In terms of finding photos of examples, it depends on the thing I am looking for. In many cases, I will search the internet as certain websites serve as useful archives. For other things (e.g. unusual examples), I do have various folders with photos that I have saved.
Good observation, regarding the "s" in Longines! I would guess that it was a batch with flawed printing.
P.S. Have you measured the diameter of this dial? Also, did it come with a movement?
Yes you are right that it looks like the same dial in both of these, so probably the seller have swapped the dials since he is clearly stating it is different watches (with different ref numbers and origin country). Looks like the second one have different or relumed hands as well? Or is it just the different lighting?
I specifically asked Longines when asking for an extract of mine and got this answer:
"I'm sorry to inform you that we don't provide any information on the dial. Regarding your second request, we only provide historical information kept in our archives on the basis of the serial number that is engraved on the watch.
In our registers, the original serial number 6'461'428 identifies a wristwatch in stainless steel bearing the order number 22243 and the reference 4142. It is fitted with a Longines manually wound mechanical movement, caliber 12.68N."
So unfortunately Longines don't seem to provide any more information regarding the dial.
Another 35mm tre tacche with "sei tacche dial"
This happened, a flat two tone sector dial.
Stumble upon this 35mm tre tacche with centrum second, what do you think about it @DirtyDozen12?
Hard to say but dial does not look flat, hands and numerals does not look typical to the 35mm tre tacches I have seen (thinner).
Hello.
Such a curiosity. Tre tacche and sei tacche with the same dial and movement but different case. And three years difference in movement numbers. Is it possible, is one of them a franken? Or maybe two frankens?
Hi everyone.
The tre tacche to me looks like a correct example of 33mm tre tacches found mainly on the scandinavian market - at least I’ve seen a few examples come up on auction in scandinavia in past years.
The same dial in the sei tacche appears to have been transplanted from a 33mm tre tacche. Funny as the transplants usually go the other way around but someone in this case probably decided the larger case would make a more valuable watch.
You can even see there’s a big gap between the minute track and the bezel, with chipped varnish which would have been hidden under the bezel in the original watch.
Exactly, you're right. I saw the break before the auction ended, but I still decided I had to have this watch. It's a very valuable flat dial for me, in perfect condition. I don't know if the flat dials were only in the tre tacche version or the sei tacche as well. If I get confirmation from Longines that my sei tacche is a franken, I'll move the dial to the tre tacche (the dial in the sei tacche looks much nicer) and look for a 32.5 mm tre tacche case. I know that Longines currently has a much larger database and even the color of the dial may indicate that it will still be a franken, but it's worth the risk. And I'll have a project for the future.
33mm tre tacches are relatively uncommon, I would say over ten years I only saw about 10 or so on the open market.
I’d say 6 of those had one of these cream colored radium dials. 2 were pink, 1 had another type of (very nice) non lume white dial, and maybe there was one or two radium black dials similar to this design.
