Brown Dial 2998 Just Sold in London

At bonhams, listing here, sold for 21,500 sterling incl Hammer.

This is about $28,500

Was it a good deal?



Well it has the wrong hands, the wrong bezel, a misfit pusher, and the wrong bracelet. Wrong crown too but thats easy to fix..

The dial is correct for a 2998-1/2 with small indices on the right subdial, and a round O Omega. The plots are what I call algae and I must say I do avoid them. The dial itself looks "Dry" - note the presence of white around the subdials. Otherwise the print is intact.

What is that colour? I think its a heavily photo shopped photo. here is another shot:



The photo above is a bit greener and I suspect more true to life. The plots are dirty and look more natural in this photo than the headline photo. So yes its a tropical dial, BUT is it attractive? The short answer is that I think it could have charm at a certain price.

More shots here:



The tops of the lugs are all blurred considerably.



The case back seems as though it might have lost some definition.




The inner back shows a lot of watchmakers marks, which explains all the added parts.



The movement is surprisingly good after all that work:



My feeling is this watch is going to take a bit of cash to get to correct specification, but the dial may have been what has drawn the buyer to it.

I have some reservations about the dial. I do not think it is as brown or attractive as we might hope. The other photos lead me to think its a bit decayed, rather than a nice warm brown. However I hope that I am wrong and that the buyer will pop up here with decent photos.

On a side note, with so many of us able now to produce photos of watches better than the auctions, why the hell cant they learn? This is our hobby, but this is their business. I am stunned by how bad these photos are in todays day and age.

The case is polished so that the case back has lost some definition to the steps on the back.

The DO90 is not correct for a 2998, but has some value.

Finding hands for this watch is going to be a challenge, though not as much as a challenge to find the right bezel.

It's as though intentional keeping them blurry and without definition will make the buyer think there's a gem there behind all the pixels.
Adding to the "barn find" auction charm?

It’s getting to the stage where the main photo is bordering on misrepresentation.

Based on the first picture my gut reaction was “that’s glowing to come up lovely”, and then in sinks in somewhat after a few seconds, closely followed by the other pictures and I started to think “hmm I’m a bit nervous for the buyer now if they weren’t able to view in person”.

As with all bezels, Base1000’s vary in quality and price. Different styles as well.