Hello everyone, this will be my first post, but I have long appreciated the trove of information found in many of the threads on this forum. Interestingly, a couple of weeks ago, a watch popped up on WatchRecon for sale on this forum, and when I logged-in to contact the seller, I was surprised to find that I was not a member. I am a member of various forums, but mainly active on a different vintage forum in particular; probably some of you will recognize me from that other forum (although I have a different username, containing "dan"). So obviously I set up an account right away, but due to the mandatory federal three-day waiting requirement for forum membership approval, I missed out on that watch. ;-)

So now that I am a member, I am starting to follow threads more actively, and I thought that I would introduce myself, which would probably make me more likely to participate. I am based in the US, in the state of Colorado. My major flaw, which you will all recognize immediately, is that I do not have very many Omega watches. I have been collecting vintage watches for about 6 years, and my collection is not very focused. I guess about half of my watches are chronographs (mostly manual-winding column wheel), and the other half is divided between divers, military, and "dress" watches. And I only have four Omegas, which is why I probably have not participated so much in this forum. Anyway, for what it's worth, here they are. I will give brief descriptions below.



On the left is an early 1940s cal 266 (or 267, I can't recall) in a 36mm SS case (sorry, I don't remember the precise reference). You really need to see it in the sunlight to appreciate it, because the black dial has degraded in a beautiful way that shows gold flecks everywhere. Unfortunately, my wife has pretty much appropriated this watch, so I never get to wear it anymore. The crown is not original.
[Edit: this turned out to be incorrect, it is actually a cal 265 from the early 1950s and the case ref is 2639.]

Next is a 105.012-66. Sorry about the photo, which is oversaturated, but it actually has really nice matching dark yellow patina-ed lume on the dial and hands. I will try to post better photos individually in the daily-wear thread as I wear them. The major flaw of this watch is that the back has seen a bit too much polishing, but overall it's one of my best watches. The bezel is a correct DON, but it's not original to the watch. I purchased the watch with the wrong bezel (a beautifully faded service bezel that I still own) and then went through an interesting sequence of transactions, eventually acquiring this bezel and making this watch "correct".

The third is a 30T2 PC (shock-protected variant) in a jumbo 38mm SS case (ref 2505 if I recall correctly), again from the 1940s. Lovely watch with some minor freckles on the dial that again are hard to see in this photo. The sub-second hand is a replacement, and again, I don't believe the crown is original.

Finally, at right is a straight-writing Speedmaster that is pretty nice except for some unfortunate paint loss on the sweep hand and a bit of lume loss on one of the dial markers. Still, not a bad example overall, all correct as far as I can tell, and the case is very nice all around.

So that's it for my Omegas. I would probably consider adding more Speedmasters to my collection, and I am actively looking for a nice SM300 no-date ref 165.024. Interestingly, I have apparently passed over what seems perhaps to be the most popular segment of vintage Omega, i.e. the 1950s and 1960s automatic Seamaster/Geneve/DeVille models. I appreciate them and look at enough examples to have learned a bit about them, but they are usually a little small for me, and since I don't wear "dress" watches very much, I'm selective about adding them to my collection.

Thanks for your patience if you have read this whole post, and I hope that I will be able to contribute to this community in the future to compensate for the indispensable information I've received from archived threads.

 

The cal 266 will be from the early-mid 1950s not early 40s. The 266 wasn’t around until the 50s, or at least not in 266 form. It is actually a development of the 30T2 you have in the other, that will be 1940s

 

Thanks for that correction, I must have misremembered either the movement or the timeline. I will pop it open tonight and post a photo. Hopefully it is not a cal 266 with a serial number from the 1940s. That would make me feel very stupid, although I did buy this watch early on in my collecting days. ;-)

 

No it’ll be fine, probably a 13-14m serial.

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

Welcome! Very nice collection. As always, I much rather see quality over quantity! Well thought out meaningful collections with intrinsic value is priceless.

 

Welcome to the forum. I only have 5 vintage Omegas in my collection. Just enough to make the rotation of the daily wearer fun, combined with the familiarity of enjoyable old favourites.

 

Very nice choice collection! Welcome!

 

Awesome collection! Thanks for sharing. What brand(s) do you collect most?

 

That is a great collection and welcome to the forum.

Please feel free to post your other watches! We are all in an 'open relationship' with Omega on here...

 

Thank you @amanson, and everyone else for your welcome.

Wow, that question really made me think. I don't think that I have more than 5 vintage watches of any particular brand. However, if I were to list brands of which I own more than one watch off the top of my head, it would be: Omega, Rolex, Gallet, IWC, Longines, Eterna, Zenith, Breitling, and Lemania. But in most cases, it's just 2 or 3 from a given brand. And then a lot of one-offs where I'm more focused on a particular chronograph movement or a particular style of dive-watch case.

 

My manners were lacking earlier. Welcome of course. You have some lovely pieces.

 

Many thanks for the welcome, and it never crossed my mind that your manners were lacking. I was happy to be corrected, since the last thing I want to do is perpetuate inaccurate information. I'm generally aware of Omega's 30mm caliber progression, but it is good to be reminded of the specific timeline. If nothing else, I should have remembered that the re-naming of the series from 30T2 to 26x was post-WWII.

 

Wow, that is quite the collection. Welcome to the forum.

 

Lovely Collection you have there. Wear them all in good health and welcome!

 

Very nice Omega section of what sounds like a much bigger collection.

 

Welcome and love the sub dials

 

OK, as promised here are photos of the inside of the two old watches.

The black-dialed cal 266 was actually a cal 265 (good memory, huh), with a 12.7M serial, so from the early 1950s I assume. The case is a ref 2639-5, which is slightly over 36mm with a screw-in back.



I was closer with the white-dialed 30T2PC, which had an 11.1M serial number from the late 1940s I believe. It's hard to see the caliber number since it is hidden underneath the balance. The reference was indeed 2505-15 and it is approximately 38mm with a snap-on case-back.

 

Great collection. Very tasteful.

 

Welcome to the forum Dan, great start on the Omega's and I hope many more great Omega finds are in your future.