My $10 Seamaster Estate Find. Advice?

Hey guys picked this up a couple months ago and am finally gonna get it fixed up. I bought it for $10 at an estate sale!! It is my first Seamaster and I love it even though it's pretty messed up looking hahah. SO to begin the watch does run when wound up but the rotor seems to be broken and won't wind the watch up. This obviously needs to be repaired. I got a quote from a friend of mine who is willing to fix it up for $250 parts included. New crystal (not OG Omega crystal), whatever part is broken, service/clean/adjust. How does this sound? Fair deal? I'd be $260 in it... Also is the dial. It hasn't been redialed but does have some problems such as the little speckles of dirt? Should I leave that as is or try to have him remove it? Also, there are two scratches, one on the second S of seamaSter, one in between the 8 and 9 markers. I assume I should just leave those alone? Any advice or opinions is greatly appreciated thanks!! EDIT: the crystal is all scratched up and makes the dial look worse than it is!

Already got the flex band off and it's with my watchmaker right now, also an OG crystal for this is $75!! Is it worth it?

If the scratches aren't too deep they can be polished out. A much cheaper fix with added bonus that you keep an original element of the watch. Personally I don't mind a crystal with one or two signs of age on a similar watch.

Great pickup! Depends on how you feel with crystals - I generally find that if it's not a genuine one I will change it to one that is. Nothing quite like seeing the Omega symbol twice when looking at the watch straight on or at an angle 😀

As for the dial - keep it as is and ask your watchmaker to simply give it a light brushing. A redial will make the watch too 'new' and lower it's value. Same with lume plots - keep them the same unless there is serious concern of the lume being unstable.

Been awhile since I got this watch. I am having it serviced up for $140 by a good friend of mine. Should take about 2-3 weeks or so. Odd thing is that one place told me the rotor was broken and wanted to charge $500 and up. My friend however says that isn't the case here. Should be interesting to see what happens. I only have $10 in on it right now!

He will do that. He just gave it a quick look over and an estimate price. I'll know within the next few weeks, if anything is broken he will know for sure.

The original crystal doesn't look too bad. A few minutes of rubbing with polywatch would probably have that looking almost like new, but still original and it only costs a few dollars for a tube on Amazon.


Assuming there are no major faults discovered it likely just needs a normal service where the parts will be stripped down, cleaned and reassembled, plus a bit of oil where necessary. To keep your costs low you could go with a nice leather strap, but it doesn't have to be from Omega.

If the service costs $140 your total expense can scrape in at under $200 and you'll have a nice vintage Omega that can last many more years. It's surprising just how much better it will look with a simple clean.