These include "skeleton" "art deco" "pilots" and any other description of Omega watch that is 48-52mm or thereabouts in size and manual winding. These watches are often claimed as legitimate Omega vintage pieces, the reality is that they are made the following way: A cheap, common, old Omega pocket watch movement is serviced to the point of running, and regulated. Some sort of cheesy decoration or art-work is done, in some cases they are "skeletonized" in other words, someone drills holes in the movement and dial and does some engraving work to make it look the part, in other cases they draw really large numerals and claim they were pilot's watches, in other cases they use abstract designs to make them look "art-deco" period. A cheap, stainless steel case with lugs for attaching a strap or bracelet is used as the case for the movement. A cheap strap is added. Finally the watch is put on ebay, or sold online in some other way. To make it clear, from a collector's perspective, these watches are junk, even if the movement is an Omega movement, the moment you start engraving OMEGA into bridges, writing OMEGA on dials that were never made by Omega, and selling them as a vintage oddity, you are defrauding the public with a counterfeit product. PLEASE if you are considering one of these, or anything else that you are unsure of, create a thread and ask someone for assistance before spending your money. The following are examples of these junk frank-Omegas:
Maurnavy, this guy right here: http://myworld.ebay.com/maurnavy/?_trksid=p4340.l2559 Is one example of a seller doing this. As is this guy: http://myworld.ebay.com/originaldeal2009/?_trksid=p4340.l2559 And this idiot: http://myworld.ebay.com/abv1224/?_trksid=p4340.l2559 As a general rule, if you're buying a vintage Omega from ANYONE in the Ukriane, just don't.
In addition, one of these jokers took it upon himself to blackmail one of our members after she asked for her money back: http://omegaforums.net/threads/bestwatch24-com-avoid.430/
The above advice sums it up. If I had $1 for every time I saw somebody get hosed on one of these Ukrainian abominations I'd have my annual servicing budget covered. The ONLY thing that's accurate in the descriptions in these listings is the word "unique" - and that's because nobody else has mashed this combination together since they didn't have enough junk parts that are the right size to create a frankenstein exactly like it. If you feel like gambling with your money, go to Vegas. You'll have much better odds. PLEASE ask here before you purchase!
Just my 2 cents every now and then a legit vintage piece does come about. an interesting read: http://www.qualitytyme.net/pages/rolex_articles/history_of_wristwatch.html
FYI, I'm reporting these communist made pieces of crap to eBay and they do seem to be taking them down. There are a lot of them though so feel free to contribute to the effort.
Our Ukrainian friend has also started doing JLC versions: http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMAZING-JAE...5877931?pt=Pocket_Watches&hash=item53eba7082bPurchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mens-BEAUTI...stwatches&hash=item27c46d87b7#ht_10146wt_1190Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network
Awesome, I know its impossible to stop them entirely but making their lives difficult is a public service.
Nice work guys making people aware of these pieces of crap. They do make these watches look attractive and by putting on a $500 price tag this dupes people into thinking they are buying an expensive, vintage watch, if they where priced at $29.99 people wouldn't bother buying them... a double con !!. good thread Ashley.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mens-COLLEC...799998721?pt=Wristwatches&hash=item27c4792701Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network Mother of god...