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MtV
·Good evening,
sincerely hoping I'm not boring people around here with these threads, but I've just taken delivery of another beautiful hobnail'ed Omega and wanted to share my excitement, it's beauty, and a little mystery that I haven't quite solved yet. Also, my reasoning behind bidding on a watch I've only seen one picture of / an evaluation of it might be interesting to some, I hope, so excuse me for this will be a lengthy and picture-heavy post.
In December, this one popped up in the catalog of a British auction house that usually seems to sell art, furniture, all kinds of stuff - but not necessarily vintage Omegas. There was no international shipping option and only one picture, so I was already hoping it might run under the radar of most of the hunters out there. The estimate was 200-300GBP, by the way, which is absurd, of course. It sold significantly above that, but then I never really expected nobody else to take note of it.
Let's start with the only (relevant) auction picture:
There was one more, of the paperwork that came with it - more on that later. Anyway, I was instantly in love. The only negatives I could find were the 5 o clock lume pip, which is darker than the other ones, and missing caseback / movement pictures - that's about it. The overall condition of the watch meant I wasn't very worried about any bad surprises, though. A 1503 7-row BoR is, of course, not period-correct for the watch, but can be sold / trades for a 1502, so not really an issue in my book. The rest of the evaluation reads much more promising:
-The gold-capped case shows massive discoloration, which I take as an overall good point. A gold cloth removes these within seconds, but most of all it's the best sign the case hasn't been tampered with for a very, very long time. Lugs are thick and don't look like there's much (if any) meat missing. Note that there are different case styles for 2577s, and this one didn't have the beveled lugs we know from 2846s, for example.
-The dial is original and seems in very good shape. Swiss Made wasn't visible, but that didn't really bother me, as I assumed it was just hidden by the tension ring / distortion of the curvature of the plexi. Now that I have it, I can confirm it's all there. Even the slight discoloration of the dial must've been due to lighting - as you'll see in a second, it's in fact in stunning shape.
-Crown and hands are correct. The crown turned out to be a period-correct flat-feet example, a welcome bonus. The radium of the hands has aged differently to the one on the dial, but that's also not unheard of and didnt give me cause for concern.
-The 137xx serial, as shown on the papers, means roughly 1953. The watch itself was sold in '55, also not unheard of. Case style, cal. 354 (instead of 351) and the Seamaster name on the bottom of the dial all correspond to a later example of this reference, so it all alligns. I know now that the "bubble-shape" caseback, as well as the sub-reference 2577-24, also add up nicely to this being a later example of the 2577s.
When the day of the auction came, I knew I'd be in the car on a journey while it happened, so I brought the iPad and stopped in time, made myself comfortable and watched. The excitement is definitely on a different level, compared to an eBay purchase. The auctioneer went quickly through the lots, most of them only taking a mere few seconds. When mine came up, he was interrupted by a ringing phone. Some giggles and a bit of banter later, he finally started. I could hear some rumor among the live audience, there must've been some bids - competing online bids brought the price right up to a much higher (or shall I say: more worthy of what it is) level, and the room fell silent. A few seconds went by, the hammer fell - I got it and continued my drive with a smile on my face. At this point, I'd like to pronounce a huge thanks to @DorsetOmega who kindly helped me with the whole procedure, bid on my behalf, took delivery of it as a UK resident and forwarded the watch to me in Europe. I'm very grateful, without you I wouldn't have it on my wrist now. It arrived yesterday, and I am very excited:
Overall, I'm a very happy bugger 😀 The party piece is definitely the dial, among the nicest hobnails I've ever had to pleasure to see in person. There's a ding on the bezel at around 6 that wasnt noticable in the auction picture, which is a shame but I it doesn't make me regret it in the slightest. The movement is also in a very clean condition and winds, sets, runs ever so smoothly - I'll soon have it serviced regardless, just to be on the safe side. Usually, I'm not one to see much value in papers on those, but it's a nice bonus. The shop where it was sold in Interlaken, Switzerland, in 1955 still exists and the next time I'm in the region I'll make sure to pop in and say hi, just for the fun of it.
Another word on the discoloration of the gold-cap. Here's a daylight-picture of how it arrived:
I would've considered to leave it as is, but the handling by auction personnel causes some parts of it to clean-up already, so I figured I might aswell give it a quick and gentle rub-down. Note the difference on the lug between a single wipe with a gold cloth left and the original discoloration right:
And this is the result after a mere minute of work. I'll try a few straps on it, for now I think this works quite well, though:
Now, to the "mystery":
Initially, I wanted to replace the 7-row BoR with a period-correct 5-row 1502 on 18mm #11 endlinks. I still think the busy structure of the BoR would match the dial very well, thing is: I couldn't attach it, the endlinks simply wouldn't fit. The reason was quickly found
Yup, weirdly, it's got a 17.5mm lug width. There are multiple reasons for this I could think of.
-The lugs might be bent, of course, but the likelihood of both ends being bent to the exact same measurement, on a 100th of a millimeter, I'd consider rather slim.
-It could be a US-spec mid-case. I have a GX6250 that also has a 17.55mm lug width. It's a later cal. 500 and I wouldn't know all those slightly uncommon US-only refs off the top of my head, but there must be cal. 354/351 one which might be compatible with the dial (which, given it's stamped Swiss Made, not only Swiss, I assume didn't belong to a US-spec ref in the first place) and, most importantly, the 2577 caseback. Still, with the overall condition, the papers etc... this doesn't appear to me to be a watch that someone has messed with.
I might be a victim of my personal "owners bias" here, of course, and I'd be very happy to stand corrected if someone here could shed some light onto this. Are we aware of 17.55mm lug-2577s by any chance, or might this be a franken after all? I must say though, even if it is - I'd look for a replacement case that's correct, but I wouldn't be disappointed, really. The dial is just too spectacular to feel negative about it in any way. 😀
I'll finish this of with the obligatory wristshot and a thanks to everyone around - to @DorsetOmega @seekingseaquest @cristos71 for their help in various ways, to OF for being this awesome nerdly little place to share the excitement of such little finds.
sincerely hoping I'm not boring people around here with these threads, but I've just taken delivery of another beautiful hobnail'ed Omega and wanted to share my excitement, it's beauty, and a little mystery that I haven't quite solved yet. Also, my reasoning behind bidding on a watch I've only seen one picture of / an evaluation of it might be interesting to some, I hope, so excuse me for this will be a lengthy and picture-heavy post.
In December, this one popped up in the catalog of a British auction house that usually seems to sell art, furniture, all kinds of stuff - but not necessarily vintage Omegas. There was no international shipping option and only one picture, so I was already hoping it might run under the radar of most of the hunters out there. The estimate was 200-300GBP, by the way, which is absurd, of course. It sold significantly above that, but then I never really expected nobody else to take note of it.
Let's start with the only (relevant) auction picture:
There was one more, of the paperwork that came with it - more on that later. Anyway, I was instantly in love. The only negatives I could find were the 5 o clock lume pip, which is darker than the other ones, and missing caseback / movement pictures - that's about it. The overall condition of the watch meant I wasn't very worried about any bad surprises, though. A 1503 7-row BoR is, of course, not period-correct for the watch, but can be sold / trades for a 1502, so not really an issue in my book. The rest of the evaluation reads much more promising:
-The gold-capped case shows massive discoloration, which I take as an overall good point. A gold cloth removes these within seconds, but most of all it's the best sign the case hasn't been tampered with for a very, very long time. Lugs are thick and don't look like there's much (if any) meat missing. Note that there are different case styles for 2577s, and this one didn't have the beveled lugs we know from 2846s, for example.
-The dial is original and seems in very good shape. Swiss Made wasn't visible, but that didn't really bother me, as I assumed it was just hidden by the tension ring / distortion of the curvature of the plexi. Now that I have it, I can confirm it's all there. Even the slight discoloration of the dial must've been due to lighting - as you'll see in a second, it's in fact in stunning shape.
-Crown and hands are correct. The crown turned out to be a period-correct flat-feet example, a welcome bonus. The radium of the hands has aged differently to the one on the dial, but that's also not unheard of and didnt give me cause for concern.
-The 137xx serial, as shown on the papers, means roughly 1953. The watch itself was sold in '55, also not unheard of. Case style, cal. 354 (instead of 351) and the Seamaster name on the bottom of the dial all correspond to a later example of this reference, so it all alligns. I know now that the "bubble-shape" caseback, as well as the sub-reference 2577-24, also add up nicely to this being a later example of the 2577s.
When the day of the auction came, I knew I'd be in the car on a journey while it happened, so I brought the iPad and stopped in time, made myself comfortable and watched. The excitement is definitely on a different level, compared to an eBay purchase. The auctioneer went quickly through the lots, most of them only taking a mere few seconds. When mine came up, he was interrupted by a ringing phone. Some giggles and a bit of banter later, he finally started. I could hear some rumor among the live audience, there must've been some bids - competing online bids brought the price right up to a much higher (or shall I say: more worthy of what it is) level, and the room fell silent. A few seconds went by, the hammer fell - I got it and continued my drive with a smile on my face. At this point, I'd like to pronounce a huge thanks to @DorsetOmega who kindly helped me with the whole procedure, bid on my behalf, took delivery of it as a UK resident and forwarded the watch to me in Europe. I'm very grateful, without you I wouldn't have it on my wrist now. It arrived yesterday, and I am very excited:
Overall, I'm a very happy bugger 😀 The party piece is definitely the dial, among the nicest hobnails I've ever had to pleasure to see in person. There's a ding on the bezel at around 6 that wasnt noticable in the auction picture, which is a shame but I it doesn't make me regret it in the slightest. The movement is also in a very clean condition and winds, sets, runs ever so smoothly - I'll soon have it serviced regardless, just to be on the safe side. Usually, I'm not one to see much value in papers on those, but it's a nice bonus. The shop where it was sold in Interlaken, Switzerland, in 1955 still exists and the next time I'm in the region I'll make sure to pop in and say hi, just for the fun of it.
Another word on the discoloration of the gold-cap. Here's a daylight-picture of how it arrived:
I would've considered to leave it as is, but the handling by auction personnel causes some parts of it to clean-up already, so I figured I might aswell give it a quick and gentle rub-down. Note the difference on the lug between a single wipe with a gold cloth left and the original discoloration right:
And this is the result after a mere minute of work. I'll try a few straps on it, for now I think this works quite well, though:
Now, to the "mystery":
Initially, I wanted to replace the 7-row BoR with a period-correct 5-row 1502 on 18mm #11 endlinks. I still think the busy structure of the BoR would match the dial very well, thing is: I couldn't attach it, the endlinks simply wouldn't fit. The reason was quickly found
Yup, weirdly, it's got a 17.5mm lug width. There are multiple reasons for this I could think of.
-The lugs might be bent, of course, but the likelihood of both ends being bent to the exact same measurement, on a 100th of a millimeter, I'd consider rather slim.
-It could be a US-spec mid-case. I have a GX6250 that also has a 17.55mm lug width. It's a later cal. 500 and I wouldn't know all those slightly uncommon US-only refs off the top of my head, but there must be cal. 354/351 one which might be compatible with the dial (which, given it's stamped Swiss Made, not only Swiss, I assume didn't belong to a US-spec ref in the first place) and, most importantly, the 2577 caseback. Still, with the overall condition, the papers etc... this doesn't appear to me to be a watch that someone has messed with.
I might be a victim of my personal "owners bias" here, of course, and I'd be very happy to stand corrected if someone here could shed some light onto this. Are we aware of 17.55mm lug-2577s by any chance, or might this be a franken after all? I must say though, even if it is - I'd look for a replacement case that's correct, but I wouldn't be disappointed, really. The dial is just too spectacular to feel negative about it in any way. 😀
I'll finish this of with the obligatory wristshot and a thanks to everyone around - to @DorsetOmega @seekingseaquest @cristos71 for their help in various ways, to OF for being this awesome nerdly little place to share the excitement of such little finds.
Edited:
