My wife has an elderly friend who recently gave my wife what appears to be a 1957 Seamaster 300 (see photos). The watch has been in a drawer since 1980. My wife's friend purchased the watch for her father in 1979, but her father unfortunately died in 1980. She purchased the watch from a jeweler in Santa Fe, New Mexico who had it in stock for about 10 years. The jeweler obtained the watch as part of a trade-in on a new watch from a customer around 1970. The provenance trail goes cold prior to 1970.

I am completely new to vintage watches but understand its quite common for numbers on the bezel of 1950s Omega Seamaster 300s to be missing.

I would greatly appreciate any advice on where I could obtain a vintage replacement bezel with numbers intact for this watch. Thank you very much for your help.

 

If you don't want to sell it, I would put that in your listing or you will have more PMs than you know what to do with. If you are planning to sell it, I would review the forum rules regarding sales.

 

Vintage replacement is $7k - 10k. When available

 

Thank you for the advice. I do not plan to sell the watch, but would like to restore it to its original condition.

 

Wow! That is a lot for a vintage bezel, but thank you for helping me with the information.

 

Need to work on posting with quotes.

 

Could be worse.
A NOS type bezel for a Speedmaster of that era is double.

 

What is the best approach for finding a replacement bezel---eBay?, this forum?

 

eBay, until you have 200 posts under your belt. Then, this site.

 

If an established member (aka > 200 posts) offers one for sale, you are welcome to message the seller member.

 

OK....I will keep my eye out for an offer from a established member. Thank you for your help.

 

Aldo in Italy will restore very well about 12 months wait but well worth it if you’re not in a rush,
Been in a drawer for 30 years so maybe there’s your answer

 

Thank you. I went to their website, and it looks like a good solution. However, will this have a negative effect on the value of the watch since it is a modern fix to a vintage watch?

 

There was a replacement bezel which had been refurbished on eBay not that long ago. They don’t come up that often but it was much cheaper than an original bezel. I think it went for around £2000.

There’s a chap called Aldo who refurbishes them to a good standard.