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Rolex Datejust 1601 replacement hands

cgasgarth

By cgasgarth
in Watch Repairs Help & Advice

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cgasgarth New Member

cgasgarth

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Hey guys, I've recently bought a grey replacement sigma dial for my Datejust and I'm having trouble finding hands to go with it. The dial is a service dial with white gold markers so would that mean the hands should be white gold? The lume is also superluminova so preferably the hands would be the same but if I had to redo the lume on the hands it wouldn't be the end of the world. I've attached a picture of the dial and the watch has a cal 1575 movement. Thanks 

31086EA9-9FCF-46D4-9E95-A0BA6A109B87.png

4505387C-C151-4D8C-918B-7DD6A74BEED8.png

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cgasgarth New Member

cgasgarth

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52 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

 

Hello cgasgarth,

On this friendly forum before making a post for help or advice. We like new members to introduce themselves. So tell us a little about yourself. 

Welp I'm in high school so my budget is a bit tight. My Grail watch is a white gold day date 1803 with a slate dial but those will be near impossible to find when I get to the point where I can afford one. Right now my Grail was a grey dial Datejust but with the prices going up I just bought one the I liked but wasn't perfect so this project is to just fill the hole for it. Hope that helps :)

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Tudor Distinguished Member

Tudor

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Welcome.

Yes, the "sigma" dial was used to indicate the change to white gold hands and indicies, over the former stainless steel used prior. This change was due to the corrosion of the hands mainly. This dial would probably have the classic straight hands with the lume tracks in their centers. Many sellers have aftermarket ones, but for white gold you may have to wait for a genuine set to come along, and they would most certainly be (non-glowing) Tritium lume material.

What is interesting is that I've never seen a sigma dial using anything other than Tritium, as indicated on the bottom of your dial...

Is this a re-lume perhaps? You indicated it as a service dial, but I've never seen a sigma marked service dial. A luminova replacement would have "SWISS" only at 6 o'clock. I have seen "T<25" marked dials with luminova, (early service dials) but never sigma dials before. I suspect it is an original one that was re-lumed in the past. And from what I can see, it was done very well!

Please correct me, if I'm off base, with some supporting information that lead you to the conclusion it is an original service dial. I'm quite curious...

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cgasgarth New Member

cgasgarth

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12 minutes ago, Tudor said:

Welcome.

Yes, the "sigma" dial was used to indicate the change to white gold hands and indicies, over the former stainless steel used prior. This change was due to the corrosion of the hands mainly. This dial would probably have the classic straight hands with the lume tracks in their centers. Many sellers have aftermarket ones, but for white gold you may have to wait for a genuine set to come along, and they would most certainly be (non-glowing) Tritium lume material.

What is interesting is that I've never seen a sigma dial using anything other than Tritium, as indicated on the bottom of your dial...

Is this a re-lume perhaps? You indicated it as a service dial, but I've never seen a sigma marked service dial. A luminova replacement would have "SWISS" only at 6 o'clock. I have seen "T<25" marked dials with luminova, (early service dials) but never sigma dials before. I suspect it is an original one that was re-lumed in the past. And from what I can see, it was done very well!

Please correct me, if I'm off base, with some supporting information that lead you to the conclusion it is an original service dial. I'm quite curious...

From the info I have from the seller the dial was relumed by RSC which based on how well done it is I can believe. From what I know the Singapore RSC did this for some time instead of outright replacing the dial which makes me very happy if true. Once I get the dial in hand I'll be able to confirm if the markers are white gold or not but I think for the price I paid I got a great deal on a rare dial. 

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cgasgarth New Member

cgasgarth

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1 hour ago, Tudor said:

Well unless the markers were changed for some reason, the sigma indicates they are white gold. 

I'm more saying that because of the slight possibility it could be fake but I just got it in hand and it looks good to me. Anyways back to my problem, do you know where I can source the hands for it? It seems like the cost of the hands isn't much but every Watchmaker I've talked to wants to preform a full service on the watch which for me is too expensive and isn't needed as it was serviced last year and runs perfectly. 

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cgasgarth New Member

cgasgarth

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10 minutes ago, Tudor said:

eBay and the Rolex forum are where I hunt for parts. 

If you want steel ones (though they might have white gold too) try ofrei 

I bought a set of steel ones as a backup but I'm trying to hold out until I get a set of white gold ones, thank you for the tips.

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