I've been very curious about this watch and caseback... I do not recall seeing this "14 KGF Bezel - Stainless Steel Back" engraving on a gold cap 166.032 before. Could that be a post original-sale addition? Would it have been normal practice to place gold fill parts (e.g. bezel) on gold cap cases or vice versa? Can anybody share info or similar watch pictures to verify?
Nope seen several examples with this engraving - I think some came from the factory with it and some didn't. It is lightly engraved though so not difficult to be rubbed off or polished out in many examples.
Thanks Mike! So that's a pretty unmolested caseback, huh! Was adding the gold fill bezel on a gold cap case a promotional tool?
I don't think so. Don't really know why they decided in inscribe this on the caseback - perhaps it was a disclosure requirement for certain markets?
Yes, that makes sense.... something like the different jewel count or "un"adjusted configurations out there as well...
... and the movement on this one is a cal. 750, the 17 jewel one, not the 752, so that adds up I guess.
That means it's likely a US market watch. Hallmarks written in plain English like that are very common here. Hope this helps, gatorcpa
Yes, but it yours all steel? I think it was the custom (if not the law) at that time to have the hallmarking on the outside if a portion of the case was karat gold (or filled, plated, etc.). gatorcpa
Almost all Omega gold capped cases were made in Switzerland, so I would not expect to see engraving on the outside of those. I didn't know they made cal. 750 versions in gold-cap for that particular style. Anything was possible with Omega in those days, gatorcpa
The OVD does not mention the Cal 750 so I asked here about it before I bought it and was told they used both 750 & 752.
Over here in the UK we don't seem to encounter gold-filled Omegas (which we would call rolled-gold). But we do have gold-plated ones, stainless steel, gold-capped, and 9 karat and 18 karat solid gold.
Those then are probably non-USA market watches, I suppose. That's what was so strange for me on this watch... I've seen these engravings only on a few early models, but never on the later models and especially not the 166.032's before. Exciting and surprising, the world of vintage Omega's, isn't it! I guess yours, and the one in my pictures, being 27-29 mil models consecutively with the cal 750 movements, probably makes yours an early non-US market piece and the other an early US market piece when they had to make the engraving by law for that destination.... both being a more cost effective, "lesser" jewels so less expensive, solution to the lovely "Golden Seamaster" 166.032/168.023 model...
Well, the gold-capped ones are 14k, of course. And, as in the USA, we do have many Omegas which were cased in this country from the 1950s and 1960s. The principal British case maker being A L Dennison, of Birmingham.
Yes... very interesting topic, how & which countries Omega chose to recase, etc their watches, and especially within the context of that lovely era, 40's - 60's, and the amount of variety and unique pieces that came out it!!