06 Mar 2012, 10:58
Personally, I could not. But, this is a very rare and valuable piece, and repairs of this sort are, frankly, beyond the capability of most collectors. Myself, I have taken worse dents out of 18K Calculators, 18k P3s, and a couple P1s, so, I think I could handle it. If I had, say, $6K, I would make the offer, and hopefully get it into corrective surgery. Of couse, after it was restored, it would be an 8-9K$ watch, but it would once again be as perfect as the day it left the Omega factory. The one I have I re-assembled out of pieces that had been taken apart to get an accurate gold weight. Basically, I got a box of parts that had been knocking about for who knows how long, no module, no glass. I'm sure I spent at least 50 hours on the reconstruction, topping it off with a mint Omega crystal. There might be an example or two in equal condition, but I can't imagine there could be one better (I don't even handle it any more with bare hands...seriously, I wear cotton gloves to keep from leaving hairline scratches in the finish; 18K gold is that soft, and your hands really are that abrasive!). High-carat gold is really pretty, but it doesn't make a very durable watchcase...If anyone is interested to see it, I could put up a few pics. Amazingly enough, the all-stainless version of the TC1 may actually be rarer...only 6 of those versus the 8 or 9 in 18K.
Last edited by
bruce wegmann on 06 Mar 2012, 12:36, edited 1 time in total.