Dear Bulova friends.
I am looking on two diffrent gladiator watches. One has a more white dial. And one has patina on dial a little yellow when i look a pictures. The one with a little patina on dial is less expensive than the other one.
The condition one the watches are the same i think. The white one must be some kind of redial.
The difference in price is 150 dollars. The only diffrence is that the dial is white on one watch and the other has a little yellow or slight beige tone on dial.
Both watches looks great.
My question is whats is best patina or no patina???
Kind Regards
Airborne
Personal preference says I. Often I have my dials restored. Think of buying a classic old car and having restored to it's original condition. I do have watches however that are in such fine unrestored condition that I wouldn't consider having anything done to them as it SEEMS that it would take something away from it. Regular service on any watch that will be used however is always mandatory. By the way - the 'yellow' could be in the photos only AND know that a redial, if you decide to have it done latter, will not cost $150.
I think that value is perception. Buy the one you feel best about. Enjoy it.
Ah, then ignore my first post, I was wrong.
Incidentally, I find a little patina enhances the beauty and character of a vintage watch, in the same way you have a patina on an old bronze, and you would not polish that away, or have it painted over. It adds to the value with its originality.
It really is a personal preference. If the patina is slight I'm usually good with leaving it. If it's really bad where the dial looks to have bad waterstains or the like I'd get it redialed.
Sounds like those two watches are in the same shape except for a $50 redial. My personal preference would be to take the slightly patina'd one. Then you can either enjoy the heck out of it if you like it when you get it, or you can choose at any time to get it done like the other, for a better price.
As stated above personal preference...However, I never redial and almost never purchase a redialed watch. For me the redials clash with the aging and the character of the cases...Every year people redial some antique watches - making original dials rarer and rarer.