Hello, I am hoping I may be able to get some information on this watch. It was my grandfathers watch but I am afraid he struggles to recall the full story behind it. Essentially he thinks (his eyesight is gone so he cannot recognise one watch from another) he had this watch as he trained as an RAF pilot. He crashed a plane and the watch was damaged. It was reapired by a French/Swiss friend at some stage later. So I have no idea if all the parts are original nor where he got it from (or even if its a mans watch). My intention is to get the glass replaced and the watch serviced (although its still running) hence me half changing the strap to a black leather one. Ash
Watch looks correct to me, except that the dial was harshly cleaned at one point and lost the Omega logo in the process. Most Omegas with a 23,4 SC movement (which is what I think this is) are called "Medicus". http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&&2uswk&Omega_23_4SC It was part of the first series of center seconds watches to be made by Omega. It also needs a good cleaning of the movement and a new crystal. gatorcpa
Thank you. Does anyone know where I may find a reference for the what the original watch face may have been. This looks slightly different from ones I have seen with a circular seconds scale in the centre. The numbers on my watch appear blue.
I have done a lot of research on the Medicus CK651 (which is what you have); I have one and did a lot of searching to establish the correct dial - there are a lot of inaccurate dials on the market out there. In the end. I found what I thought quite authoritative source information in Marco Richon's Omega Saga, which has a picture of CK651 (see enclosed). There seemed to be a few colour variations, but both yours and mine are white. Mine has applied gold numbers; some seemed to have painted numerals, but otherwise quite similar. The Medicus series were intended for use by doctors, and so they all feature some variation on a long second hand and easy-to-read chapter ring, to enable pulse readings. There are about 10 different models in the Medicus range, but I believe that CK651 is the only one to feature a square case (I have two others, both round cases...) My own was manufactured in 1938; yours predates mine somewhat. I have the Omega certificate establishing the provenance of the case/movement. You can order one, if you're interested, from their website, for which they'll charge you around USD$100. Cheap compared to other brands. I ended up having to re-dial mine as someone had simply wiped all the paint off it, leaving only the applied numbers. Some here would counsel leaving the dial as it was, but I felt it was too far gone, personally. I do know the simple fact of refinishing a dial is sacrilege to many of my esteemed Omega Forum friends, however, there are, I'm afraid, times when one simply doesn't have any alternative. And believe me, there are a fair few factory and other re-dials out there that pass for original; lots of fifties and sixties models have been re-done, and are now aged enough to fool many (except MSN, gatorcpa and a few others...). Anyway, I went through around 10 dial companies in the UK, USA, Germany and Italy, before settling on a German company, Kronoswelt. Jan seemed to understand the dial and was the only one able to assure me that he could stay true to the watch. I think he did. I've also attached a before and after shot of my watch. Someone had as well raided my movement for parts and I had to hunt around a far amount for parts; in the end, the movement was overhauled by Christian Dannemann here in the UK and his blog details some of what we both went through to restore the watch. Go to http://watchguy.co.uk/restoration-omega-medicus-calibre-23-4sc/ if you're interested. Feel free to send me a PM if you want more info. Good luck!