Ok, so I'm posting this on behalf of a colleague. He's generally into modern watches, but has (after seeing a few vintage Omegas of mine) been dipping his toes into vintage. He's used to bigger modern watches, so he's searching for vintages sized 37mm and above.

Based on his ebay searches, he's looking at 3 watches, listed as A, B & C.

Watch A


Watch B


Watch C


I was quite certain A and B were redials, as they looked too new. Not so sure if C was a redial, but there seems to be a crack in the dial at the 6 o'clock.

So I advised him to avoid all 3. Then doubt started creeping in ... what if I was wrong about A & B, and thus denied him a potential buy? I'm still practising my redial-spotting skills, so there's a reasonable chance I made an error.

Opinions, guys?

 

The first two are clearly redials. There is a possibility that third is genuine, however there is another issue – gold hands would never have been used with a steel case and monotone dial. The crack that are concerned about is almost certainly an illusion resulting from parallax distortion.

In summary, either the hands or dial are not original on the third.

Cheers,

Tony C.

 

Hi Nigel, One way I've used in spotting an Omega redial is examining the "G" in Omega, many times its a dead giveaway. If you look at this on watch A & B then compare to watch C, there are significant differences. You can see that the printing is not only thicker but the tail at the end coming back into the center is far too short on A & B. Also if you enlarge the pictures of A & B the edges of the printing, especially on the O, are rough and messy, not crisp like an origional dial. Good luck helping your friend with his search.

 

Thanks guys! I'm getting the hang of this it seems, though I still can't spot all the "tells".

Great tip about the G , Hijak. Another red flag to look for!

Tony, for Watch C it looks like I steered my friend away from it correctly, but for the wrong reasons! Now I can answer the question he put to me which was "but why did the dial crack?", because it didn't. Another useful learning point about crystal distortion.

 

Maybe you'll get lucky and Hoi will chime in. I believe he has a "few" of these larger Omegas ;-)

 

No re-dials on A and B - they are replacement dials of newer production - were offered on the Munich trader show...

 

Agree with MIke...
All of them redial/ refinished

 

Phew, thanks guys. Since he's returned to the search for a watch, I should encourage him to join this forum directly to maximize learning opportunities.

 

The unfortunate side effect of helping your friend source for a jumbo Omega... suddenly I start liking some of them too!

(no conflict of interest here - he gets 1st priority!)

He likes this one - RG 37mm waffle dial

My concern about this one is the caseback - is this a real Omega caseback and case? The waffle dial might be a redial to me, esp now that I have Ed's "G" tip, but I'm not sure about this one, there does seem to be honest patina. The seller is asking a rather high price for this though.

However, the one my friend wasn't keen on ... attracts me! Oh dear...



How does this one look? Might not be a redial I think - I can make out some patina at the edges, and the font and ''G" look correct.

I can't make out the model number though - 25?? on a cal 265? I tried searching the OVD via cal 265 but none of them seem to match

Of course, the attraction of buying 2 watches at a go and saving some money on shipping seems attractive, but first I have to be sure they're both legit... Opinions guys? Thanks!

 

Was about to ask if any 37mm cases came with a fine regulated movement... but I'm just an idiot.
RG=rose gold

 

Thanks Mike!