Help, new member needs help identifying missing caseback.

Greetings all, this is my first post and my first vintage Omega.

For a multitude of reasons I finally decided to bite the bullet and get myself an Omega. My budget isn't going to stretch to what I might like... but that doesn't mean that I don't like vintage watches, in fact the more time I spent researching older Omegas the more the new models started to seem rather gaudy to me.

I'm still looking for a black dial seamaster of some sort (I hear that's a bit of a minefield), but I saw something I liked.
Not in the greatest condition, there a scratch on the dial, some corrosion (I think) on the hands (and after buying it, I'm wondering if the hands are actually matching? The lume on the hour is a very different shape to the minute hand).
And there's some dirt generally (and scratches on the crystal).
Overall it seemed an honest piece, it runs, I don't know how well it keeps time or how badly it needs a service. But it was a price that puts it in the 'nice watch to wear on the weekends' category for me.
(I'm of the 'only interested in watches I'll actually wear' type).
Its even got an original (maybe?) crown.
And I will say as someone who has only ever worn modern watches before... its TINY! I have a citizen eco-drive that's been my work watch for probably 20 years, which I though was small. Nope, these old seamasters are smaller! Although as a dress watch, I think I like that. As I get older, I get even less interested in huge flashy watches dangling about.

Oh... one thing.

No, nothing wrong with the movement (other than dirt), at least not to my educated by a few hours of youtoob and a bunch of assumptions 'cause I'm a dead smart engineer and design fiddly complicated stuff for both fun and money eye... /s

No, its that there is no caseback!
Bargain for me!
Bit of a risk...

But after all this carrying on. I was curious if people could suggest how I go about identifying a correct caseback? (I was tempted by an aftermarket crystal back, but they don't fit over a 501 movement apparently (ok ok, I'm sure they are considered sacrilege by many).

And I'll be slapping on a black leather strap for now. I had a look at the price of nice stainless Omega straps, and getting a grains of rice strap would double my investment so far!

Thanks in advance for any help people can offer!

Nice pickup but that's a shame about the caseback. It is definitely a risk with the missing caseback and it will be a project that fully sends you down the vintage rabbit hole 😉 believe me. I agree with Dan and you should scour OF and see what comes up. There are several threads on stainless cases and gold furniture examples like yours as well. Since it's a caliber 501 that narrows it down to between 1955-1960. I'd wager it's probably early 1960 but someone will come up with the definitive answer. Welcome also and feel free to share your other watches 😀

Thanks for the welcome!

And the S/N starts with a 16. The Watch Standard tells me that makes the movement at least is from '58.

I also checked the price of asking Omega to look it up... Annnd I'm not doing that.

Long term projects interest me a lot more than off the shelf!

And a quick Google turned up this:
https://www.omegaenthusiastltd.com/product-page/1958-omega-seamaster-automatic-2

The case proportions look correct, and the dimensions given are the same. It lists the case number as 14710-1 SC.

Does that sound right?

Also, was there really that much range in the case sizes when it comes to backs?

I wanted to follow up in case (ha!) anyone else gets into the same pickle and finds this thread.

Google helped me narrow the watch down to being maybe a 14710 or a 14700...

Then I found the Omega watch database. Here: https://omegaaddict.com/database
By searching Seamasters with 501 movements, I saw that its very similar (but not quite identical) to 2846 and 2848 cases (which seem to be identical cases, and must differ in some other way). Also similar to a 14729 (different lugs, but similar size). Oh, and it looks like the hands and crown are original!

More searching, and looking very closely at pictures I was able to eliminate some that were threaded differently (some casebacks have internal threads, some external), but basically was back at 14700 or 14710.

Thankfully there was a back for a 14700 on ebay... and after a lot of stressing about risking $80... it arrived today and fits just fine.

I'm still not sure if the watch is a 14700 or if the 14710 is an identical case with some other difference. But all things considered I feel lik I've done ok.
Now I just need to decide what (if any) steel strap to put on it. A genuine beads of rice would be really nice, but would cost as much as the watch did! But sadly getting a modern reproduction in 18mm with curved end-links seems close to impossible.

My Omega's on a shoestring adventure is going well!
Maybe I'll pickup a non-working one next time, I can't ruin it that badly can I? 😁

As someone who is currently DEEP in that particular rabbit hole, lets just say starting from a non-working one isn't something for a shoestring budget...

BUT it is an extremely rewarding experience when you do finally get it to run again.

The road to learning watchmaking is full of twists and turns, but a bit(lot) of research before you start to try and pull apart will help you no end, and also this very forum is full of supportive people who seem to know the answers and tricks to just about everything I've ever wondered to do with a vintage Omega.

With 90% certainty, I would say this is a 14710. I have a 14700 and it has a different movement and case profile.

The 14710 is a later version of the 2975, which had a snap back case. The 14710 was later succeeded by 165.010. There are some slight case variations over time, but they all have the same general case style.

That being said, if the movement dates to 1958, then I suspect that it could be a replacement because that more closely coincides with the 2975 production. Hard to definitely say, but just a thought that came to mind.

The case is definitely not a snap back, the 14700 back screws in perfectly. Its possible its a replacement movement, although I'd have expected fit issues if that was the case, the 501 movement is 1mm thicker than the 552, at least according to the bidfun DB. Maybe the improvement of the 14710 over the 2975 is the screw back? And no reason why they wouldn't have the same threads for cases with almost identical movements.

I wish there was a bit more rhyme and reason to the old numbering system, because it certainly looks like the 14700 is just a 14710 with a different movement. Maybe I'll feel rich one day and ask Omega to search.
If I ever see a 14710 caseback come up on fleabay I'll buy it and see if that fits too!

I very much want to service my own watches (partly because I have enough already that getting the quartz ones fitted with new batteries is a pain, especially when its hard to find people to actually do it). People seem to recommend starting working on pocket watches, specifically the cheap russian ones...
I happen to have one of those cheap russian pocket watches, given to me by my great grandfather some time in the mid to late 80's. No idea when he got it... but I just stripped it down, seems that it doesn't run because its not been serviced in at least 40 years!

With a bit of practice I might try looking at this one... which runs, but gains about 15 minutes a day. So yeah, needs a service.

I owned the 14700 and now own a 14701. That the 14700 case back fits does not surprise me but I'm also thinking 165.011 might be the right choice. It does not resemble the 14700 or 14701 in the slightest, however.

As most of these share the same crystal, it does not surprise me that they share the same caseback.