How Does This Vintage Constellation Look?

Well, there you go!

My 167.005 has a similar crown. I have no clue whether it is original or not, but I won't change it. I think it is far more functional that the 10-siders. The replacements you can get today are far thicker than the originals. IMO, this skews the aethetics of the whole watch.



Take care,
gatorcpa

Thanks for answering my call Desmond. I think you shed a lot of light on the subject . I like the hypothesis that these crowns may have ended up on USA watches. Searching last night I found more 14381s with these large knurled crowns then I expected, so the service crown idea seems less likely. Score one for Evan's intuition.

Yes , one thing that has to be admitted about the ten-siders; they are a real pain to wind. I have two pink gold capped Connies that I have narrow knurled crowns on just because the work so much better . The matching original decagonals are stored near by.

Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then. 😁

Actually, the service crown idea isn't that far off, IMO. My thought was that Norman Morris always did some of the finishing work on new imports before sale. This might have included inspections or even installation of the crown. If they were temporarily out of stock on a 10-sided crown, perhaps they used the knurled ones from the Seamaster DeVille series.

So many weird things happened with these US imports, almost any theory is plausible.
gatorcpa

Here's another one, this time in 14K



http://www.ebay.com/itm/Omega-Autom...121567352?pt=Wristwatches&hash=item3ccc0eea78

This watch was posted on the "recommended" thread.
gatorcpa