Rare European steel Futurematic - should I restore the dial?

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frontfloater
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Joined: Wed Oct 03, 2018 6:36 am

Rare European steel Futurematic - should I restore the dial?

Postby frontfloater » Wed Oct 03, 2018 6:50 am

Hello folks,

This is my first post here, so please go easy on me...

I just bought this rare steel-cased Futurematic, branded "Automatic" which I understand was for the European market. I'm a trader, so the watch will be for sale once renovated. The movement is faulty so it will need a full service - but what about the dial? The auctioneer's description said "surface dirt on the dial", but it looks more like a stain to me. A trader who has one of these on sale told me that it would be more collectable with the dial left as-is, rather than getting it restored. I would welcome your opinions on that.

Via a Google search, I read that there may have been only 500 examples made of the European/steel watch - but I don't know where that opinion or fact came from. If anyone has firm data, that would be very helpful too.

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Thanks,
BOB

zafbasha
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Re: Rare European steel Futurematic - should I restore the dial?

Postby zafbasha » Thu Oct 04, 2018 1:13 pm

The 500 figure is not accurate. It's much higher than that. Probably closer to 3-4000.

The watch would probably worth less with a restored dial.

ChrisBry
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Joined: Fri Nov 02, 2018 5:45 am

Re: Rare European steel Futurematic - should I restore the dial?

Postby ChrisBry » Fri Nov 09, 2018 7:17 am

Why would restoring the dial make the watch be worth less? What am I missing? It's a beautiful piece btw, Frontfloater.

zafbasha
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Re: Rare European steel Futurematic - should I restore the dial?

Postby zafbasha » Fri Nov 09, 2018 11:41 am

Generally speaking a dial restoration, i.e. a repaint reduces the watch value by 30 to 50% and on some rarer models even more. It's only original once and repaints never really match the print of the original.

frontfloater
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Oct 03, 2018 6:36 am

Re: Rare European steel Futurematic - should I restore the dial?

Postby frontfloater » Thu May 02, 2019 7:43 am

Eventually.... It turned out that I did not need to consider the dial restoration decision, because that "stain" was just not there - it was entirely a trick of the vendor's camera, which is weird. The dial certainly has patina, but not such that I (or probably anyone) would want to mess with it.

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