Easy to order at every authorised Rado-dealer. But, as you surely know, very expensive. The problem is the special lugs making it impossible to mount a standard bracelet. You could alternatively enquire at one of those guys offering handmade/customised straps.
Nice to see Henry´s LRs all together, the best one is the sex-watch. He gave a good summary of all we know about Louis Rossel. I own two LRs, one like Henry´s TC cushion and an older diver with AS-movement(but already inner the "high-quality-era"):
[[File:0 LR b.jpg|none|auto]] [[File:0 LR det dial.jpg|none|auto]] [[File:0 LR ETA 2836-1.jpg|none|auto]]
[[File:0 LR NSA a.jpg|none|auto]] [[File:0 LR NSA b.jpg|none|auto]]
[[File:0 LR diver a.jpg|none|auto]] [[File:0 LR diver c.jpg|none|auto]] [[File:0 LR diver AS 1913.jpg|none|auto]]
I also own some German vintages after WWII, a few Titoni/Felca and some others, I simply find attractive. Some examples:
[[File:0 Hercules forum a.jpg|none|auto]] [[File:0 Hercules forum HPP 102.jpg|none|auto]] Hercules, Henzi & Pfaff, HPP 102, ca. 1949
Great work on the "new" Manhattan - as usual. "Gasket damage" - that says anything to me. My Manhattan is in good condition - except one corner of the dial. But I love the amber colour. Impossible to find the same dial in NOS. Looked like yours when it arrived.
A friend of mine does spot repairs on cars and has a very fine airbrush equipment, also a colour mixing system. If we´re able to mix the right colour(which needs some tests on aluminium), I will try to refinish the small corner only, covering the rest. Hope it works.
Seems to be in nice condition and looks absolutely great with the matching 7-row NSA! I own two New Green Horses, but the older date only version, I wish they would be in the same condition and with matching NSAs. There´s a variation of this dial with ramb-markers at 1,2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10,11. I still have one of those dials, but for a GP version. BTW, smaller scratches in acrylic crystals can be polished out easily.
In the UK, you can send it to Christian, the watchguy. AFAIK he is confident, has moderate prices and you can be absolutely sure that everything is done alright because you can watch the whole service via the pics in his blog. The link above shows a nice "R-line"-Rado with AS 1361N movement, it´s from 1955/56, not 1958. If you want to send it to Germany, you can ask Marcus/pimpclinic, he does the service for my watches.
So it seems to be brass. None of my GP NCCs is so worn that the basic material comes out. I think s.o. polished your GP 505 down to the brass and gave it a silver plating - which easily could be removed by you. And now you have the brass again. It needs a new gold plating, min. 10 microns. Some watchmakers offer this service, or you send the case only to a plating company.
These references only: NCC 505 - 11942/625.3037.4. - 1970/1978 - 15.000 - SS NCC 505 - 11943/625.3037.2. - 1970/1978 - 7.000 - GP NCC 505 - -/625.3174.2 - 1976 /1979 - 3.000 -GP NCC 505 - -/625.3174.4 - 1976/1979 - 2.000 - SS AFAIK these cases are all stainless steel, also the GP ones - but I wouldn´t cut one to be sure. What you describe sounds like brass, indeed. Brass is more yellowish than GP - is there a difference in the colour compared with the GP close of the Rado strap?
I would leave it as it is(and replace the SS crown by a GP one). As we know meanwhile, it´s an authentic GP model with the correct reference no. and it wears the correct dial/hands-combo with golden marker-ring, anchor and hands. A SS-case would make a Franken out of it. If you absolutely want to have a silver case, it doesn´t make sense to plate it again - the case is SS under the GP, so all you have to do is polishing, polishing, polishing and soon the GP will disappear. A standard polish for SS and/or chrome(cars) will do the job. You shouldn´t use machinery to keep the edges sharp. But IMHO it would be a shame. Maybe selling the GP one for a good price and buying a SS model would be the better way.
Here´s a pic of my Certina DiaMaster(Rado DiaStar 505) with the same case design, but TC-case:
A silver coloured watch, polished to gold plated? A mystery. These are all SS-cases, so chromed brass isn´t an option. Also the GP ones. So polishing the gold plating away and have a SS case is easy to understand. But the other way round? Markers, hands and the anchor of the moving anchor logo are golden, so everything is alright. What´s the reference no.?
Congrats, a very nice NCC 505! Seems to be in good condition and doesn´t look bad on the leather strap with Rado close. The same case design is available in tungstencarbide on the DiaStar 515 and one of the Certina DiaMasters(which is the same with Certina branding).
Yes, of course it wears them, the movement is running as if you wear the watch all time. But putting them in a drawer doesn´t save a service after some years, it´s the oil which must be replaced. It´s a personal decision to use a winder or not. Some experts say the abrasive wear is too much, other experts say it´s better for the movement to stay in motion. Some people wear their one and only watch for decades without problems, so for a Swiss movement of high quality and in good condition, with enough oil in the bearings, it shouldn´t be a problem IMHO. I own just a single winder and almost use it for day/date watches without quickset to keep them up to date when I want to wear them again inner a few days.
This week, it´s my 1957 Military with 17 jw.-AS 1130 Wehrmachtswerk. It still has the older "R-line"-logo on the back. The enamelled dial looks still perfectly, the case is unfortunately a chrome plated brass one, which shows some traces of it´s age.
WOW, looks impressive! Nice house for your watches! One day a month? How stupid! You can save the money then. The function of a winder is to wind automatic watches. You surely don´t need to let it move all day and night, it certainly has a timer and a presetting. So you can program it to run 10 h a day and bidirectional moving, should be enough to keep the watches winded.
@Henry - is the lume really so blue in the dark on your D-Star? The HyperChrome still seems to be unavailable - you can look whereever you want, nobody offers them and it´s still not listed on the official Rado HP(German version).
@Henry - always nice to see your LE-DiaStars! Great watches and great pics! I really should take the time to take some better pics of some of my Rados - my equipment is definitely good enough but nearly all of my pics are uninspired quickshots. The size difference between the "normal" and the XL case is bigger than I thought.
@RadoFan - I love black dials and I don´t have any idea why you should avoid them. Black dials are not more damageable than others, it´s the wrong way round: Even my oldest Rados from WWII, 1943/44 are still black. White or blue dials more tend to change their colour under the influence of UV-rays. White dials often tend to get yellowish, blue dials tend to bleech. Henry owns a nice 1970s´ DiaMaster/DiaStar 10 with an ex-blue dial, which is grey now. I own an NCC 101 with blue dial - it´s still blue, but you see a large difference to the original colour when the dial is disassembled and you compare to the frame being covered by the case. Here´s a pic of my end of 1970s´ DiaStar Quartz with black dial - still as black as it could be(though it looks lighter on this pic through the reflections of the sapphire crystal):
The D-Star Auto Chrono looks absolutely great with it´s diver design and it´s also a beauty from the back with it´s nicely decorated movement with anchor-shaped rotor. Here´s my favourite of today, the brandnew HyperChrome Chrono:
Very nice! I nearly had bought the same model with black dial, but the seller at WUS didn´t answer and a few days later it was marked as sold. I like the clear dial design with the moving anchor logo above the "6". The original DiaStar exists for 50 years now and must be the best sold watchmodel of the world with the same case design. It´s amazing to see the incredible variety of dial designs it received over the years. I had expected a special edition to it´s 50th anniversary - maybe it still comes.
02.09.2012 17:24
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