Hello members, I have just signed up to the forum and wish too introduce myself. I live in Helensburgh, Scotland, and am a 68 year-old male. My name is Peter.
When clearing out an old box left behind by my son when he left home, I came across a 1953 Omega military watch. This was given to him by his late grandfather (on his late mother's side), John Stanley Auld, ex Parachute Regiment. John served in Burma during WWii and retained a keen interest in the regiment until he died, attending get-togethers and parades. He had left the Paras before the watch was built, so I wonder where he got it from.
I wound the watch, and off she went. I have now sent the watch off to my son, he has turned into a bit of a collector. He is very pleased with the Omega, he'd forgotten all about it and didn't recognise it. It is undoubtedly the gem of his somewhat modest collection.
My question is, why is there no arrow on the dial? Something to do with the radium problem? The back of the watch has the following. 6645 101000, 6b/542, 1658/53.
I can see from the net what the numbers mean, but I would be most grateful for any information.
I know the photos aren't great, smartphone you see.
Thanks for bearing with me until I got to the point.
Petek

 

well one way or the other this will be interesting.

 

Hello Peter, and welcome.
It would be easier to determine the originality of the watch if you could post pictures of the movement (it should be a cal. 283) and the inside of the case back (it should say 2777-1 SC). As to the dial, you should have a look at this very instructive post from the VMW forum.
I am afraid (but I am by no means an expert) that yours has been repainted by someone who tried to recreate version 4 of the above post.

 

Thanks for your reply. The watch is miles away now, and I wouldn't really be comfortable opening it. Maybe a jeweller, someday.

An identical watch went on ebay, here is a link if you can get it to work.

https://goo.gl/images/GxjymD

Many thanks.

 

Hello Peter, Aprax is right. To give you a full answer people need to see the movement ref and inside case back. Any good watchmaker could open it for you. You could also get an extract from the archives from Omega. Good luck with your search for information.

 

Thanks Aprax and Omegafanman. Next time I am with my son we will have the watched opened and I'll photograph and post. I don't want to do it myself, the back of my 1974 Seiko quartz looks as if it's had a liason with a meat grinder. That was my learning curve. The Seiko still runs perfectly, just the chewed-up back and some sweat staining on the white dial detract. Thanks again.