Mine says hi as well! The crown on it seems to be an oversize service replacement, but the lume and dial are original. These watches always seem to show a different shade of slate blue depending on the lighting. I'm pretty sure the case is an SGR, but I'm not 100% on that.
The other option for these was a flatlink with 18mm endlinks (can’t remember which model), but all the greedy Speedy/SM300 guys have hoarded those and fit 20mm endlinks on them, despite them not really being the same bracelet as the ones intended for those watches (the 18mm flatlink had smaller last links than the 20).
Regarding your lume, beauty’s in the eye of the beholder but with these Technic or Companion type dials, they either have coloured accents (such as the red crosshair), coloured dials (such as the blue ‘soleil’ type) or large lume areas to give the pieces an extra pop compared to standard versions of the same reference. The lume plays a large part in this so for me, yours would be a great candidate for a relume as it would really lift the entire watch to another level.
Then again I of course see the originality argument.
I would say there’s still a chance your lume isn’t original anyway, it’s just hard to be sure from your pics.
Whatever you decide these are lovely watches. Congrats!
Sorry, very late to this discussion. Original lume. Unoriginal crown. Options? find a suitable Omega crown. Polish the crystal (assuming it is an Omega) and enjoy.
The relume question is a valid one. If I had access to an artist that could relume with an aged tritium (color adjusted) and not cost 50% of the value of the watch, I would do it. Otherwise leave it alone. The dials that are scraped back to white look worse in my opinion.
When these 165.002 and 166.002 were a little more available we had the ability to pass on these dials with issues. That said, if you got a good price, you did fine.
I thought the same thing but I'm leaning towards leaving it in original condition once I find a correct crown and crystal.
Got a bit of an update. Correct crown arrived from Poland today with a new winding stem and my local watch maker was able to swap the components while I waited. Pretty thankful for that! Here are a couple pics.
Looking forward to the NOS signed Omega crystal and a correct Omega BOR bracelet to arrive later this week!
@JwRosenthal A few posts up in the thread Kingsrider provides a few sources. Seems the crystal from the 166.002 will also work.
Back from a complete overhaul, including a N.O.S. signed crystal, adjusted endlinks and the period correct crown. I still think the endlinks are a little bit off so I'll keep looking for some that fit better but for now I'm happy that I'm able to wear it!
And finally on my wrist
