surface in that area. The crack starts at a lume dot, and runs straight through several minute hash marks. My loupe has a measuring square, and I have measured the crack to be approximately 4mm in length. The dial itself is only 34mm in diameter (the case is 40mm), so the length of the crack is more than 10% the diameter of the dial.
I'm definitely going to contact the seller tomorrow. My suspicion is this is not something that can be repaired, absent a dial replacement. Since the dealer is an independent, and the model has been discontinued, I suspect they won't be able to replace it. If that's the case, I may end up having to ask for a refund.
I'm curious if anyone else has seen something like this, has an idea of what can cause it, and whether or not it can be repaired. I'm also curious if this is something you would put up with for the sake of keeping an otherwise very nice watch that is no longer in production. I don't feel that way myself, but I'm open to other perspectives.
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