Hi everyone, A little introduction: This is my first post after lurking and collecting for years. I do it because I love it, and while I have sold a few pieces in the past, I’m in it to wear them. I like 50s, 60s, and early 70s pieces -- some dress watches, sport watches, and 70s chunk. I appreciate, but don’t like ultra high-end stuff because certain brands elicit an elitist vibe. Early divers and chronos are great and I wish I had more. I have a lot of Omegas, a few Zeniths, Hamiltons, Eternas, and Universal Geneves, plus a few other odds and ends thrown in. I purchased most of my watches a long time ago, have sold a few that I never wore, and justify a rare new purchase by knowing that values generally increase (and this is how I would justify it to my wife). You guys are awesome. Holy crap, LouS, you’re an inspiration. Dr. Ranfft, you’re a genius and I purchased from your site 10 years ago. Desmond, your passion is infectious. All of you are gods among men! Now for a quick question: Is my 1963 Connie 167.005 Cal 551 completely genuine? I always thought so, but still had a nagging feeling about the lugs. There’s a slight mismatch where the edges come together on the sides of a couple of them, while the two lugs have edges that come together with flush perfection. Everything else checks out: MOY test is right (the “O” is a little off, but I read that that’s not uncommon for early 60s pieces), script is slightly embossed, hands match the dial, case back is stamped and not laser engraved, movement is one shade, case/bezel facets seem sharp and correct, and lug facets are also sharp and correct (with the one problem I mentioned). What do the experts think? Thanks, Dan
I'll give my 2 cents. Your pictures are a little out of focus, but that type of discoloration may have come from heat treatment, as in soldering or welding. The lugs look like they might have broken and were repaired at one time. Then again, it could just be dirty. The dial looks good to me and the crown is an original thin 10-sided example, which would be almost impossible to replace. Hope this helps, gatorcpa
I don't see anything that would bother me. The counterfeit cases lack the faceting on the top edge of the lugs which this one clearly has nice and sharp. Remember these were made at a time before multi-axis CNC machines and absolute perfection was not expected, even for Omega.
Looks okay to me. Gator's explanation about the lugs sounds credible. Be nice to see a sharper pic of the dial with the hands at 3.15 just to take a closer look at the uppercase lettering as well as the Constellation script.
Thanks everyone for your insights. Gator, yeah, a welding job would be a real bummer, but the color problem is due to my poor photography. It's really one even color and I just tried to get some shadows in there. X350, that's what I hoping to hear. Mondodec, I'm including a better shot of the dial, as well as a few other shots just for fun. Cheers, have a great weekend.