Greetings, First off, let me tell you how surprised and pleased I was to find this community. I wish I had known about this site years ago. I was hoping to call upon the extensive knowledge I've seen already, and hope I'm not making any faux pas by immediately asking for your advice. I have the Constellation Automatic shown below (if I linked the picture right). I. love. this. watch. because it's two-toned and has a square face. Trouble is, my buddy loves it too, and I'm afraid to turn my back on him when it's around. Neither of us are collectors, btw. I found one very similar to this on eBay five years ago, ahead of his 50th birthday. I put my bid in, prepared to go as high as what similar watches had sold for. After three bids, the seller shut me out and disallowed any contact from me for reasons I cannot explain. My only suspicion is that I did not have enough of a buying history or of buying expensive enough items, because my eBay ratings were all very good. So I missed getting him the watch for his 50th. Now, his 55th is approaching (August!). I'd like to try again, and I'd really like your advice. From where should I attempt to buy a watch very much like my own? It doesn't have to be eBay, of course. I do see this almost identical one which might fit the bill, with the only problem that I can detect being a loose band (again, I'm not a collector so I may be missing other problems here): http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-14K...2766&clkid=5568815865112012054&_qi=RTM2247625Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network I've seen all-stainless and all-gold versions of this watch, but it's the two-tone that I really want. By the way, the minute hand on my example is somehow off by 30 minutes, so I wear the watch upside-down. Don't judge me! -katapaltes
You might also ask one of our Dallas Texas area members for advise on who to take your watch to to get the hands sorted out
No pictures of the movement - be careful. A good place to learn more about these is Desmond's blog at http://omega-constellation-collectors.blogspot.com/2011/01/omega-constellation-3680852-good-buy.html. (I have a stainless steel one, and wish I'd read Desmond's blog before I bought it, because mine has a 1001 movement and is polished. Still, I'm wearing it today and I love it.)