Evening all Just bagged this little beauty on eBay, I am a sucker for a dial and this one is lovely, anyway, way look nice, case appears nice and sharp, movement looks good (16mil so 1958ish?) and the dial and hands look lovely........ BUT.......... is the case back wrong? The case back on it says 2852............... BUT........ no constellation etc on the reverse it just says waterproof???? Any help or advice welcome Thanks Tom
Just edited original post, bought it as saying wrong case back but then just looked again at the pics and it is stamped 2852 but on the case reverse there is no connie logo (I am still learning about connies, which is a steep curve)
I don't get it either. How can possibly the caseback be wrong, besides that it looks like it says 2852 in the picture above, since it's a snap-back, how is it fastened if it's the wrong lid??
Tom, I think it is the correct case back but it has been "machined" on a lathe after it had lost the medallion... just my 2 cents erich
Ah, well that explains that then! Why would someone do that? So basically I need to find a new 2852 14 back?? That will be easy....... not
Well it was a bloody great price so I am not going to moan, don't suppose anyone has a spare case back I could buy do they????
I've seen many casebacks on Connie's where the medallion is lost. On this one they made a "clever" cover up on that
You may have to keep an eye out for cheap 2852 with a half way decent back, most likely with a very bad dial and/or movement. They do occur on occasion, you will just have to keep looking.
The dial is in pretty decent condition, Movement looks OK. Regarding the caseback, it is possible that this one was sold through the awards division? I've seen Constellations (mostly 2nd generation cal. 55X/56X, as above) without the medallion that were meant to be presentation watches. This could be one of those watches. Perhaps the original engraving was polished off? I'm just thinking that the depression where the medallion would have fallen out would be relatively deep. I think they would need to grind it right down to the "Waterproof" engraving to even it out. It would look very strange and your watch looks perfectly normal other than the outside of the caseback. Hope this helps, gatorcpa
gatorcpa Thats really helpful, thanks a million, I must admit I am very please with it! Along with tonight other naughty little purchase, which was another eBay bargain, I love Omega 28.9's, as those in the know are aware they are like hens teeth and Lemania branded ones are equally as rare, imagine how pleased I was when this popped up with a BIN that was simply too good to turn down Cal 28.9 T2, very rare SS case variation and just look at that dial
If the caseback bends with finger pressure then Erich may be right. If not and feels thick then maybe Gator is right.
My first thought was the possibility of it being an awards watch as Gator mentioned. I cannot support this since I have never seen one like it from this period. Would be interesting to measure distance of "waterproof" from the bevel of case back on your watch compared to another 2852 with medallion intact. In the picture Hijak posted, there appears to be more space between "waterproof" and the bevel of case back.