I recently bought a circa 1971 movement and case which was sold as clearly "needing service". I paid ~ $1800 and thought I was doing okay. Unfortunately, it needed another ~$1800 to get it properly serviced so it was in proper running condition. Now, the seller was honest and so no problem there. My point is in no way a criticism of the seller, or of the service cost, simply pointing out that a properly serviced watch is worth a lot more than how people value them.

Side note: the level of dishonesty is so prevalent in the watch community that people completely ignore and discount the value of a properly serviced watch (because apparently no watch seller and service provider can be trusted...). Incredible to me how a $4000 item with a possible $0 to $2000 hidden needed cost of service is simply removed from consideration.

 

Congratulations on buying a watch you like @Emiliodk - and welcome to the forum.
I hope you understand that members here are just trying to look out for your best interests- not because anyone knows you, but because there are so many shady dealers out there that give the hobby a bad reputation and the goal is to educate anyone who comes here looking for advise.
A couple points that I think are very important (albeit moot now that you have already purchased it) :

Did the seller provide you with the serial number on the movement (not the reference number on the case)? Sometimes a seller will guess at the year the watch was produced and not actually verify the serial number or order an extract of archives from Omega which will tell you exactly when and where it was delivered originally. Even without an extract, you can get close with just the serial. Normally most don't really care, but since you specifically bought this as a birth-year watch, I would ask the seller how he verified the year of production.

Secondly -what is this dealer's idea of a "full service". So often watches are listed for sale as "serviced", but all the seller did (if they even have any experience working on watches) was oil the balance and reset the timing to get it closer to accurate. Sure it will be running when you get it, and may even run well for years, but that doesn't mean it was properly serviced (full strip-down, cleaning, replacement of worn parts, replacement of crown and seals, oiling, retiming etc) and continuing to run the watch on dried up oils and worn parts will end up causing more problems down the line.
If the seller is using a watchmaker for service, then he should be able to provide you with an invoice for the service which details the parts that were replaced, the verification of a pressure test, and the stats for the running condition of the watch. If the seller said he "serviced it himself", then I would be very skeptical of the service unless he is a trained watchmaker, and if so- I would want to read reviews or get referrals for his service work, not just sales referrals. If he said notparts were replaced, then he didn't do a service. At the minimum the mainspring, crown and gaskets should all have been done.
Genuine factory Omega parts are now limited to only watchmakers with parts accounts, so if the watchmaker used to service this watch (or the seller himself if he said he serviced it) does not have a parts account, it is questionable wether the service was done to factory spec.

Again, congrats on the watch-it looks lovely

 

We expect pictures of this watch on your wrist when you get it.

Actually I thought you would be a TAG guy.

 

lets see !!!

 

My partner failed to gift me this for years, so I decided to move up in the big league.

 

Will post once its here! Still haven't paid but watch is reserved for me.

 

Then in that case, I would ask for proof of service and verification of the serial number to ascertain date of manufacture. Since 99% of your decision to buy it has been predicated on those two points, I think it’s worth being totally sure.

 

Thank you - and thank you for these inputs. I haven't purchased just yet, but it is reserved for me.

I have not asked for the serial number, so I just did so! Many thanks for this. I need the watch to either be 1990 as mentioned or 1992 due to personal reasons. Thanks!

The seller gave the following service: Oiling, resetting time, mainspring and gasket replacements "and more" which I was I could translate the Italian to. The seller is a friend of my uncles, which also gives me a better gut feeling about the whole purchase. I will ask about an invoice of the said service carried out, as I do believe he is a certified Omega dealer/service store.

Thanks once again. Will keep this thread updated.

 

Good points for sure. I just send the request regarding these. Thank you!

 

The friend of uncle is a valuable connection and is worth paying a little more since he is a seller that is known to someone you trust. If he can provide an invoice on letterhead to the service and parts replaced, that will be of great value to you if you do decide to sell it and “upgrade” as you have documentation of the work. Serious collectors won’t add value to a watch based on a seller saying “was serviced a few years ago by a guy I know”...in fact that may have the opposite effect on value.

 

Yeah that makes very good sense. The watch is solely to be worn by me for the next 18 years and then I want my coming son to inherit it, so I reckon it won’t be sold for many, many years. I will still ask the seller to provide some sort of written info detailing the service made. Thanks for your inputs again, I really appreciate it.

 

Seller says serial number of movement is 31616xxx and he may suspect it’s a 1993 model now.. anyone who can confirm it’s a 1993 then?

 

This does NOT sound like a full service to me. You want it to say that the entire movement was completely disassembled to its constituent parts, cleaned ultrasonically, and reassembled with proper lubrication. This sounds like a very basic half-hearted "tune-up" service, and you should expect to service it again in a couple of years.

Read this: https://www.omegawatches.com/en-us/...s-and-prices/main-steps-of-a-complete-service

 

Thank you very much

 

Can you double-check that number. It corresponds to 1971.

 

I will check again. I know he has many Speedmasters so he may have got it confused. Is this website trustworthy? https://mentawatches.com/omega-speemaster-serial-numbers/

 

I've been told to use this: https://www.ilovemyspeedmaster.com/productiondateprediction/

 

As long as you're happy with the price that's all that matters! Congrats on the watch!

 

The ‘91 I have is 48257XXX and this gives us a March 1990. In the ballpark of being sold in ‘91

hey what do you know, I have your birth year speedy. To bad it isn’t for sale.......

 

Your case shows a 48302036 serial. It is in the pictures after all. October 1993 according to the predictor.
Thing are not adding up here. Even Gus F would be wary.