Hi everyone,

I would be very grateful if someone can help me establish more information about a Vintage Seamaster I inherited from my grandfather. I know he bought it in the 50s. I also have the original box and bracelet but have changed the strap to leather. It runs great and I wind it every morning. As you can see from the pictures, the hands, dial and case show signs of aging. Would you recommend I get it restored and would that mean the hands and dial would be changed?

Thank you so much!

Adrian

 

Serviced Yes, Restored No. Have the watch serviced by an independent watchmaker specialising in vintage. Do not send it to Omega as they will charge you a fortune, repaint the dial, replace the hands and generaly destroy the originality - and value - of the watch. You should be aware that Omega consider their remit as being to bring the condition of a watch as close to new as possible, whereas watch collectors prefer originality and regard repainting an original dial as an absolute last resort.

The dial on your watch is fine and should be left alone. Search for the word Redial on this forum and you'll quickly get an idea of the general opinion of that practice.

ETA: if you are using it every day and it has not been serviced for as long as you can remember, the lubricant in the works will have dried up long ago and you are gradually wearing away the mechanism by using it, rather like running a car with no oil in the sump.

 

Thank you so much Edward53 for your detailed help. Will look a reliable vintage watchmaker up.

Are you able to reliably date it based on the pictures? Would be especially serendipitous if it happens to be a year of some significance.

Adrian

 

Can't date it too closely without seeing the serial number on the movement, but that style of S in Seamaster was used from about 1959 to 1962 after which the rounded S was used. There are tables of Omega serial numbers online but they are not a totally accurate guide. I'd say yours is more the 1962 end going by the shape of the lugs and probably powered by a calibre 286 movement.

 

I think too long after 1959 and they moved to the smaller hippocampus logo on the case back? My guess would be 1959ish.

Only way to know is to have it opened up.

 

To my knowledge, there isn't a "smaller hippocampus" version of this one; the small/large hippocampus variants usually talked about are on different references (2849 Calendars, for instance) such as these:




The caseback in the OP exist outside that timeline, so to speak

 

Got it. It seems like all of the watches I’ve seen that have the OPs case back style were very near 1959 but very well could be a coincidence.

That reminds me, I still need to check the big logo Seamaster off my list..

 

Here are pictures of the movement and case back. Hoping this helps with date.

 

https://www.omegawatches.com/watch-omega-seamaster-omega-ko-2964

What is the serial number on the movement?, cant read it.

You can look up the approximately age here: http://www.thewatchguy.com/pages/OMEGASERIAL.html

 

It looks like 16.44m which suggests 1958-59. This would work with the 1958 introduction date above. The 520 movement wasn't used much beyond that era either.

 

Thank you guys!

Incidentally, what would one of these be worth, in the condition that it's in? Would a later date say 1961-62 make it more or less valuable?

Does anyone know how they might suit a strap of a different material?

 

I don't know how much. Personally I would start by searching various sites sites that may have similar models for sale to get an idea on the price. This may require some effort though. Good luck.

 

Confirm the serial number and we can date it with more certainty. If as I suspect it is 16m then as I say above, it'll be from the end of the 1950s. If it were a 1960s piece, it would have a 6XX movement as that replaced the 520 as the 28mm manual wind option around 1960. Value is a a bit of a movable feast but in that condition as a hospital case, a few hundred quid, £250-350 maybe. The fact it is manual wind and has a degraded dial don't help and it will certainly need a service to use day to day. That isn't cheap these days and it may cost you £200+ to put it back into commission hence my modest valuation above.

The bracelet may be valuable in its own right, post a pic. If it is a beads of rice, modest value maybe, if a flat link, Kerching!