Hey all,

It's my lady's birthday coming up shortly and wanted to get her a vintage Omega. Something unique and unusual.

I was recently at my watchmaker shop picking up something and he happened to show me a costumer's watch. I don't have a picture of if but it was form the 20's, lovely 30mm sterling silver cushion case. Fixed 20mm wire lugs. It was perfect and exactly what I wanted for her... but the guy found it for $50 at a thrift shop or something and he was having it fixed for his lady.

Since then I have been looking for some thing like that... until now. Can you experts chime in?
The seller is asking for $450. Probably can negotiate a bit. However the seller is in Romania!

Pursue or Walk away!

Thanks guys, appreciate it!

 

Pretty attractive piece indeed!

I am shy when it comes to international sellers. It's to the point where I can almost identify the country of origin of an eBay listing from the photos. Too often something is amiss. I myself am too wary of the frankens fakes and redials coming out of South America, Eastern Europe, and Asia to risk it.

Returning an item to those countries can be a headache too, so your recourse is hindered as well. Just my opinion

 

I hear you cimo... exactly why I haven't pull the trigger!

 

When i see seller location is Romania, I run away fast...

 

Interesting piece but 450$ is too much. Also, should this watch have a marked omega crown ?

 

First, are you sure this something she will enjoy or are you projecting your interest?
Second, nice looking watch but from what I see of the world at-large, not terribly in fashion, this may be an issue.
Third, are you sure a mechanical is compatible with her interest and lifestyle. Winding a watch each morning is routine for me (and like day and date watches much less rotating all the time), if it won't be a daily wear watch you are adding to the morning routine, if it is a daily wear automatic then not so much. Yeah it's not a lot of time each day but it is a routine disruption.
Fourth point, consider a men's watch circa 1950-1969 most of the men's dress watches in that era are relatively small by today's standards and smaller than some of the more outrageous women's watches today and modestly larger than the typical. Seamasters, Constellations, and any number of Longiness off the top of my head would make great watches for women. If not for the size strap on my Seamaster, my wife would have snagged mine.

 

^ this right here. Also, maybe a tonneau/rectangle shaped watch ? They're in style even with men nowadays.

 

Good advice on here, I offered to purchase a nice vintage manual wind piece for my wife and she politely declined. No matter how nice it looks, she doesn't want to worry about winding it every day.

 

arkstfan... I see you have definitely given my inquiry a lot of thought, BRAVO! You bring up very good and valid points which not only apply to me but anyone who is planning to gift a mechanical watch to their better halves that involves a bit of finger grease.

My wife actually is a vintage watch convert. It started with my Gallet chronograph which I happily passed on to her which she wears in rotation my NOMOS and Seamaster 30 which are all manual wound along with her fashion watches. So, that takes care of the morning routine/winding bit. Also I happened to snap a pic of the watch I saw at my watchmaker's which she happen to see when she was handling my phone and I distinctly remembered she liked the look if it. Now, the numerals on that watch we more blocky but had the same case style. So that makes me relatively confident that she would happy receiving this.

I agree with the 50s and 60s watches would be good size and look for her. I guess it's up to me to decide what avenue to pursue!
Thanks!

 

No expert here but one that I would had already snatched if in the market for a vintage piece to fit my wife's tiny wrist...

https://omegaforums.net/threads/seamaster-st-2828-cal-470.37765/

 

H @tictictoc
I'm posting here my reply I wrote on a similar thread.
Good luck with finding a nice gift!
https://omegaforums.net/threads/what-are-your-thoughts-on-this-as-a-gift.34096/page-2#post-385596

 

im fairly sure she will hate that watch...

women and vintage watches are quite often like water and oil

(been there before)

 

very cool watch, but romania is iffy.

 

Good advice! The man speaks from experience! Make sure its something that she'd want and appreciate, otherwise even if the deal goes smoothly, you'll have a piece that sits in the drawer.

Also looking at the photos, whats up with the wire lugs, the top left and bottom left corner of your first and last photo they look sort of bent. It could just be the angle of the photo.

 

One of the wire was soldered I think, and yes they are slightly uneven. But what can you expect from such an old time piece...

 

Great, don't mind if you do. Less competition for me.

 

My reply has nothing to do with the watch in question or the way it will be appreciated as a gift, since his only real question is directed to the item's location.

If a watch is well-described, comes from someone with significant past positive feedback and pictures are good enough to show any imperfections I wouldn't worry that much about returning it, since both eBay and PayPal almost exclusively work in favor of the buyer, irrespective of the seller's location.

Just out of pure curiosity (being a Romanian also adds to my repulsion towards this kind of "progressive western thinking"); how many of you were actually conned by Romanian buyers/sellers?

If I am to recall my personal experience with a few sellers and buyers from Italy, Germany, the US and the UK, I can easily give the same "run for your life" advice to a Nigerian fellow scammer: defective watches bought from all four countries, non-paying buyers from the last two, outright scamming attempts from the US (twice).

In short, my advice: always buy the seller; with all this misconceptions going around, if a seller from an "iffy" location managed to establish a name for him/herself then it's even more likely the transaction will go OK.

 

Hi,
I have this watch on sale. I know it does not have the same look, but I would be glad to sel,l if by any chance she likes it.
Kind regards and good luck in you quest.

https://omegaforums.net/threads/1970s-omega-de-ville-jeux-dargent-offers-ok.33985/

 

I must add that I bought this watch with the same idea you had but was rejected by Madame.