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Old 1 October 2013, 01:21 AM   #31
RLX-lvr
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Remember to add the OCC dial from 1959, and early 1960.

This is the rarest version of the 1675 dials, produced for a very short time when the model was first introduced. As 6542 dials are not interchangable with 1675 dials, this dial is unique to this early 1675 model.
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PS> Great job of posting these John. Thanks for your time and effort.
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Old 1 October 2013, 01:22 AM   #32
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Originally Posted by RLX-lvr View Post


Remember to add the OCC dial from 1959, and early 1960.

This is the rarest version of the 1675 dials, produced for a very short time when the model was first introduced. As 6542 dials are not interchangeable with 1675 dials, this dial is unique to this early 1675 model.
Thanks Jeff. The coronet on the dial that you posted mirrors the coronet on the G-3 photo of mine. The difference that I have noticed in these two dials would be in verbiage on the dial and the underscored line below Officially Certified. The one in your photo reads "Officially Certified Chronometer," while in my G-3 photo it reads "Superlative Chronometer Officially Certified." (The G-3 photo is from a 1675 circa 1961.)

The subtle differences in some of these dials make a difference to many collectors. With seven variations of the gilt dials depicted in this thread, and a GMT 1675 production run of approximately seven years, most of the dials are fairly rare - except for the last two which seem to be the most prevalent of all.
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File Type: jpg gilt underline.1961.JPG (71.1 KB, 1208 views)
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Old 1 October 2013, 06:35 AM   #33
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very nice John, thanks for your nice work
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Old 3 October 2013, 12:40 AM   #34
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Here are two more photos of another variation of an early gilt dial, circa 1960, serial number range 63XXXX.
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File Type: jpg 63XXXX.JPG (75.2 KB, 1188 views)
File Type: jpg 62xxxx.jpg (65.8 KB, 1190 views)
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Old 4 October 2013, 12:31 AM   #35
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great thread. I notice 1 out of the 2 service dials says "swiss - t<25", i thought all service dials said "swiss" at the bottom? also, how could you tell if a dial that does say "swiss-t<25" is a service dial?

thanks
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Old 4 October 2013, 12:34 AM   #36
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Great post! Ought to be a sticky! Thanks, Springer!
x2
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Old 4 October 2013, 12:49 AM   #37
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Thank you for posting. Very informative.
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Old 4 October 2013, 12:56 AM   #38
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Originally Posted by AirKing527 View Post
great thread. I notice 1 out of the 2 service dials says "swiss - t<25", i thought all service dials said "swiss" at the bottom? also, how could you tell if a dial that does say "swiss-t<25" is a service dial?

thanks
There are actually three service dials posted. My original two and the third one in TTG's post. The tritium dial and luminova look the same, marked Swiss-T<25. The super luminova is marked SWISS.

You can distinguish the service dials by the coronet.

Tritium dials will usually have a patina on them when compared to the luminova dials which are usually white - many of the luminova dials have a "colored-glow" to help distinguish them. Another way to distinguish the differences between the two is the luminova dial lights up fairly bright when compared to the tritium dial.

In response to your questions regarding the dial markings, no, not all service dials are marked SWISS, which holds true for the Submariners and other models as well.
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Old 4 October 2013, 12:58 AM   #39
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oh i see....always thought it had to say swiss. thanks so much for the quick reply.
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Old 4 October 2013, 01:03 AM   #40
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oh i see....always thought it had to say swiss. thanks so much for the quick reply.
They replacement dials have been marked SWISS for many years. The tritium replacement dials have been out of production for a few decades now - since luminova replaced it.
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Old 4 October 2013, 01:05 AM   #41
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yeah i could see that byt the fact that the service dial that you posted, the plots have yellowed a bit over time.
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Old 13 October 2013, 03:00 AM   #42
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Icon7 What's the diff?

Hi Springer,

Great post and discussions here on the dial of 1675.

One thing really puzzled me. Orchi, a forumer here, also did a thread on the dial variance of the 1675 (thread: ROLEX Ref. 1675 GMT Master Dial Variants) (http://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=74976). What he had discussed there seems to contradict what you presented on this thread.

For example, both the threads mentioned different MK I of the 1675, although they were known by different names. The ones you mentioned were gilt and white dials whereas his were matt dials. Which came first though? or both came concurrently? or the matt dials were also known as white dials?

Would love to hear your advice and thanks in advance :)

Last edited by shou.biao.kuang; 13 October 2013 at 03:02 AM.. Reason: spelling...
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Old 13 October 2013, 04:15 AM   #43
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Hi Springer,

Great post and discussions here on the dial of 1675.

One thing really puzzled me. Orchi, a forumer here, also did a thread on the dial variance of the 1675 (thread: ROLEX Ref. 1675 GMT Master Dial Variants) (http://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=74976). What he had discussed there seems to contradict what you presented on this thread.


For example, both the threads mentioned different MK I of the 1675, although they were known by different names. The ones you mentioned were gilt and white dials whereas his were matt dials. Which came first though? or both came concurrently? or the matt dials were also known as white dials?

Would love to hear your advice and thanks in advance :)
All the answers to your questions are in the beginning of this thread. Gilts came first and were replaced by matte dials with white lettering.
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Old 13 October 2013, 08:29 AM   #44
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Originally Posted by shou.biao.kuang View Post
Hi Springer,

Great post and discussions here on the dial of 1675.

One thing really puzzled me. Orchi, a forumer here, also did a thread on the dial variance of the 1675 (thread: ROLEX Ref. 1675 GMT Master Dial Variants) (http://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=74976). What he had discussed there seems to contradict what you presented on this thread.

For example, both the threads mentioned different MK I of the 1675, although they were known by different names. The ones you mentioned were gilt and white dials whereas his were matt dials. Which came first though? or both came concurrently? or the matt dials were also known as white dials?

Would love to hear your advice and thanks in advance :)
Orchi is another GMT aficionado like many of us. I didn't use the mark numbers so I wouldn't confuse anybody. Also, if you read Orchi's complete thread, I did not agree with his conclusion that the Mark X was a service dial - since it definitely came on the GMTs during the end of the 1970s.

Orchi's thread only dealt with the white dials from circa 1967 to 1980. The gilt dials started with the production of the first GMT 1675s from 1959 until around 1966 when the white dials replaced the gilts.
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Old 13 October 2013, 03:45 PM   #45
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Icon14

Quote:
Originally Posted by springer View Post
Orchi's thread only dealt with the white dials from circa 1967 to 1980. The gilt dials started with the production of the first GMT 1675s from 1959 until around 1966 when the white dials replaced the gilts.
Hi Springer,

Thanks heaps for the great analysis here. Grateful as always

As Orchi only stated the series number (1.6mil to mid 2xmil), I was a little confused as to which came on first, though I did have some knowledge that gilt dials came first before the matte dials.

By the way, when you use the term 'white dials' in this thread, I assume it's the same as 'matte dials' mentioned elsewhere? Honestly, this is the first time I have heard of the use of the description 'white dial'.

Thanks again in advance.

Last edited by shou.biao.kuang; 13 October 2013 at 03:47 PM.. Reason: spelling...
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Old 13 October 2013, 03:48 PM   #46
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Icon7 White vs Matte

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"...matte dials with white lettering.
Is this the reason why some call the 'matt dial' as 'white dial'?

Last edited by shou.biao.kuang; 13 October 2013 at 03:49 PM.. Reason: spelling...
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Old 13 October 2013, 03:51 PM   #47
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Hi Springer,

Thanks heaps for the great analysis here. Grateful as always

As Orchi only stated the series number (1.6mil to mid 2xmil), I was a little confused as to which came on first, though I did have some knowledge that gilt dials came first before the matte dials.

By the way, when you use the term 'white dials' in this thread, I assume it's the same as 'matte dials' mentioned elsewhere? Honestly, this is the first time I have heard of the use of the description 'white dial'.

Thanks again in advance.
Gilt dials as you wrote means gilt lettering. White dials as mentioned in my last post means white lettering.

If you read my first post in this thread, I wrote, "After the gilt dials, the printing became white on the GMT dials." As I continued in this post, I referred to the white-lettered-dials as white dials which is not any different than identifying the gilt lettering as gilt dials.
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Old 13 October 2013, 04:08 PM   #48
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Icon11 Gilt vs Matte

Hi Springer & All,

Any "fire-proof" way(s) of differentiating between the gilt and the matte dials?

From this thread, it seems gilt dial are closely associated with the radial dial (longer second-markers & larger gap between the plots and the second-markers) with the exception of G5 & G6 dial which looks like the whites too. I noticed that the gilt dials have the smaller 24-hour GMT hands. Is this another one way to differentiate them?

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Old 13 October 2013, 04:23 PM   #49
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Icon11 Differentiating them..

Quote:
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Gilt dials as you wrote means gilt lettering. White dials as mentioned in my last post means white lettering.

If you read my first post in this thread, I wrote, "After the gilt dials, the printing became white on the GMT dials." As I continued in this post, I referred to the white lettered dials as white dials which is not any different than identifying the gilt lettering as gilt dials.

Hi Springer,

Thanks again for the explanation above. Excuse me for my last post (gilt vs matte) which is asking the above. I didn't expect you to reply that fast!

To be honest, I can't tell them apart from the pictures even though I was like flapping them through and fro for the diff Maybe comparing them physically then can one tell the different. The gilt lettering looks white too from the pictures.
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Old 13 October 2013, 08:11 PM   #50
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What a magnificent thread....Thanks for sharing John...
Hopefully you'll do one for the 16750 dials too :)
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Old 13 October 2013, 09:42 PM   #51
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Superb!
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Old 13 October 2013, 09:45 PM   #52
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Old 14 October 2013, 12:17 PM   #53
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Quote:
Originally Posted by springer View Post
Here are two more photos of another variation of an early gilt dial, circa 1960, serial number range 63XXXX.
Hi John, Excellent thread!!!! ....but I have also seen this type of coronet on watches with a later S/N...

This one with 87X,XXX...



And this one with with 82X,XXX S/N....




Thoughts?
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Old 14 October 2013, 01:01 PM   #54
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Hi John, Excellent thread!!!! ....but I have also seen this type of coronet on watches with a later S/N...

This one with 87X,XXX...



And this one with with 82X,XXX S/N....




Thoughts?
It could be possible. Most consider this dial an early 1675 dial. Nothing is "in stone" here but intended as a guide. That is why I didn't try to place too much emphasis on cut-off dates for the various dials.
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Old 15 October 2013, 04:57 AM   #55
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Great post for the 1675 aficionado! Most useful!
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Old 15 October 2013, 01:10 PM   #56
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Great info. W-3 is looking good
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Old 15 November 2013, 02:02 PM   #57
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An update to another GMT 1675 white-lettered dial - Mark 2a.

A few months ago, a variation of a white lettered GMT 1675 dial was brought to the attention of members on VRF. The dial appeared to be a variation of the Mark II (W-2) GMT 1675 dial. After several days of discussion, without rehashing it all here, the dial was in fact determined to be a genuine dial and a variation of the Mark 2 dial. The dial appears to be a very rare GMT dial, since many of us there had never seen this one before. The dial is now referred to as the Mark 2a. It appears to be a variation of the Mark 2 (W-2) except that the points of the coronet on the Mark 2a appear crooked when compared to the W-2 dial. The estimated production era seems to be from around 1970-1973. Below are some photos of the Mark 2a dial, some which have been emailed to me and the others taken from VRF posts and the internet.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg MARK. 2A.JPG (35.8 KB, 1045 views)
File Type: jpg w-2(a.2).JPG (66.7 KB, 1050 views)
File Type: jpg gmt.2a.JPG (56.5 KB, 1048 views)
File Type: jpg w-2(a).jpg (76.0 KB, 1041 views)
File Type: jpg Capture.2.JPG (60.6 KB, 1044 views)
File Type: jpg mark.2a(AAA).jpg (48.6 KB, 1041 views)
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Old 15 November 2013, 02:20 PM   #58
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thanks for the info john. very useful info
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Old 15 November 2013, 03:52 PM   #59
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another to add in ...the numbers of these are very small , in my whole time I've only had 3-4 . they tend to be quite nice as they hold their shine very well and don't take on the green tinge that a lot of the other non chapter ones do to the lume , more the tones that pick up the orange as in the subs with a similar construction

swiss <25t under the minutes

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Old 21 November 2013, 12:08 PM   #60
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GMT 1675 Dials

Excellent lesson guys, thanks very much. I'm studying up as I'm going to look at 2 tomorrow; I'm told a circa 1966 and 1970. I haven't seen a pic of them yet or even spoken with the owner; it's being set up through a jewelry store in town.

Hopefully I'll be posting up pics tomorrow in a new thread for your feedback. Be on the look-out for me please!


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