Quirky but loveable tri colored 1016

[seabreeze]

First let me say I love this new to me
1967 Explorer. It was a one owner faithfully worn every day.

This is my second day wearing it and I love this watch. It instantly felt like an old friend

Anyway most of the markers are a nive greenish yellow off white. the 12 o'clock lime plot is noticeably a bit darker but its ok

The hands were replaced by an RSC in 1997. So they are original in the sense of continuity and I like that. But they are bright.

So should I learn to love them or I was thinking about seeing if someone like Ridley could tint them.....just the hands

And if so, would Rolex refuse to work on it after that?

Just curious if other have uneven patina and general thoughts.

[cop414]

Awww Ed,
Can you post a pic... please...

[seabreeze]

Yeah that was my bad ImageUploadedByTapatalk1364156426.719889.jpg

And I spotted this car at my gym...never saw it there before. Similar age !
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1364156473.895212.jpg

[TimeToGo]

A very nice looking watch.

Why not try to source tritium ones?

[seabreeze]

Originally Posted by TimeToGo

A very nice looking watch.

Why not try to source tritium ones?

That was my first thought. I made a post about that About a week ago

This is to be a strong opinion about keeping the hands that are with the watch now

Do you think that dial is tritium? I thought that had been phased out by 1967

I would also be concerned that the hands might be too dark and so I still have a third color just a different one

That's when I handed on this idea of tinting. I'm not sure if it can even be done I wouldn't want anyone to think it was a counterfeit watch with funny hands

I was not expecting to find a watch with every service record going back to the date it was purchased

I just wish the Hands were a bit darker!

[nsumner]

The dial appears to be tritium, which wasn't phased until the 90's. You may be thinking about radium, which was long gone by 1967.

Nice looking 1016, one of my favorites

[seattleal]

Ed - Tritium was used by Rolex until the late 90's. That's what the 'T < 25' on the dial indicates.

Scroll down here and you'll see one attempted to classify patina, which you can use to put a WTB add on VRf for 1016 tritium hands with matching patina:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/20759...nce+%28Long%29

[seabreeze]

Originally Posted by seattleal

Ed - Tritium was used by Rolex until the late 90's. That's what the 'T < 25' on the dial indicates.

Scroll down here and you'll see one attempted to classify patina, which you can use to put a WTB add on VRf for 1016 tritium hands with matching patina:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/20759...nce+%28Long%29

Hi Al, thanks. I am a member of that board and have tried a couple of WTB postings on the market side. But they don't propagate. Maybe I am doing something wrong or not a member long enough?

[seabreeze]

Also it was just serviced in December and I have Two years on the warranty. Does that go away if someone else opens the watch and puts in vintage hands?

[cop414]

Ed,
Gorgeous watch, thanks for the pics!!

[Psmith]

Very nice - congrats!

[adam78]

The replacement hands on it now would also be tritium, if replaced as you said in '97; you just want ones that better match the dial, which might be difficult to find (unless you have them side by side).

Replacing the hands shouldn't affect the warranty, esp. if you let the same watchmaker do it.

[seabreeze]

Update:

Watch and hands back from Mr. Ridley today. I am happy with the results, but I of course have the 1997 service hands as well.

What do do you think?

[swish77]

Looks very nice, but can you post a bigger photo in neutral light to really see how the color of the tritium matches? It a little hard to tell in that photo. I'm very curious about this process.