Grey Dial Seamaster DeVille 166.020

Most vintage Seamaster DeVilles, ref 135.020/136.020 (manual without and with date) and ref 165.020/166.020 (automatic without and with date) come with Ivory or silver dials. Most are sunburst but lovely textured or linen type dials can also be found.

Of course black dial SMDV’s can also found and due to the popularity of the Don Draper watch, these are highly sought after and hard to find. None more so than the version with crosshairs @seekingseaquest.

I didn’t realise until recently that just the the Seamaster 600, SMDV’s could also be found with grey dials. I never quite managed to find a SM600 with grey dial at a reasonable price but recently saw this DeVille in a UK auction. The pictures weren’t great but thankfully more were provided via email. Clearly the hands were wrong as they were rose gold coloured rather than simply yellow tone. Nevertheless I put in my bid and won before dispatching it straight to STS in the hope they had some correct hands. Thankfully they did and it arrived back this morning. Interestingly the dial has a blue/grey look in the auction pictures and under some artificial light, but appears wholly grey in natural light.

Auction pics


Post Servicing



Do any other members have similar grey or blue dialled SMDV’s?

Actually most/all of the examples I’ve found have been in the UK or from UK sellers, so I wonder if this was a UK dial. Similar to some of the Arabic dials.

Lovely watch. Definitely worth getting it serviced I’d say!

I found mine from a UK seller, so +1 on it probably being a UK model. Also, mine came in a 9ct Dennison case.

Have you got a picture?

Here are similar examples I’ve found, all seem to be from the UK (I removed this from my original post as it seemed quite cluttered with pictures).

It's the watch in the ebay listing from the last picture on the post you made after this one.

Welcome. Looks like a 165.020 with blue/grey dial. What else are you wanting to know?

Better pictures are needed to confirm that the dial is original.

I’d say it appears original with the exception of the hands which look like replacements.
You’d need the serial number from the movement to give an approximate year but I’d say a couple of years after ‘62. Value around £500-800 depending on condition/quality of service.

Can you be more specific - what do you want to know?

These usually came with silver dials, rarely black and possibly even rarer in blue/grey. Ultimately this reference and other similar ones came with a huge variety of dials, both in terms of texture, minute marker style, colour etc.