Help a newbie authenticate these eBay Vintage Omega's please?

dsio

Notice how the "S" In Seamaster is smudged and has a big blotch in it, and the dial has T Swiss Made T on it, implying its tritium, but it has no lume? That's because its a junk grade watch slapped together in a South American chop shop (note the seller's location).

U ulackfocus

Don't buy from that seller unless you plan on putting a few hundred extra into the watch to fix it. You might not need to, but you also could have to pay a watchmaker to repair something like a glued on second hand. First hand experience, not speculation.

dsio

Which blemishes on which watch?

NT931

Hmm, if you eliminate all the cal 1000s, there arent many left. To help the OP, is watch #7 (the cal 565) a redial? It looks too new, although I don't know enough about the fonts to tell.

dsio

There's lume missing on the hour hand, its probably unstable and falling out, the other lume plots are partially there, the obvious marks are probably on the crystal.

John R Smith

I'd be rather wary of watch #7. I think the dial looks OK, but there are no photos of the movement and the seller has some poor feedback which does not inspire confidence. He also gets the date rather wrong - it's not a 1950s watch but 1960s.

dsio

Yea, but then you're paying another $200-300 for a watchmaker to service a watch that isn't even worth the $300 you initially paid for it.

NT931

Illition, have you had a chance to check out the Watch Sales subforum here? There are nice vintage watches there worth looking at, sold by reliable members.

dsio

Trouble is if you buy a junk watch you'll then have to spend that $200-300 fixing it at a watchmaker, and then you're $500-600 into a watch that's worth almost nothing, while if you spend $600 on a watch that's decent, when you go to sell it you'll get your money back and maybe even make a small profit if you keep it a year or two.