1954(?) Seamaster Automatic - What Can Be Done?

It is in fact a pretty common variant so don’t get too excited. It will indeed cost you maybe $250-350 to get it running right. There is no real cheaper option these days. Then it will be worth maybe $600-700. Collectors would maybe make the effort, it’s up to you if the sums and hassle make it worth it. The damage on the dial can’t be cheaply or easily improved so it won’t look any better but it will at least work.

As it stands it might fetch $400-500 on eBay. Put it back in the box or stick it on eBay would be my advice.

This is known as a "bumper automatic" watch with a cal 354 movement. It is a Seamaster model, obviously, the reference is 2577 and it was made in 1954 or thereabouts.

If the watch has sentimental value to you, then by all means you should have the watch serviced and enjoy wearing it. Grand Central is expensive and generally doesn't get great reviews, and personally I've purchased two watches that had documents showing a recent full service from them that were not in good shape and needed to be serviced again. I would not recommend having a watchmaker attempt to do any "restoration" because that is likely to make things worse. The dial is damaged, but it's generally not plausible to do much about that.

If the watch is not appealing to you in its current state, or it does not have sentimental value to you, then I would not recommend investing anything into the watch. Just put it on eBay as it is.

Omega does provide a restoration service where they can make an old watch like this look like new, by replacing parts and having the dial repainted. It's extremely expensive and destroys the collectible value of the watch. However, some people find it worthwhile for a watch with great sentimental value if they want it to look like a new watch and don't care about its history. Personally, I would never do it.

+1
That movement is a mess hard to imagine it works. Count on extra cost for servicing likely needs more than usual parts. Service it if you have sentimental value but not with Omega $$$$$ need to find independent watchmaker with Onega parts acct.