Hello All,

I'm new to the forum and new to Omega. I was initiated in the most wonderful way. I was visiting my father recently and we were relaxing watching the TV and listening to the blathering of the news cycle. He got up and went towards his bedroom. I assumed he was going to "shake hands with the unemployed". He came back and stood over me as I sat. "I notice that you don't wear a watch...", he said. I said, "Well, not very often...". "Well, you're going to now", he told me with some firmness and slipped this onto my wrist.




I was amazed. I literally did one of those gold fish things where your mouth opens and closes a bunch of times and no sound come out. "I got it for my dad when I was in the Navy and on a Med cruise. After he passed in '76, Mom gave it back to me. I want you to have it now, so that I will always be with you." If you think about it that makes it Father to Father and Son to Son. I'm sure you'll appreciate that I had a hard time speaking at all for a while after that. I spent the rest of the visit with the watch on my wrist and when I had time, researching Omega Constellation on the internet. What was immediately apparent was that it was in amazing condition. My Grandfather wasn't one to wear much jewelry and I'm guessing that after he passed my Grandmother put it away for a number of years before she gave it back to dad, and he didn't wear it much, if any. He was a machinist and leery of having jewelry on around the work site. Somewhere along the line, it had picked up a cheap Speidel band. It's purely guessing on my part, but I feel that the original probably had a leather band and it dried out and became un-serviceable. I confess I was in a lather to put something on it that was more in keeping with its heritage and so bought a BOR bracelet. I thought it suited the watch much better.



My dad was in the Navy when I was born and did a deployment right after I showed up in April of 1958. After he gave me the watch I was burning up to know what year it was from and everything else I could find out about it. I found this forum and Desmond's exceptional blog (http://omega-constellation-collectors.blogspot.com/), the Omega Vintage database and have been crawling the whole web looking for other examples of "my" watch. It wasn't until today that I was able to get to a jeweler and have him open the case so that I could get the serial number and caliber of it. The jeweler had some interesting things to say after he opened it and had a look under the microscope. His first comment was that the watch had never been opened in the sixty year of its existence. He said it did need servicing as the oil was pretty much dried up, but that it was the most pristine Omega he had ever seen of that age. We took a few pictures, he attached the BOR and I was away like a shot to get back and do more research.



I can't tell you how pleased I was to find that it was made the same year I was born. True serendipity and makes it all the more precious to me.

I have only run across a couple of examples in all the web crawling I have done. Examples here (http://forums.watchuseek.com/f20/ne...constellation-cal-505-case-2852-a-788438.html) There are two shown on that website. One at the top which has had the dial redone and one at the bottom has holes in the lugs. I can find the index and hands set on other watches but almost always on Seamasters or if on Constellations, then the case is capped or the watch is a calendar, or both. The repainted dial example is the only one that may be the same as mine, in that it is not yellow gold and that it may not have holes through the lugs. I've read a couple of places that lugs without holes indicated solid gold, not capped or filled.



When I do a look up on the Omega database by caliber and other filters I come up with this for caliber 501/505 (https://www.omegawatches.com/en-us/watch-omega-constellation-omega-ck-2852), which indicates it's a Pie Pan dial, which mine clearly isn't or I come up with this for caliber 505 (https://www.omegawatches.com/en-us/watch-omega-seamaster-omega-ot-14368) which is a Seamaster. I'll be doing additional searching but if anyone has info on "holed" versus "non-holed" lugs and the relative scarcity of this type of dial along with pointers of where else to look or resources to increase my knowledge I'd be grateful.

My watch is precious beyond price to me and will remain with me for the rest of my life. I find the simplicity of its symmetricality so beautiful. It is a constant reminder of the man who set the bar for generosity and integrity for me.



Happy father's day dad, and to all of you who are father's or who have had one.

Best to all


John

 

What a fantastic watch and even better story! Get it serviced right away before wearing it if it has never had a service and then enjoy the hell out of your wonderful heirloom!

By the way, great first newbie post and even added an avatar to boot!

 

great story and nice watch

 

Excellent heirloom! Welcome to ΩF John.

 

Beautiful watch and story!

 

That's a great watch and an even better story - couldn't be better

Funnily enough, I've just acquired a slightly later version of your watch: https://omegaforums.net/threads/took-a-chance-on-an-interesting-constellation.77262/

It has the same golden markers as yours, but a line of text less and different hands. If you look at the other Constellation I show in the thread you'll notice that it has the same type of hands as yours; Omega is known for their large output of different varieties of the same base design so it is common to have difficulties finding an exactly similar version of the one you have yourself.

Welcome on OF, hope you'll enjoy it here.

 

Hi and welcome to the forum @JFreemanR

Thanks for sharing your story. Nice to see the watch remained in the family.

 

Great story and beautiful watch!

 

Thank you (and everyone else) for the feedback. Congratulations on your find. That is a beautiful watch. I especially like the two tone band. What is the model number on that?

B/R

 

Being serviced right now. Thank you for the advice.

B/R

 

The model number on the leather strap? Or the watch? Or the bracelet it came on?

No idea / 2852-16 / POS aftermarket that scratched the lugs!

 

It is heartwarming hearing how much a watch from your father means to you. I'm getting up there in age and I have been planning watch purchases now with the intent of giving them to my sons and grandson when the time is right. I don't know the right time to do this, but after hearing your reaction when your father gave it to you, I know putting the giving in my will is not the way to go. Sincere thanks for sharing this.