Greetings everyone! My father passed away last year and while I was cleaning out his home, I found his old 1957 Omega Seamaster Automatic Caliber 501. It was in HORRIBLE condition and I took it to my local Omega dealer to have it examined and see what it would cost to fully restore it. After 4 months and a trip to/from Switzerland, it has returned. It looks amazing now. My question is: can anyone steer me towards any resources to properly appraise this watch? I really want to figure out a ballpark value on this watch so I can add it to my insurance policy just in case anything should ever happen to it. This was a gift from my grandmother to my father when he graduated high school in 1958. I intend to keep it as a family heirloom and hand it down to my older son when he's ready someday.
Nice heirloom. I'd hazard a guess that the value will be £500-1000 but there's some experts on here that'll be better placed to jump in. Any 'before' pictures?
I did take a couple of quick pictures when I dropped it off for repair. The pics are a bit out of focus as it was spur of the moment, but you can see how terrible the watch was before.
Too bad you didn't ask before you sent it to Omega to be refurbished. To a lot of collectors, it was beautiful before.
It was nice before, just needed a clean and a new crystal and it is still nice afterwards but you wont see the price of the service in the value. I would guess it is now worth £600-800 since it has a black dial which is a little more desirable than the more usual silver but the cosmetic work such as polish, new hands wasn't really needed IMO and adds very little if anything.
It's a very nice watch. in order to assess value, this reputed vendor on ebayPurchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network has similar offerings. Look for the black dials, steel cases (not gold) and no date/calendar and not chronometer. Also, sometimes the dials are restored too (called redialed). I don't know if yours was restored but its another detail to look for when assessing value.