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Generally dials, hands and cases don’t wear out unless they’re not looked after. Moisture ingress is the main culprit for poor condition dials and desk diving scratches cases. But I agree about parts that actually wear like (some) movement components, though others only wear as a result of the watch not being serviced. It’s perfectly possible to wear your watches regularly and not damage them ;)
I wear all my watches, I thought most people do :)
freddo-
I think the rule of common sense is only do what is necessary for the piece to function as you want it to.
When I had my ‘71 speedmaster mk2 restored I was able to retain the original but faded dial and hands but I did have new chrono pushers as they were EXACTLY the same as the knackered ones.
But I had the case refinished. Heretic!!
And you’ve all seen the pictures on here and everybody loved it, but most importantly it’s what I wanted , a period piece as usable as a new one. -
It is funny how fashion changes with regard to services. My father has boxes of old Rolex hands and dials from his time working there. Most are the old Radium hands with the patina that everyone loves today, but back then most wanted to ‘upgrade’ the old, brown, dirty hands to shiny new tritium ones.
Luckily for us, my dad kept all these. As good watchmakers know, you never throw anything out...we now often refit these during watch restorations.
ejay2.0
smackerjack
But surely if you want to be able to actually use a watch for its intended purpose ie wearing regularly to be able to accurately tell the time and the only way of ensuring the timepiece can do that is by replacing anything worn beyond tolerance by the actual manufacturer then that’s ok , if that’s what you want to use it for. They are two different things I feel . I agree with you in some respects , but if for example a dial is aged / damaged and flaking and HAS to be replaced so you can use it then wether you keep it original and leave it for gazing upon or actually sort it to be able to use is a choice you have to make.