Tag Heuer 1500 (Granite) Dial Makeover (including Lume)

Hello Tag Heuer People,

I need your help please.

Over the years, I have accumulated quite a few watches, but my favourite daily drive is a granite dial 1500
Mine is a 959 706G (photo attached)


My wife likes to have the same watch as me, so I bought her a ladies version
Hers is a WD1411-PO (Photo attached)


A few years ago, I took the watches into the official service center in Hong Kong and they told me this:
- They want to take the granite dials away and replace them with black dials
- They told me there was a problem with the "locking mechanism" of the ladies watch (does not lock)
- They told me that I would not get any of the replaced, old parts (including the old dials) back

The watches have been with us for almost a decade now, and are showing their age.
- In particular the luminous paint has degraded on the hands and dial in the ladies (see 9 O'Clock).
- For mine, the biggest problem is a calendar that has gotten darker and darker over time.

It would be nice to bring these watches up to "everyday" quality again, because we like them a lot.

Does anyone know of a service center or vendor that can provide the service and parts I need to refurbish these watches without taking away parts I would like to keep?

In particular, I am talking about the dials. I might be open to swapping out the dials for a different color, have the granite fixed up and then have them put back in. There's a couple of outfits here in Hong Kong that refurbish dials.

Thank you!

Graham Leach

Hi Graham,

Personally, I'd be reluctant to change the dial colour, given it's your favourite. What TAG Heuer told you is right: they don't give back the old parts. If you want to keep the watches original, sounds like two choices:

1. Keep an eye on eBay for the parts you want. Bracelet shouldn't be too hard, but dial will be tougher to find (here is one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-...917993?hash=item41eb70e269:g:u7IAAOSwIOtbWOrw)
2. The more "callous" approach would be to buy "new" 1500s from eBay and then sell yours. As crazy as it will sound, this may be cheaper (taking into account time taken to hunt these down) than buying the parts yourself and then paying for them to be fitted and servicing the watch. But then they wouldn't be your watches..so depends on whether that matters to you.

dc

Or buy the watches and use the parts you need?
I like these watches, the dials look great.

Unfortunately TAG keep the old replaced parts, they do have their reasoning for this, but not great for those planning on keeping watches forever.

Like said above keep an eye out for new dials on eBay as you may get lucky, although not common in this colour.

I would go with the second option DC mentioned personally, but would look more towards what Aquagraph said. Buy good condition pieces on eBay and swap dial and bracelet over, keeping most of the watches original. This is a more expensive option obviously because of labour, but would be my choice personally due to the history already created with them.