Rolex 1675

[Oscar1971]

Hi All,

Ever since I tried one of these on I cant stop thinking about owning one

I've seen this one on the web unfortunately only 2 pics

Not much information apart from its a 1977 did try to ring them but on holiday till the 7th Jan

What do you guys think of it

[1665fan]

Dial, hands, case look nice. Just need a proper faded insert as that one is service replacement I believe.

[herts9]

Agree. Would look great with some fuschia!

Lume plots look a little puffy. Any idea of re-lume?

It looks great though.

[Oscar1971]

Originally Posted by herts9

Agree. Would look great with some fuschia!

Lume plots look a little puffy. Any idea of re-lume?

It looks great though.

Not sure till I call them on th 7th Jan

[Tropheus]

the lume does look a little puffy as mentioned!

btw, these websites have lots of info about the gmt and 1675 to read up before seller comes back =)

https://gmtmaster1675.com/
http://www.gmtmasterhistory.com/gmt-..._ref_1675.html

[opzxkl]

What does a puffy lume mean? How does it come about? Is it a bad thing?

[vtsyrlin]

Could mean that the dial has been relumed.
Although puffy tritium plots are not uncommon.

[Sublovin]

Looks like lume is missing from the minute hand, but hard to tell from the conveniently overlapped hands in the pics

[Dan S]

Originally Posted by Sublovin

Looks like lume is missing from the minute hand, but hard to tell from the conveniently overlapped hands in the pics

Bizarre that both photos show overlapping hour and minute hands, and the second hand under the cyclops. I'm not saying it's deliberate, but it's certainly not well-planned.

[tekno]

Originally Posted by opzxkl

What does a puffy lume mean? How does it come about? Is it a bad thing?

I hope this helps, I am going to attempt to explain what I have learned recently from the forum and the members here during my search for a 16750 GMT. If I dumb it down too much sorry, I’m just trying to make it easy.

Each hour on the dial is indicated by either a triangle, circle or rectangle on these dials. The hour markers glow in the dark on a new watch, the thing that made them glow is luminous material, in this case on this watch tritium. Tritium was the lume used. If you don’t know what tritium is google it.
It’s important to note how long tritium actively “glows” which is 12-15 years I believe, after that you may get some slight activation by bright light or a UV light. This is important because at some point you will later wonder “how long does tritium glow for? Are these hands, this dial, submariner “pearl” original tritium or new replacement parts”. So if your watch is a 1977, the hands/dial should be dead/no glow. I think if you hit it with a UV light you may see some sparkling tritium, but it shouldn’t stay lit up after you hit it with a UV/Black light.

The tritium can get old and crack, fall off the dial just like this watch I bought, I’ll post a pic of it below all my yapping. The hands are no different, they crack and the “lume” can fall apart. When a dial or hand is repaired it is “re-lumed”. The previous owner relumed the hands with luminova material on my watch below and it glows, and looks like shit as well.
Sometimes the “repair” or “work” is done using new modern luminous material like my hands below, sometimes with just a pigmented substance with no “lume” to fix the appearance of the parts. Then the least common repair from what I can tell is using “dead tritium” which is tritium that has lost its glow. There are times when the dial/hands have been “relumed” because some previous owner wanted it to glow in the dark again, which maybe wasn’t a big deal 20 years ago.
It is a big deal now that the watches are generally worth over $10k to $20k, if it has original box/papers maybe more than $20k. I’m not 100% sure because it’s been a little while since I was in the market for one.

It’s commonly accepted in the hobby for hands that have been fixed/relumed to match a dial or the other hands with non glowing material (not like my example below) as long as it is professionally done and the seller divulges this without you having to ask. Some may not agree, obviously having original hands with original lume is better. Just so you know, a good set of nice/original hands for a watch like this could be $500-$1000. I really don’t know how you can tell if hands are repaired properly, I assume a lot of them are especially when the hands/dial match perfectly.

It’s less commonly accepted for the dial to be fixed, especially on a watch where the just dial could be worth 2.5-5k, but once again as long as you are TOLD that it has been repaired and the price reflects the repair then it isn’t . In the case of the GMT, from what I can tell If it had a repaired dial you would find out what a very correct perfect dial cost and subtract it from the normal going rate for a watch in the general condition of the one your looking at since the dial is basically not worth much. Most of the time if a dial has been repaired, fixed, or touched up in any way you will find that it is not divulged in the description. I think repairs like removing dark spots that have developed with age from markers to make them look more pretty is a good example of something a prick wouldn’t divulge.

Hope that helps, here is a watch I took in a trade. It is a fixer/upper keeper. I think the Tudor dials were more prone to the dial tritium crumbling, but this is an example of why someone would re-lume a dial. I’ll be repairing the dial/hands, all while looking for a correct dial that isn’t jacked up for later. Originality is important to most.




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[tekno]

That’s funny, I thought I was replying to the OP assuming they were new to this. Well there you go Opzxkl there is the longest answer on the forum why puffy lume could be bad. Hope it helps someone.

Some dials do have puffy tritium plots, and I don’t know if they came like this or over time they end up irregular looking. Some look like the lume is sagging a bit, almost like it moved over time?


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[CRM114]

Originally Posted by Sublovin

Looks like lume is missing from the minute hand, but hard to tell from the conveniently overlapped hands in the pics

Looks that way to me as well, and certainly wouldn't purchase it based on those 2 pictures alone. "Conveniently overlapped hands" indeed. Not once, but twice with 2 different times set.

[opzxkl]

@tekno Thank you so much for your write up. I appreciate it very much.