Hello all,

Got my hands on this extremely rare Omega commemorating the XVI Olympic Games (1956 Melbourne) with the Olympic emblem of merit on it.

It's a beautiful and very unique piece however, one thing that I'm concerned about is the colors in the dial.

From all the pictures I've seen online of this watch, the rings should be multi-colored or a red color. And the lion below the rings in a triangle with no background color.

However, with the piece I have now the rings have no color and the lion is in a red triangle

Any thoughts would be appreciated!!








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There are rare pieces. The dial has definitely been repainted, based on the T Swiss Made T writing.

Also, I've never seen that style of crown before? Can you take a photo of the crown?

 

Here you go


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Well it has TT markings but I can't see any tritium so that may suggest redial? Caseback is clearly original though so maybe the colour scheme was mixed up when repainted.

 

Calling @mac_omega

Also have a look at this thread https://omegaforums.net/threads/please-help-with-olympic-seamaster.34533/#post-389230

 

Rare watch, my take is the dial is a restoration job (but an old one) based on the things you have identified and the giveaway that it is marked T - Swiss Made - T, which would have appeared on dials post 1964 (wish) I would say the dial is an old restoration so my advice would be to send it to one of the artisan restorers and get it done properly. As you dont need to work about specifics of script on this dial (as the Omega logo and text are applied markers) it should come back very well.

Case and case back show a little wear but not a lot so all in a really nice watch (dependant on what you paid of course )

I'm sure the experts will chime in soon but that is my two penneth for what its worth

 

Thanks for the two cents. No restorers out here in Dubai. Any recommendations?


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There is a thread where someone has 10 or so of these. Quick look couldn't find it


Why do they always over-polish the lugs on these ( not as easy with 18k gold to keep as nice but )
Not a Olympic but unpolished lugs

 

Bill

You have a good point, lets wait and see if one of our Uber collectors can ping in with (as you say) 10 examples

 

Rare?

 

I think the OP has one of the 100 pre-commercial prototypes that were done with different variations of the colored rings, 5 colors considered the rarest. They appear to all be raised or embossed Cross of Merit dials. The article goes on to say that Omega did not have the rights to use the Cross of Merit logo and recalled all of the watches. They later came out with the version with just the XVI on the dial. There is also another different dial on Chrono24 considered a prototype.(see link under picture)

https://www.deployant.com/omega-seamaster-xvi-olympic-watch/



http://www.chrono24.com/omega/seamaster-xvi-cross-of-merit-full-set-prototype--id3259179.htm

 

So in your opinion this is not a redial job?


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I never said that, just that according to the Deployant article, there appear to be several different dial variations used on the 100 pre-commerical prototypes. Unfortunately, they all are marked Swiss Made on the dial, so the T's are questionable. The last link with a completely different dial even has an Extract (which does not mention the dial). I am just trying to point out the difference in the embossed logo's vs the painted one.

 

I'm fairly convinced it has had work done to it, as looking through a loupe there's also a bit of white paint where it shouldn't be.


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Not a great example... lugs are rounded quite a lot, and there is a heavily worn case back center as usual - 18K is too soft to stand regular wear, so the fine details disappear very fast, it does not need any polish wheel...

The tell tale is in the details of the lion (fur, paws, crown) and the olympic flame.

This is how a crisp case back is expected to look like:



for comparison the back of the OP´s watch:



Can you see the difference?

The dial restoration is obvious and is awful - it is not easy to have them redone properly, believe me, I have seen plenty of bad results yet!

The crown is completely wrong.

And I think the hands are pink gold - or are my old eyes fooling me?

The second original SWISS version of the crest dial looks the same but has the olympic rings in the correct 5 colors - this is considered the most uncommon dial - I think in this case it can be called "rare"

AFAIK all the other "crest dials" are either later Asian products (Thailand if I recall correctly) or blatant fakes.
The Thai dial versions are on different movements not the cal 471

So forget the "prototypes" - there is so much BS on the web...

 

This one sold here in Sweden last year.
https://auctionet.com/sv/394302-arm...atisk-boett-18k-guld-1955-1956/images#image_2

 

Still a very cool piece of history.