Military Omega Seamaster 300

Zuke

As far as I'm aware all Mil Spec had fixed bars as per their specs set out by the British Forces. I could be wrong but I've never seen a legit example without them.

omegaman

Bezel is original.

Hands and dial are also original and look very nice, dial is maybe relumed. The missing 'circled T' will lower the value of the watch significantly (if the rest is okay). However, it's pretty common for issued SM300 to lack that circled T, about 1/4 do not have it.

That ugly bracelet needs to get removed to check the fixed bars. Otherwise the case looks good.

The Crown should be a screw down type, as stated by the A/ in the mil engraving. So that is not correct!

The movements must be a 552. The serial number can be checked with Omega archives. The extract of the archives should state it belongs to a SM300 from 1967 - 1970 and that it has been delivered to the British Forces or Royal Navy, at least to the UK (because some of the Mil SM300 had been bought via the MoD house watchmaker Goldsmith).

The Caseback engraving looks legit for a late 1970 Mil SM300.

However, the hippocampus and Omega Seamaster etc. writing do indeed look rather thin, but I think that could come from the slightly overpolished caseback. Definitely we need a good picture of the caseback inner side and a sharper closeup of the outer side.


PS: edited, I had to correct myself about the crown

Vitezi

I believe the pinholes being referred to are located in the yellowish lume at 12 and 6. However, they can be hard to see, and not every dial has them. The pinholes can be seen in this example:

watchlovr

Ok, I'll have a go.

Firstly, I can't decide, photos are not good enough to give an opinion one way or another.
We need the bracelet removed to check the fixed bars, need the movement cal verified and the movement number.
Need better photos in natural light.

Postive points;
Dial, case, back bezel and hands look genuine Omega
MOD engravings look ok as far as I can see
Bezel is correct for MIL SM300

Negative points;
NO T on the dial
Should deffo be cal 552 (needs checking)
Omega engravings on back look too shallow and look laser cut instead of engraved
Crown should be screw down
Cannot see any pinholes at 12 and 6, these are very obvious in 1970 BT dials

omegaman

Bezel is original.

Hands and dial are also original and look very nice, dial is maybe relumed. The missing 'circled T' will lower the value of the watch significantly (if the rest is okay). However, it's pretty common for issued SM300 to lack that circled T, about 1/4 do not have it.

That ugly bracelet needs to get removed to check the fixed bars. Otherwise the case looks good.

The Crown should be a screw down type, as stated by the A/ in the mil engraving. So that is not correct!

The movements must be a 552. The serial number can be checked with Omega archives. The extract of the archives should state it belongs to a SM300 from 1967 - 1970 and that it has been delivered to the British Forces or Royal Navy, at least to the UK (because some of the Mil SM300 had been bought via the MoD house watchmaker Goldsmith).

The Caseback engraving looks legit for a late 1970 Mil SM300.

However, the hippocampus and Omega Seamaster etc. writing do indeed look rather thin, but I think that could come from the slightly overpolished caseback. Definitely we need a good picture of the caseback inner side and a sharper closeup of the outer side.

Here is another one with a rather thin Hippocampus etc.

PS: edited, I had to correct myself about the crown

SgWatchBaron

Hey mate, have to correct you on this. Petros Protopapas director of the Omega Museum was adamant on converting my screw down W10 back to the naiad system. As this was how the watch was produced when it left the Omega factory in the 60's. The later added "A" was done by MOD, but not Omega. Omega views these watches as a naiad, as this was the configuration it was in when it first left the assembly line. Food for thought.

omegaman

Yes and no. All W10 (all from 1967) and 0552 up to a certain number (from 1967 to mid 1969) left the factory with the Naiad crown and were converted by the MoD with the screw down type in mid or late 1969. But all SM300 delivered to the MoD from late 1969 on already had the screw down crown (the civil version too).

I have sent you an PM with pictures, don't want to spread to much of them in public.

watchlovr

But we are discussing this one, a 1970 issue.
It had the "A" engraving from the start, not added, and came with screw down crown originally, also a T dial.
Maybe both were changed during service at the same time?

watchlovr

Maybe both were changed during service at the same time?

omegaman

Yep, might be the case. Obviously the MoD watchmakers didn't care too much about authenticity those days. They had to swap dials, movements, cases, casebacks, etc. as necessary to keep these watches running at low service costs. There are floating a couple of 1970 0552's with 1967 movements and dials w/o circled T around.

Looking forward to see the inner caseback, movement and fixed bars of the bespoken watch...