Redialed and franken watches: what the serial and papers can and can’t tell you

Step by step

1. 01Find the numbers. The case serial, often between the lugs or on the case back; the reference number beside it; and the movement number, which is inside the case. A watchmaker opens the case, not you, and writes down the movement number and calibre.
2. 02Set the papers beside the numbers. A warranty card or guarantee carries the serial it was issued for; it must be the serial on the case. A dated receipt, service records and any earlier sale record go on the list, each with its date. Papers for a different serial are papers for a different watch.
3. 03Ask the maker’s archive where one exists. Some makers issue an extract from their archives for a movement or case number: the calibre, the reference, the date of production and the market it went to. An extract states the watch as made. It does not say what the watch is now.
4. 04Compare the dial with confirmed originals. Fonts and spacing of the maker’s name and the model line; the line at six o’clock, which refinishers often leave off; lume colour and placement consistent between hands and markers, aged rather than bright; even printing; subdial rings where the reference has them; and a dial far cleaner than the case around it.
5. 05Compare the parts. Hands, crown, bezel, crystal and bracelet, correct for the reference and the period against a confirmed example. Service replacements are common and are not wrong; they are facts to write down as replacements.
6. 06Ask the seller in writing. Whether the dial, hands, movement or any part has been replaced or refinished, by whom, and when. A seller who knows will say; a seller who does not know should say that.
7. 07Write it down. The numbers, the papers, the extract if any, the comparison and the seller’s answers, with photographs of the dial, the case back, the numbers and the movement, dated.

What this check does not prove

• That the dial is original. No number on the watch describes the dial. A serial that matches its papers and its extract is still a watch whose dial has to be judged on its own.
• That the watch runs or is in order. A movement number is not a service record. What the movement does today is a question for a watchmaker on the bench.
• That a replaced part is wrong. Makers replace parts at service. A service dial or hands are a fact to record and to disclose, not a verdict on the watch.
• Who has held the watch. Papers record a first sale. They say nothing about who has held the watch since, or how it reached the seller.
• What the card is worth. A grade is not a price. The lookup says nothing about value, and neither does this guide.