First time buyer ...

Hi guys. I've been wanting to get myself a vintage omega for a while now and finally ready to pull the trigger. My budget is around. £700 (850 USD) and really want something I can source locally in the UK.

Ideal world I would like SM or Constellation with original glass, crown and dial, automatic from the 60's/70's in reasonable condition but realise ticking all these boxes for my budget might be a tall order.

This will be a watch I wear daily and intend to get it serviced if it hasn't been don't recently.

I've found the below which to my untrained eye seems like a nice watch for £750.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/22529134...oFB2khWTZ6&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

The exception with this is the glass is not original but comes with original bracelet with the exception of some links near the clasp.

There is also this example which is a bit out of budget but could put an offer in nearer my budget. Below is £940.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/36408139...oFB2khWTZ6&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Dial could be repainted as no apparent patina? But case looks to have some more wear which I'm fine with.

So my question really is is there anything glaring obvious that I'm missing and do they seem relatively good value? Thanks in advance for any advice. Ollie

As usual I advise browsing in the for sale section of this forum. Here you will get an authentic watch without much mystery involved in the purchase. There are plenty of UK based members who should post something to your liking in short time.

Agree with the comments above and a question for you.

The two watches are quite different, are you buying to your budget? If so it might be wise to take a step back and decide what you really want, metal, dial colour, hardware style, band type. The reason being you might grab one and realise later that it is not exactly what you want, this may be ok for starting a collection but that may not be where you want to go?

In any case welcome and good luck with the hunt!

Thanks for the feedback. I will keep an eye on this site for any that might come up that might be in better condition than those posted for still within my budget.

In terms of choosing what I like, I like both styles of watches I posted.

Noted the advice on including images and price going forward as well.

Welcome to the forum Bluenoze.

I am U.K. based (London) and will keep an eye out for anything that might be suitable for you. As others have said, the private sales area on this forum, really is the best place for you to find a good, honest vintage Omega.

I would start by narrowing down one or two references that you like, then research them. Look at old for sale ads (use the search function). That way you can study lots of images of similar examples and work out what a good one looks like, compared to a redial, or over-polished one.

Keep your eye on this thread:

https://omegaforums.net/threads/rec...-not-for-inquiries.1790/page-353#post-2099741

and also on the ‘learn how to fish’ thread.

hope that helps.

My advice for your first time buyer of a vintage watch is to find a stainless steel version and not a gold plated one.

If the bracelet on the first one would have been correct, that would have been a pretty good buy, IMHO. But not only is the bracelet not correct for that watch, it's not the right bracelet for that clasp. 1153/138 is an integrated bracelet for a Geneve Dynamic, if I understand correctly. And I think the 50 end links typically are found on an 8260 bracelet. I'm not sure what the bracelet in the listing is (not 8260, though). You could maybe sell the parts individually, but I don't you'd get the ~200£ needed to get the correct bracelet. So in addition to the great advice above, I'd say research the details of a watch you like to see if everything seems appropriate. I knew none of the details I wrote above before doing a little digging on eBay and on this forum minutes ago. A great way to search this forum is in Google, type "site: omegaforums.net " followed by whatever you're looking for (e.g. "50 endlinks")

My Geneve Dynamic has 1153/138 stamped on the bracelet.