Community Stories

Omega Memomatic "Pilot Line" (ST 166.0071) - Sunburst Or Circular Brushing ?

JimInOz
Posts
18,159
Likes
37,902
CanberraOmega CanberraOmega
I know you are ex military, but now I'm thinking DIGO!!!


No, but they did provide us with "stuff" on occasion 馃槈

And after we'd used that data to find the things we were looking for, we spent a long time just looking. It was like a "what's wrong with this picture" experience. You get to know after a while, and then you can see the elephant in the room.
 
omegastar
Posts
1,864
Likes
5,432
I have a friend who is one of the biggest alarm watches collector in the world and he once explained to me the there were two different makers for the Omega pilot line cases. One, the most common finished cases with sunburst and the second, less common finished cases with circular finish. The maker signs the case with a stamp. Nowadays, if you send your Watch to Omega Switzerland, they will finish it with sunburst and as people only study pictures from internet copied over and over, anything not like the picture is not ok. I personally have a Flightmaster with circular finish.
I hope this helps.
 
flame
Posts
759
Likes
2,279
Hi

Lots of interesting viewpoints on this model and it's case finish....I'll catch up with my contact at Omega's appointed Vintage specialist , STS , over the next day or 2 and ask for his input and then feed it back here....

Best - Neil
 
omegastar
Posts
1,864
Likes
5,432
stefan stefan
Hi, I'm fully aware of the Flightmaster 145.036 had circular grained finish and Mark III had both sunburst and circular grained finish, having owned quite a few 166.071 Memomatics I have never in my life seen circular grained finish of the case and the Memomatic you are reffering to is not a new old stock watch, I can see from miles away that this watch has been refinished with incorrect circular grained finish. To answer the question about the case shape, Memomatic 166.071 case is completely different from Flightmaster case 145.013, 145.026 and 145.036, case is is much smaller on Memomatics and it has acryllic crystal instead of miner crystal.

I will send you a box of chocolate if you find a new old stock Memomatic with circular grained factory finish of the case 馃榾

Cheers

Stefan
I live in Belgium, the country of chocolate. If I provide the pictures is it possible to have something else than chocolate ?
 
cicindela
Posts
15,046
Likes
24,046
omegastar omegastar
I live in Belgium, the country of chocolate. If I provide the pictures is it possible to have something else than chocolate ?
Fish & Chips or Curry?
 
webvan
Posts
646
Likes
342
omegastar omegastar
I have a friend who is one of the biggest alarm watches collector in the world and he once explained to me the there were two different makers for the Omega pilot line cases. One, the most common finished cases with sunburst and the second, less common finished cases with circular finish. The maker signs the case with a stamp. Nowadays, if you send your Watch to Omega Switzerland, they will finish it with sunburst and as people only study pictures from internet copied over and over, anything not like the picture is not ok. I personally have a Flightmaster with circular finish.
I hope this helps.

Excellent information, thanks! Are you saying that only the case with a circular finish has that stamp, or they both have one but different?

Looks like you're one picture away from a box of chocolates ;-)
 
webvan
Posts
646
Likes
342
ok, I found one, not sure if it's the circular or sunburst brushing. Would the stamp be the "Omega Watch Company" or the little "Scuba Diver" in the bottom?

$T2eC16hHJGQE9noMcSrHBQH)BC06Dg~~60_57.JPG
 
omegastar
Posts
1,864
Likes
5,432
"The scuba diver" is actually the stamp of the maker : Ervin Piquerez S.A. (EPSA).
It also stands for compressor, system invented by EPSA.
 
webvan
Posts
646
Likes
342
Thanks, I'd seen it a few times before (on my Chronostop I think) and assumed it was related to waterproofness and I guess that was correct to some extent.

Found some good info here : http://www.mwrforum.net/forums/showthread.php?t=30011 - so it seems that for Omega watches EPSA "toned down" their brand and only kept the "scuba diver".

Any chance you can ping your "alarm watches collector" friend to get the lowdown on the case finish and the names of the case makers? EPSA could be one, although not necessarily, maybe Omega just got the "compressor" licence from them and had the case built elsewhere...

I haven't really researched case makers (there must be books out there?) but another name that comes back regularly for Omega watches is Fontana, an Italian case maker I believe.
 
omegastar
Posts
1,864
Likes
5,432
Fontana was or is specialized in gold cases and bracelets. EPSA was one of the major case maker. Type "omega case maker" in google and you will find a nice thread from "forum.watchuseek.com".
 
webvan
Posts
646
Likes
342
flame flame
Hi

Lots of interesting viewpoints on this model and it's case finish....I'll catch up with my contact at Omega's appointed Vintage specialist , STS , over the next day or 2 and ask for his input and then feed it back here....

Best - Neil

Hey Neil, so did STS have any thoughts on this?
 
WatchVaultNYC
Posts
3,719
Likes
4,205
Scored one arriving today. Damn thing is so sharp, it must have cut off the owner's fingers, fell into a sock, and found after 40 years

14262878_1554809571200886_1527617390_n.jpg
 
Sign up or log in to reply...

Similar threads

Paedipod

Omega Memomatic Pilot style case

Paedipod Watch Parts and Accessories For Sale
Paedipod
Paedipod
Posts
0
Views
1K
tyrantlizardrex

Omega Seamaster 200m "Pilot Line" ST166.0091 - 拢2250 OBO

tyrantlizardrex Private Watch Sales
watchknut
watchknut
Posts
12
Views
8K