Hello, I have just bought an old Seamaster that looks very much like a Seamaster DeVille from the 1960s, but is missing the "DeVille" label on the dial. I have no idea about the ref. number as the seller has not provided photos of the movement. The dial looks quite interesting (and rare?) and has a vertical stripe pattern. Can anybody determine the ref. number without seeing the case back or movement? Sorry for the poor quality photos, but these are the seller's photos and I don't have the watch yet in my hands. Thanks, Roger
PS: - Could it be an Omega 14765? - Apparently the wrist band also bears an Omega logo. I have seen the beads of rice bands, but not one like this so far. - Also, I cannot see any second hand. Is it missing or were there versions without? - One more question: I was told by the seller that there is no "T" around "Swiss Made". However, the hands appear to have tritium or was that just white paint?
It could most likely be ref. 14765. I sold my ref. 14765 few days ago with very similar dial layout (no vertical stripes, but markers are same shape). Yes, your seconds hand is missing as it is suppose to be with cal. 552 that has a sweep seconds hand. De Ville is seen first on the dials from 1962-63 and as you can see it's also missing from mine (dated to 1959 by the movement number)
Thank you, that looks indeed like the same watch ref. number. I have never seen the vertical stripe dial and this type of steel bracelet before. I plan to get the watch serviced by Omega once I have received it. Could it be that the hour and minute hands were replaced on this one as they appear to have tritium while the dial does not "mention" tritium?
Why on Earth would you want Omega to service it? There are enough horror stories on here to put anyone off. It will be needlessly expensive and they'll probably put on a new and out-of-scale crown even if you ask them not to. Any competent watchmaker can service this watch, you just need to find a new second hand. Apart from that it just wants cleaning and oiling inside and absolutely nothing else doing to it. I have a 552 exactly like yours and I love it. Mine doesn't have the T's either but it dates from 1960 so maybe still radium hands, or perhaps they hadn't got round to changing the dial font.
Agree, find a good, independent watchmaker and let him/her take care of it. Good looking watch, congrats
Thank you. I wasn't aware that the Omega service is so bad. The difficulty for me is to find a good watchmaker as I don't know how to tell if one is good or bad. Any recommendations (I live in Switzerland)? Edward53, would you mind sharing photos of your 552 watch? If it was radium I rather prefer not to wear it or to replace the hands by non-glowing hands (even if that is not fully original).
Here is mine, not a perfect picture but the best I have and you can see what the second hand should look like. I suspect that the lume is probably tritium as it shows no signs of decay and looks identical to the tritium hands on two of my other watches, but that's just a guess. Anyway I am happy to wear it and as long as the glass is on and I don't sleep with it next to my head, I don't think it is dangerous. I am in the UK and I don't know about watchmakers near you.
Thank you for sharing the photo of your watch. That looks indeed almost identical with the exception of the vertical stripes on the dial. I am wondering what serial number the movement in my watch has (or in other words, the year when it was produced). It seems that the type of dial is less common. Hence, even if I wouldn't wear it due to the radium it would still be interesting from a collector's point of view. I am currently wearing a DeVille with virtually the same dial as in yours, but with a date window. It is from around 1969 and has hands without radium or tritium.