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  1. omegary Apr 2, 2012

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    Thought I'd share this here as I think this is a fascinating little piece of Omega history.

    A while back my local watch repairer gave me a couple of bits and pieces as a thank you for some work and referrals I'd put his way.

    One of the items was a little Omega cardboard pocket watch demonstrator. It's definitely post 1933 as it mentions Chronometer tests at Teddington, Neuchatel and Geneva and how "Omega held the world precision record since 1933 with 97.4 of performance hitherto unknown in a portable timepiece".

    It really is a lovely little demonstration piece with sections of the movement that fold back to reveal the movement below. Here's a few quick pics to give you an idea.

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    It was printed between 1933 and 1936. Omega set a new all time precision record in 1936 at Teddington (Kew) with a calibre 47.7 which achieved 97.8 points. I'm pretty confident they would have updated any marketing / training material with this new achievement.

    The calibre used for the illustration is a 35.5 L (the L just means it was used in an open faced pocket watch). This is a thin lever movement, diameter 35.5 (really), 15 jewel utilising a Breguet spring. It was developed in 1918 for thin pocket watches and occasionally used for early aviator's wrist watches.

    All interesting stuff and I'm amazed a piece of card has survived in such good condition for all those years, now I just need the pocket watch to go with it ;)

    Cheers,
    Gary
     
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  2. Steve Apr 2, 2012

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    Interesting piece of Omega memorabilia,thanks for showing that. Difficult to put a value on it ?.
     
  3. ulackfocus Apr 2, 2012

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    Pretty cool Gary. It is amazing that it's survived in such good shape. :thumbsup: It's a nice mini-tutorial about the different parts of the watch.
     
  4. omegary Apr 2, 2012

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    Thanks Steve, tbh I've no idea if it's worth anything or not at all, I just think it's a fascinating and well preserved piece of Omega history.

    Cheers,
    Gary
     
  5. ulackfocus Apr 2, 2012

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    Hey Gary? You need an avatar, man. Get on the ball and choose one! That booklet would make a unique shot.
     
  6. omegary Apr 2, 2012

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    Good point, just found a pretty suitable pic, although I reserve the right to change my mind occasionally ;)

    Cheers,
    Gary
     
  7. kyle L Grasshopper Staff Member Apr 2, 2012

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    That's a cool find...I'll give you $20! :p Here's another one, not mine though!

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  8. ulackfocus Apr 2, 2012

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    11,824,192 is 1949. :p
     
  9. omegary Apr 3, 2012

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    Er thanks Kyle... I think. Please don't be offended if I don't take you up on your generous offer ;)

    Thanks for posting the chronometer example though, I've never seen another so it's genuinely fascinating to see :). Omega must have produced hundreds of thousands of these kind of promotional demonstrators but I bet very few survive.

    Cheers,
    Gary
     
  10. kyle L Grasshopper Staff Member Apr 3, 2012

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    I was just kidding, I wouldn't sell it either. :) It's definitely a cool item, it could come in handy if you ever decide to repair your Omegas!
     
  11. gatorcpa ΩF InvestiGator Staff Member Apr 5, 2012

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    The overlay is very cool. But I find the historical inaccuracies in the illustrations interesting...

    1. The watch shown is clearly a US market Globemaster, which was sold beginning in 1952, but the movement is dated from 1948-9. Note the Constellation star without the script.

    2. The "movement" is marked as cal. 333 which was a subseconds design, but the watch shown is a center seconds model that would have had either a cal. 352 or 354.

    3. The cal. 333 (at 30.1 mm diameter) would have been slightly too large for a Globemaster/Constellation case made to accomodate a 28.1mm movement.

    No matter, I really love the piece,
    gatorcpa