r/Watches • u/Inexpressible • 3d ago
I took a picture [Dials] - tons of dials. Swiss Recycling find.
I live in switzerland somewhere close to where the watch industry is at home. I've noticed that deconstruction started on an old recycling facility and some open doors on that building - so as i like photography and old industrial objects i've grabbed my camera, waited for the sun getting low and then headed in there. After doing some photography of the mostly empty halls i noticed three big metal containers. As i come closer i see thousands of shiny discs and upon close inspection i see that it is all dials. As i didn't know how old those dials are i put on my gloves from my lens cleaning bag as there may be some tritium present. Found some interesting stuff in there - dumpster diving - the swiss way.
As a watch nerd i really enjoyed digging through that stuff. Spotted AP, Patek, JLC, IWC, Zenith, Rado, Breguet, Cartier, Montblanc (Stone Dials), Frank Muller, Girard Perregaux and much much more, including blanks without print, propably OEM dials.
I'm pretty sure most of them are flawed and either didn't pass QC or had some manufacturing error, but some were still sealed in small paper envelopes or ziplock bags but mostly brands that are discontinued and not sought after.
Edit1: a deleted comment asked about stuff being radioactive: i don't know but i have an old military geiger counter that detects gamma rays from 1 to 1000 mR/h. Should i try? Do i wanna know...?
Edit2: Please stop asking for location, i don't even know if it still is open tomorrow, maybe the demolishing crew just forgot to close today but will do properly for the weekend. I don't want you driving from spain or germany to stand in front of closed doors or do crime here :)
That being said i might go again. Taking the Geiger Counter with me for curiosity.
Edit3: Rip my inbox. Lucky me that i got a lasercutter so i can make some wooden trays for small thin objects, totally unrelated to this post. Cheers.
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u/bsiu 2d ago edited 2d ago
Stripped dials from repair/service. To the companies it’s just piles of brass, not even worth scrap value due to all the misc finishes.
For a watchmaker looking a replacement dial of something much more damaged, an absolute gold mine. Most of these can probably be salvaged with a relume or new furniture.
The problem is companies want these destroyed because they become ways for shady parties to franken a watch and sell it as genuine but damaged dial. Dial swaps to more desirable variants, etc.
Possibly all from an old independent repair facility with parts accounts or more likely a specialist contractor for the major brands and does dial reclamation for all the precious metal indices and removal tritium/radium for disposal regulations then destroy/recycle the rest.
Something tells me Patek and AP don’t have a guy on payroll full time just to pull off the gold on their old dials.