Am I being Wise

[Mick P]

Chaps

Please feel free to advise me that I am being wise or acting like a total idiot.

The pic below is my Freccione that I bought earlier in the year. I had it fully serviced by my AD who suggested that I only have a new winder and lens fitted. He advised against having the bezel replaced or the body finished, so it looks the same now as when I took it in for servicing.

I am now wearing it quite a lot and I am getting around to thinking that I should have a new bezel fitted in order to make the numerals more prominent.

So the question to you wise gurus is - should I get a new bezel or leave as is.

Many thanks

Mick

[etp095]

I'd take your Ad's advice, and leave it alone.

[pyac76]

Nice watch! Looks great to me. I would leave it alone.

[Wesley Crusher]

Mick, the bezel that you have now matches the rest of the watch perfectly. By putting on a new bezel, it would look out of place. You would need to have the case refinished in order to make everything match.

I say keep it the way it is!

[RC2]

Try and add some paint or have him do it to darken the numbers. I did it with one of my cheaper watches and the paint took. Does not hurt. I can wipe off if I wanted. But it does not come out easily either

[locutus49]

Leave it alone.

[crowncollection]

You can try model paint


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[omitohud]

Originally Posted by RC2

Try and add some paint or have him do it to darken the numbers. I did it with one of my cheaper watches and the paint took. Does not hurt. I can wipe off if I wanted. But it does not come out easily either

X2


I blame it on the autoconnect.

[HERITAGE82]

Leave it as is... Looks fantastic!

[FTX I]

I know what you mean. It's a great feeling to have a watch back from service looking 'new' and I'll go against the flow and say get a new bezel and refinish the case to have a perfect watch. The dial and hands are in great shape so i think it will look awesome. Alright it may not be as valuable as yours now the way it is, but you are the one wearing it and nothing beats a wow factor from an old friend looking new on the wrist. Just my humble opinion. Cheers.

[05carbondrz]

Leave it as is.

[springer]

Based on the condition and look of the watch, I'd definitely keep the current bezel but add some black paint to the bezel numbers. It would give it a fresh, but not new appearance.

[Cortezthekiller]

As is, I like the ghostly look

[Lordofrolex]

Originally Posted by springer

Based on the condition and look of the watch, I'd definitely keep the current bezel but add some black paint to the bezel numbers. It would give it a fresh, but not new appearance.

x2

[mineral]

Nice watch. I will strongly suggest leave it as it is.

[U5512]

If you're a little handy, it's very easy to fill the numbers with enamel paint.

[mike]

Originally Posted by etp095

I'd take your Ad's advice, and leave it alone.

[Thailawson]

Your watch is a vintage watch. Leave it like it is...

If you want new...buy another one?

[nick c]

As is

[GGGMT]

Easy answer: don't be an idiot. Keep as is.

[zapokee]

Originally Posted by nick c

As is

This.

The best scenario is to leave that beautifully aged classic as it is. If you absolutely must have the numbers colored, for god's sake get it done professionally. You risk effing it up royally if you do it yourself with some radom type of paint just to save a few hundred bucks.

Do the right thing now.

[Passionata]

Please leave as it is ,looks perfect!

[Mick P]

Chaps

21 replies have come in which are gratefully received.

I took my wife out for dinner last night and mentioned to her that I had written to the forum for advice and she stated that the watch, in her opinion, should been left as is.

Her logic was that nothing would look so ridiculous as a tarted up vintage watch on the wrist of an untarted up vintage man. She certainly knows how to put the knife in.

The overwhelming opinion seems to be to leave the watch as is with a second contingent coming up with repainting the numerals.

The new bezel idea does seem to be out of favour.

On reflection I shall leave it as is because it is ageing naturally and repainting the dials is risky as it involves cleaning up excess paint which will require some sort of scraping of the bezel.

Once again many thanks for the advice, it is much appreciated.

Regards

Mick

[Mick P]

Chaps

I thought I would give you an update on this as there must be many owners of old Explorer 2s out there as well as me.

After reading the replies to my question, I felt that the best bet was to leave the bezel as is but the filling in with paint idea did have some appeal.

Therefore this morning I went into a really good shop that specialises in building model trains (very nerdy people) and then to a very good independent watch repairer who repairs a lot of vintage watches, so I had quite a bust day.

The model train builder obviously uses enamel paint to finish his trains and has to paint very intricate details such as rivets and pipework on the models of old steam engines.

When I asked him if he could repaint the bezel, he stated that he would be reluctant to do it because anyone with the slightest knowledge of Rolex would know it wasn't original. He said that no one could equal the original Rolex finish.

We then spent 45 minutes using our wisdom putting all of the worlds problems to rights, shook hands and then I departed.

I then went to the watch repairer who said very much the same thing. Either leave it as is or have a new bezel fitted but also the body of the watch would have to be done as well thus making it look brand new. His advice was to leave it well alone as having it refurbished will kill 35 years of slow ageing.

This combined with the replies that have come from this forum have effectively settled the matter, the watch is remaining as is and will continue to naturally age as I continue to wear it.

Also it as put my mind at rest and I am now appreciating the age of the watch more than ever before and for that I thank you all.

Regards

Mick

[Storky]

Personally I'd never use paint.
My little tip: Just get a childs black wax crayon, rub it into the bezel then rub the excess off with a soft cloth .... job done! when it wears off, and it will - do it again. Nothing too permanent, it will just improve it a bit.

(Incidentally, I am serious... I have done it to mine where there is some of the original 'black' missing)

[Frogman4me]

Originally Posted by springer

based on the condition and look of the watch, i'd definitely keep the current bezel but add some black paint to the bezel numbers. It would give it a fresh, but not new appearance.

+1

[toocustom]

Another vote to leave it be. It's meant to look like that after the life it's had. Don't polish it or replace parts!

[Andad]

Your wife nailed it Mick.

It is what it is but to be fair a little black model paint would let you see the difference and a solvent wipe off would bring it back to where it was.

There is a thread on how best to do this.

I don't even see the issue?

[statsman]

Question- is it possible to purchase a new bezel, but keep the old bezel, too? You could use the new bezel, and if you decided it was better with the old one, or you wanted to sell it, you could put the old one back on. What does a new bezel cost...couple hundred $?

[Andy57]

Leave it alone. Or sell it if it really bothers you that much, in which case I'd have to say that maybe vintage isn't for you, perhaps?