1978 Omega Seamaster Ref. 166.0216 Racing Dial? Prototype?

JapaneseWatch22 · Mon. 5:28pm

Is anyone familiar with this dial? Is this a redial? This is a 166.0216 dated to 1978 with a 41x serial number. The watch appears to be original, but I can find no information on this dial. I purchased this from a Japanese auction site in 2021 and have not seen another one like this anywhere. I remember from the description it being called a racing dial and a prototype. Is anyone familiar?

dsio · Mon. 5:32pm

I've seen a few of these around, they seem to mostly appear in the Japanese market

JapaneseWatch22 · Mon. 6:37pm

dsio
I've seen a few of these around, they seem to mostly appear in the Japanese market

Thank you! Do you know what this dial is called? Is it anything in particular?

dsio · Mon. 6:57pm

I’ve never heard of it called anything, I’d lean towards calling it a Japan dial since it seems that 90% of them are either still in, or came from Japan, and the red ring and red Seamaster has a bit of a Japan flag feel to it.

I don’t know why is it, but there were always a lot of models that went to Japan only or minor twists on existing models just for Japan. I feel like they must have had a very hands-on local distributor line Norman Morris in the US that has their finger on the pulse or their market and was given some freedom to call the shots by Omega, but that’s just my theory and I haven’t been able to verify it.

JapaneseWatch22 · Mon. 9:55pm

That makes a ton of sense, thank you very much for the history! I appreciate it!

1978 Omega Seamaster Ref. 166.0216 Racing Dial? Prototype?

JapaneseWatch22

dsio

JapaneseWatch22

dsio

JapaneseWatch22

Similar threads

1978 Omega Seamaster 120m Baby Ploprof Ref 166.0250

« Price dropped » Omega Speedmaster Radial dial prototype Alaska III

1978 Omega Seamaster 120m 'Baby Ploprof' Ref 166.0250

Omega Seamaster cal.321 Dial / Prototype?

1978 Omega Seamaster 120m 'Baby Ploprof' Ref 166.0250 REDUCED

Early Omega Seamaster Jumbo Dial: Prototype? One-Off? Re-dial?