Something seems fishy... http://www.ebay.com/itm/GENTS-VINTA...134&pid=100015&prg=1006&rk=1&sd=120996306933&Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network The case reference is from 1962, but the seller claims it's a 1972 vintage. One can faintly make out the 601 on the movement, but the serial number is faint and appears to start with 26, which would seem to indicate a 1968 date. Thoughts?
Not sure, but my guess is that this watch is OK. Collectors sometimes have obsessions with manufacture dates of movements, like they are cars. This is usually not the case with watch companies. They rarely called a watch say, a 1972 Geneve or a 1964 Datejust. From what I can see, this particular cal. 601 movement has a serial number that would imply that it was manufactured in 1968. This may or may not be true. The base plate may have been made then, but there is no record of when the movement was assembled or delivered to the UK. The serial number tables we see from Omega and other sources generally track by the dates the serial numbers were assigned, not final delivery. Omega sometimes can supply this delivery information through their "Extract of the Archives". Also unclear is how long the assembled movement was sitting in Omega's finished goods inventory, or how long after delivery was the watch sitting with the distributor or in the store's retail inventory. It is not unusual to find 4 years or more lag time between the implied manufacture date based on the serial number tables and the actual final sale date. Hope this helps, gatorcpa
It seems to me that the case doesnt quite fit the dial, you cant see the Swiss Made at the bottom of the dial as it appears to be almost under the edge of the case. On my steel '68 Geneve you can easily see the T Swiss Made T but maybe the gold cases are different?
I think the placement of the "Swiss Made" is correct for this particular dial. There were several different dial styles used for this watch. Also, one needs to be careful in judging "head-on" pictures. Frequently the curvature of the crystal distorts the position of items printed at the edge of dials on vintage watches. Here's a similar example in a very unusual color: http://www.30t2.com/page1/genevebla.htm The owner has an absolutely brilliant collection of Omegas and if he says it's right, I believe him. gatorcpa
The crystal on this one simply has a wider than usual reflector ring which is simply covering part of the SWISS MADE, the dial design suits the case and appears to be completely correct.