Posted by Something I and others have noticed is that some blue Omega dials from the 1040 era (1970s) are prone to an unusual discoloration to a gold color. It can happen to all or to part of the dial, or it can appear as many small spots. I can’t really say what causes it, why it only happens to blue dials, or why it doesn’t seem to happen to the other colored dials.
Let’s take a quick look at a few examples of this odd phenomenon, and point out some observations along the way.
Minor Discoloration
The above 176.007 displays minor discoloration. In fact, it looks more like a fading of the blue color to a pale purple and is not yet gold. The discoloration is more prominent toward the center of the dial, and isn’t at all uniform.
Half Discolored
This one was on eBay earlier this year, and per a translation from Omega Forums member dialstatic the discoloration was due to the watch being unevenly exposed to sunlight due to being worn partially under a cuff.
I’m not sure if I buy the story that the watch was so evenly exposed that it caused extreme fading to one side and almost no fading to the other based only on the wearer’s choice of clothing. As you can see, the fading is more extreme than the previous example.
Spotty Degradation – Uniform
This Big Blue shows the fading as spots, uniformly across the dial. I’ve seen a number of Big Blues with dials that are changing color to different degrees. Perhaps water damage is the culprit? This is the only diver of the family after all.
Spotty Degradation – Uneven
Here’s a dial showing the spots but more similar to the first example above in that different areas of the dial are affected more than others.
In this case, the owner’s watchmaker actually cited water damage.
Nearly Full Gold
This Mark III Dial has lost just about all of its blue color. I suspect this dial was treated badly – either ruined by water ingress or some manual intervention. Notice the black enamel missing from the hour markers.
Full Gold
This dial is so completely gold, it almost looks like it was originally made this way and would look at home on a gold or gold-plated 176.004 – if such a thing actually existed. What’s interesting here is the vertical grain remains fully intact.
Other Observations
One common thread on these is that only the main blue dial color seems to be impacted. The other paints on the dial – the text, minute markers, day/night indicators, and contrasting subdial colors – seem largely intact.
I don’t know much about the manufacturing process for these dials. I know that the dial blanks are brass, and usually there are layers of paint and varnish involved, but beyond that I know little. Two questions that come to mind:
- Was there a different supplier of the blue dials than the other colors?
- Was there a different process to manufacture the blue dials than the other colors?
Finally, there’s the question of value. Some collectors put a premium on patina, especially “tropical” brown dials of Speedmasters or Submariners. The premium exists because this natural color change is attractive and creates a unique, hard-to-get dial. Do these dials look better than well-preserved pure blue examples? That’s up to you to decide. As you can see from the examples in this article, each dial is unique so it depends on the dial in question.
I’d be interested to know if anyone has any further information about why and how these dials age this way.