Dear respected members,

i do have a Megaquartz 32 (Ref. 196.0015/396.0809) featuring an incorrect dial. The previous owner, a gentleman from the french part of Switzerland, has given me the following information concerning the history of this watch: The watch came to him from the original owner, a former Omega employee. It was an anniversary gift by Omega and at that time employees got the possibility to configure these watches themselves. He chose to install a very beautiful black dial that was otherwise not available on that reference.I am not in the position to prove that this really is a one-off by Omega, but the information sounds plausible to me.

A big thank you goes to @arsmax for checking this watch with the Omega Archives. He got following info:

"...Malheureusement, je ne trouve pas d'information pour cette montre, à part une date de livraison en Juin 1980, mais c'est tout.
D'après d'autres information, le cadran était plutôt argenté que gris foncé comme sur la photo..."

("...Unfortunately, I can not find any information for this watch, except for a delivery date in June 1980, but that's it. According to other information, the dial was rather silvery than dark gray as in the picture...")

@arsmax commented on his own: "Unfortunately there are not information about the reference (hole in the archive about this information). They know only that this watch with the specific serial number was delivered in 1980. Nevertheless, the information about the incorrect dial was only comparing this model to the standard reference. We cannot know if it was delivered with some “special” variation of the dial."

So that black/dark grey dial remains a mystery, as i have never seen another watch featuring it.

But maybe you have? If you know another watch or even a reference featuring it, i am all ears.

Your help is much appreciated. Thank you very much.

The pictures:

 

Regardless of the origins of the configuration, it has pleasing aesthetics.

 

That's for sure. And it is the reason why i bought it in the first place. IMHO it looks better, than the usual dial on these:


Not only does the dial fit perfectly, also the white hands do have the same proportions as the black ones in the usual configuration.

And then there is this: The "OMEGA QUARTZ" script looks OK, but not perfectly applied, while the "Constellation" script looks perfect.

Maybe sometimes it is as simple as that: An Omega employee got the watch for his anniversary, equipped with pre-production dial and hands of his choice.