Hello everyone, I’m the new owner of this vintage Omega and very happy about it. It’s my first „real“ watch and exactly what I was looking for during the last years (vintage, manual wind, clear bright design, plain hands – also I always liked Omega). Nevertheless I am also very interested in the history of the watch. Especially because there are some questions about the Extract of the Archives that I couldn’t answer myself by research. This is why I came here to the Omega Forums. Maybe some of you might be able to help. The extract from Omega states the following: Model: Ranchero Calibre: 268 Watch Ref.: PK 2990 Production: 1962 Movement No: 19.202.901 Production: December 27th 1962 Delivered to: Singapore (note: I don’t own any watch tools yet. This is why I didn’t open the case myself yet. These two pictures are from the merchant/watchmaker who sold it to me.) As far as I know, the cal. 268 was build/assembled until 1963 and used in several Omega watch lines in that time period. This also matches with the Movement Number (19202901 = 1962). So far, so good. But allegedly the Ranchero line was only produced in the late 50s. At least according to most of the sources I could find on the internet so far. So at first I had two theories: 1. My watch is a late produced Ranchero (maybe from a batch only for the Asian market - according to the extract the watch was shipped to Singapore.) 2. It’s a redialled Seamaster 2990. This would explain the Ranchero dial on a 1962 production. And the hands seem to be Seamaster. Since I couldn’t confirm any of my theories, I digged some more by using the only other information I had about my watch: The case back has an engraving which says „Trowell P. J. 3517280 R.A.F“. As it turns out, it seems as if the British Royal Air Force (RAF) gave Omega watches to their officers. P. J. Trowell was one of these officers, 3517280 his Service Number. This link shows an other example of a related RAF Omega from that time: http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Original-196...tary-Watch-w-Ranchero-Style-Dial/191708360275Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network With this information in mind, the delivery to Singapore makes sense too, because units of the RAF were stationed at Changi Air Base in Singapore at that time. But while knowing about this RAF background is worthwhile, it didn’t really help me with confirming one of my theories. Right know I imagine that the watch was part of a collective order made by the RAF or even a special issuance of late Rancheros for the RAF. It would be exiting to hear your opinions about my conclusions. Thank you and best regards PJ
I'm not certain what it started out looking like, but what you're looking at now is a pretty bad redial. Sorry.
IMO, and as others have stated, this is a redial and the hands don't match the dial. In addition, I think the production date is too late for the Ranchero line. Now the question is how did the "Ranchero" get on the extract? According to some sources I read, the claim is that on older extracts (this one is from 2013), Omega would include any information provided by the client. SO it is possible that when the extract was ordered this information was provided based on the dial.
I had a s/s version of this model and the dress dial design was a Seamaster with two hand styles One thing about yours is that the dial indexes do not match any of the 3 images I used, but these models used a caliber 267. If you do a search. Either there were a number of dial variations or people swapped in anything that would fit if the original was damaged, so who's to say. Omega archives probably doesn't have information on the dials used, but the dials below seem to be the most used design First is mine with a really bad redial, but it allowed me to get for about $150.00 Second from ad Sales corner ad, but incorrect hands DON
The Ranchero text on the extract has been discussed before and it is believed that all ref 2990/2996 have Ranchero on the extract, regardless of which dial they actually have when sold. There was a similar discussion on my 1960 Ranchero, and this link that was posted there has more interesting details from @tdn-dk about it, which also says 1962 should be correct with Seamaster dials: https://omegaforums.net/threads/the-transformed-rancheros.16487/ Yours has a cal 268 like mine, which is also unusual, so it seems there might have been some late batch.