Hey guys. Since you were so helpful with my father-in-law's ST145.022, I've got another one for you. My friend sent me this pic of a crazy Speedmaster, which is clealry a Mark...something. But I can't figure it out at all...



At first we thought it was a Mark III. But that case is all wrong. Chronomaddox's Mark Series page (http://www.chronomaddox.com/MarkSeries.html) shows a similar case with a Mark III(b) "Seamaster" style, but those say "Automatic" under the Omega and not to the left of the date window like this one. And I found images of a Speedmaster Mark III(a) with that dial, but the case is totally different. And no white bezel.

I happened across this image in a Google image search:



And it's also pretty close...except for the fact that it's actually a Seamaster! (And no "Automatic" next to the date window.)

So, what do you say, Omega experts? What is this?

 

Case is ref. 176.007, same as in photo 2. Dial is the later professional dial for a Mark III (176.002) which had as you said, a different case. Omega made 7 case shapes for cal. 1040 and 27 dials. (8 cases and 28 dials if you count cal. 1041). Each case had certain dials that were options or variants that were originally installed on the watches, but the dials are all compatible with all the other cases. Over time, Omega has discontinued all but 9 dials and so many unexpected variants pop up from time to time either unintentionally or intentionally.

Here's a guide I created to help me (and others) keep track: https://omegaforums.net/threads/an-encyclopedia-of-omega-cal-1040-and-1041-dials.36789/

 

Amazing! Great guide, too @Andy K.

 

Hit the nail on the head

 

I yield to @Andy K in his knowledge of 1040 Omega's, but I'll add that I've never come across a blue Mk III dial without the tritium T's on either side of 'swiss made' that wasn't a service dial. It stands to reason that this is 'simply' a 176.007 whose metallic blue dial was replaced during service with a mk III one (that looks very similar).

The reason I suspect this is because I have been scouring the net for a while for an original metallic blue 007 dial, but all I seem to find are these mk III dials.

 

I just can't get enough of these steel c-cases 176.007's... If I could I'd have them all. The 1040/1041 layout looks SO good in this case, with the 70's colors... they're awesome Same about the speedy/seamaster confusion, though