Got this a few weeks back and sent it off to STS for a service, new crystal and crown. Sourced from dealer in the far east with the help of a forum member. Information from the archive.
Constellation 14k gold capped on stainless steel.
14777
18.3mil movement
561 calibre
Feb 1962
Sent to Japan
Case and dial given just a clean and crystal replaced. Dial in good condition for watch that's spent it's 55years in the far east although Japan is not as humid as others. Comes from the period when Omega removed the 'officially certified' text from the dial. A few light scratches present but bezel facets still visible indicating it hasn't seen too much polishing also indicated by good condition of the gold cap. Initially thought the hands looked a bit short but on comparison with others on here and Des's blog they are correct. Replaced the crown to keep watertight and ok for use but kept the original. Medallion is very crisp which would indicate watch has not seen much on the wrist time. STS commented the movement is in good condition. Didn't qualify for the less than $500 dollar thread but am still happy to add it to my merry band.





Looks well alongside a few new friends...........

 

Nice trio......Need to add a thread on that black dialed one, or point to where you discussed and had pix.

 

Cheers Tex..........didn't think the black dial was uncommon enough for separate thread so posted in the 'What did you buy today' thread. Got it in a rural UK auction in last year with a nice BOR bracelet. Dial not as new but as a whole it is in very nice untouched by dealer condition.

 

Very nice black dial indeed. What auction was that?

 

The auction house is in Newbury, Berkshire and are called SAS Auctions. They are not watch specialists so it was in amongst their monthly general antiques and collectables auction.

 

Through the auction house I got information from the seller. He worked for the UK government in HK in the 60/70's (very hush hush..clearly a spy......). He bought the watch from new in 1964 while in HK. Then later moved back to UK so has always had the watch. It is nice and not often to have the back story for a watch from new to when it comes into my hands.

 

Black dials are always going to be uncommon, especially with Constellations. Add BOR and box and it goes up another notch.

There's a Constellation Thread you need to post to with some high res photos. Case looks great, too.

 

Nice one!

BTW, most of the 14777s I've seen have longer hands and most (if not all) of the 168.001s have shorter hands, so it's likely that your watch is one of the last 14777s (if it has shorter hands, not clearly seen in your pics though).

 

Agree, it's hard to get a good photo showing the hands length. This is the best photo I have showing the length of the second and minute hands. Added a red overlay to indicate the length. This being from 1962 would put it in the back end of the 14777 configuration.