Hello everyone! This is going to be a dual post about my first Omega and the private seller who I bought it from.

A few weeks ago I graduated and commissioned into the US Navy following in my grandfather and great grandfathers footsteps. Rather than getting a specific graduation gift, my parents (very generously) gave me the money and freedom to choose my gift. I knew exactly what I wanted immediately. The 007 Omega Seamaster Professional 300M, full sized quartz dive watch. Though I didn’t grow up in the Pierce Brosnan era of 007, I’m an old soul so I’ve watched MANY of the films. But more importantly, my grandfather was a deep sea diver during WWII and though I’ll probably never dive with it, I thought it would be so amazing to have. I’ve always loved watches but could only ever afford entry level Seiko’s and a few G-shocks. So for the last 3 or 4 years I just dreamed about owning a real Omega. Now it’s on my wrist and I refuse to take it off!

I started my search on eBay trying to find the right watch for the right price. One that was worn proudly, and was even a little worn, but still in great shape. After a few days of looking, I stumbled into a listing by Donald Wynne on Chrono24 for the watch I was looking for in great shape for a pretty good deal at 1600. But knowing this would be a huge purchase for me, I knew I had to do my due diligence in ensuring it was authentic. I’d read to stay away from Private Sellers there, but he also had the listing in eBay and was listing from Pennsylvania (I live in Maryland) so I reached out. I won’t go into super deep detail because I already posted on the forums detailing what I was looking at and asking for help from the community (who has been great) to assist in my research. The serial matched with the warranty card, the warranty card was from a store that I’m familiar with where Donald lives, there were no signs of major damage and no signs of it being fake.

Here’s the part about the seller. For the next few days I absolutely slammed Donald with question after question, but he was extremely understanding and helpful in providing everything I asked for. We became friends on Facebook that way I could confirm all the information he had already provided. He read my post on the forum, and in response to a comment someone made about the clasp being scratched, he offered to replace it with no added cost. I opted for the original clasp though because it really wasn’t that worn, and I’d have done the same thing anyways. At one point he got an offer from someone else and he opted to not respond until I decided whether or not to go through with the purchase. We went back and forth about when he bought the watch 18 years ago as a graduation gift to himself, our current collections, etc. I literally can’t do justice in this post to how friendly and pleasant it was working through it all with Donald. I just received the watch yesterday, so I do still need to take it to the jeweler to be checked just to be absolutely 100% certain it’s the real deal. Although at this point I have no concerns at all. He’s already communicated that he doesn’t mind if I continue to withhold the funds in Escrow until I get it checked, and offered a return if something turned out wrong. I’ll be sure to post an update once I have it checked too.

This post is also supposed to serve as a seller review. If you ever see Donald Wynne on here, eBay, or anywhere (and of course it’s the same Donald) he’s a 15/10 seller. He made an already exciting purchase all the more personal and special. And it turned out that all the minor scratches he showed in the pictures are almost impossible to see in person unless you know exactly where to look. I added some pictures of it now in my possession, and I’ll be shortly adding pictures of it from the listing in the other thread.

https://omegaforums.net/threads/first-time-poster-need-advice-on-a-listing.114299/

 

Congrats on you graduation and thanks for your service. Did you pick quartz for a specific reason? Just curious. It’s a nice looking watch and it sounds like you had fun getting it.

 

Congratulations on your life/ career achievement and having a wonderful watch with which to mark to occasion. I hope this is one you can pass on to your family in the future with stories of its journeys.

 

congrats!!

 

Thank you! I have always owned battery/Quartz watches so I am more familiar with them. They also seem to be a bit on the cheaper side, so for my first purchase, I was more comfortable with that. I do understand the appeal of automatic movements and certainly hope to add some to the collection someday!

 

Thank you, and I hope so too. My father and grandfather also wear watches but have never owned a luxury watch like this one before. I'm super excited to return to this forum years down the road and share some of the pictures of the journeys it accompanies me on.