Cleaning a dial is always an excitement for me. It can bring you happiness...but it can also mean a lot of trouble. It's always taking a risk, and believe me...I have learned some serious lessons in the past years if it comes to dials.

I'm always extremely carefull with them, certainly if I'm handling one that's not from my own. Besides taking off the needles and hands from a watch another adventure is to actually clean a dial.

Well, we know the values of our beloves Heuers, and ofcourse there's a huge part of the value of an Heuer in the dial itself. Just compare a "standard" 1163V with the value of a 1163T. With the Autavia's we don't have many issues with the dials...like we know the melting gasket from our beloved Monaco's. However from time to time dials get dirty and messed up.

Recently I acquired a Siffert, from one of our OTD "members". The dial had a stain on it, not very disturbing but yet disturbing enough for me to take the risk and try to get the dial clean again. Apart from the risk of the lume that can come off while handling or if the cleaning product comes in contact with the lume, there's obviously also the risk of doing more harm than good. I have very nasty experiences with cleaning black dials, especially when they are not matt but glossy...a real nightmare.

Anyway...here are two quick pictures from before and after...you can imagine...I'm a happy Heuer man ;-)

Regards,
abel.