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kohster
路Greetings everyone! I will warn people from the beginning that I have a tendency to be a bit verbose, so apologies in advance. I have tried to do my preparation by reading the available guides and such, but also if I go against convention and cause offense, it is by no means intentional.
I've always had a dream of getting a nice mechanical watch as a meaningful gift that I would actually want to wear on a regular basis. My dad had previously given me a Totoni that his father had owned and passed down to him, and it's nice from a family heirloom standpoint, but I wouldn't actually wear it regularly - it's just not my style. Over my life, I have had a couple nice-ish quartz watches, but I've never had a mechanical watch. Indeed, for the past 12-14 years I've been going through Casio Wave Ceptors that have analog hands with sub-digital displays and alarms, and while I loved them from the standpoint of never having to set them, my desire to have a fully mechanical watch has been growing over the past few years.
So a couple weeks ago, I was visiting my parents, and we started talking about watches again (my dad and his brother have this hobby of buying fake watches back in Malaysia - I've gotten a couple of them from him as well. Absolutely no sentimental value to me, and most of them are pretty crappy in terms of reliability and actual timekeeping, but that's not what you buy or wear things like that for). My dad asked if I wanted any more of his watches. I thought he was going to offer me another fake, which would have been fun by itself, but then he said, "ok, since you're the only person in the family who isn't wearing a smartwatch anymore, it's probably time to give this to you." Interest piqued!!
Turns out when he and my mom were getting together back in the late 60's, my mom's father bought him an Omega Dynamic I as a gift in 1969. He said he wore it for a few years and then just held onto it for the sentimental value. I don't remember seeing this watch at all when I was growing up, so as far as I can tell it's been knocking around loose in a box with a bunch of other watches of his and my mom's forever. He says that he got it serviced around 6 years ago, but he has no recollection of what was actually done to the thing at that time, and again after that service it just went back in the box.
I immediately loved the watch - such a cool looking design, and the fact that it was a multi-generational gift makes it definitely special. I've spent the past couple weeks reading up on these things, including any thread on these forums back to Jan 2021 that mentioned the Dynamic line. So thanks to everyone who's posted about them so far - I really appreciate all of the great information and pics that other people have shared. I've read Desmond's article that gets cited many times along with some other historical pages that got linked to as well. Like I said, I've been drinking from the fire hose a bit the past couple of weeks, so again I apologize if I get any details wrong, but please all polite corrections and such are more than welcome!
As far as I can tell, this looks like a reference 166.0079 (also seen it as 166.079 in many places) with the 752 calbre day-date movement. Again purely based on what I've read and what I can see on the exterior of the watch, it looks all original (but certainly if anyone sees anything that stands out, please point it out!). My dad said it came with both the "leather" (Corfam) and steel bracelet; he has no idea what happened to the Corfam one over the years, so it just has the steel one. The watch winds easily using the crown or via the automatic mechanism as I wear it, and setting the date/time seems to work consistently with how I've seen the 752 described (pull out one position to set time, no hacking, need to move forward 24 hours at a time to get the day of the week to advance, pulling out to the next position advances the day of the month by one number each time). The dial says T SWISS MADE T, and there is lume on the hands and hour markers that is very very dim, consistent with 50 year old tritium (gone through 4 half-lives at this point). If I shine a bright flashlight on the face, the lume will glow for just a few seconds before fading back to its very dim level. The crystal has the Omega logo in the center; not sure if it was replaced when it was serviced. It "looks" old to me, with some scratches and such, but I have no way of knowing. Similarly, the crown has the Omega logo on it, but I have no idea if it was replaced on servicing. The case and bracelet overall have a number of scratches and wear on them as well, but the sunburst finishing on the bezel is still there, so whoever did do the servicing didn't do any polishing as far as I can tell. Heck, all of the scratches could have just come from rolling around in the box with the other watches - all the wear on the caseback looks like it just came from the bracelet rubbing against it. 馃榾
I have not yet opened up the watch (and I do not have the tools/skills to do so, especially with it needing to get opened from the dial side), so I cannot verify the condition/originality of what's inside to get the serial number and other markings off of the case interior. The watch does run consistently over the few days that I've worn it. Seems to gain a little over 20-25 seconds per day, and it did the same when I left it sitting on its back (crystal up) on my desk to check power reserve (it ran for 49 hours and 15 minutes). I have not yet gotten any kind of actual time grapher measurements to check actual gain/loss, amplitude, etc nor have I done any real study of how much time gets gained/loss in different positions.
I know many here would recommend that I get the watch sent in for service, and I'm looking around at options both via mail in services as well as in person in the northern Chicagoland area. I've perused some of the threads that talk about service recommendations, but if anyone has ones that they'd like to share, I would love to hear. I would like to get someone who has access to Omega parts and who is willing to put up with my level of attention to detail without getting impatient/testy. I'm not too interested in making the watch look like brand new (after all, part of the charm is the vintage look), but I would like to do what's necessary to make sure that it's mechanically sound and clean since I do want to wear it regularly and have it stay reasonably on time from day to day.
OK I think I've blathered on long enough, and it's time to attach some photos. I know the lighting isn't ideal on a many of these, so if there are particular angles that people might want to see in more detail, let me know and I'll try to get some better shots with an actual macro camera. I will say that the wrist shot makes it look a lot bigger on my wrist than it actually is just because of the angle of how close the camera on my phone was.
Once again, thanks much for reading this far if you made it this far, thanks as well for all of the educational material on the forums and links to other sites, and thanks in advance for any specific input/insights that people might have about this watch in particular!
I've always had a dream of getting a nice mechanical watch as a meaningful gift that I would actually want to wear on a regular basis. My dad had previously given me a Totoni that his father had owned and passed down to him, and it's nice from a family heirloom standpoint, but I wouldn't actually wear it regularly - it's just not my style. Over my life, I have had a couple nice-ish quartz watches, but I've never had a mechanical watch. Indeed, for the past 12-14 years I've been going through Casio Wave Ceptors that have analog hands with sub-digital displays and alarms, and while I loved them from the standpoint of never having to set them, my desire to have a fully mechanical watch has been growing over the past few years.
So a couple weeks ago, I was visiting my parents, and we started talking about watches again (my dad and his brother have this hobby of buying fake watches back in Malaysia - I've gotten a couple of them from him as well. Absolutely no sentimental value to me, and most of them are pretty crappy in terms of reliability and actual timekeeping, but that's not what you buy or wear things like that for). My dad asked if I wanted any more of his watches. I thought he was going to offer me another fake, which would have been fun by itself, but then he said, "ok, since you're the only person in the family who isn't wearing a smartwatch anymore, it's probably time to give this to you." Interest piqued!!
Turns out when he and my mom were getting together back in the late 60's, my mom's father bought him an Omega Dynamic I as a gift in 1969. He said he wore it for a few years and then just held onto it for the sentimental value. I don't remember seeing this watch at all when I was growing up, so as far as I can tell it's been knocking around loose in a box with a bunch of other watches of his and my mom's forever. He says that he got it serviced around 6 years ago, but he has no recollection of what was actually done to the thing at that time, and again after that service it just went back in the box.
I immediately loved the watch - such a cool looking design, and the fact that it was a multi-generational gift makes it definitely special. I've spent the past couple weeks reading up on these things, including any thread on these forums back to Jan 2021 that mentioned the Dynamic line. So thanks to everyone who's posted about them so far - I really appreciate all of the great information and pics that other people have shared. I've read Desmond's article that gets cited many times along with some other historical pages that got linked to as well. Like I said, I've been drinking from the fire hose a bit the past couple of weeks, so again I apologize if I get any details wrong, but please all polite corrections and such are more than welcome!
As far as I can tell, this looks like a reference 166.0079 (also seen it as 166.079 in many places) with the 752 calbre day-date movement. Again purely based on what I've read and what I can see on the exterior of the watch, it looks all original (but certainly if anyone sees anything that stands out, please point it out!). My dad said it came with both the "leather" (Corfam) and steel bracelet; he has no idea what happened to the Corfam one over the years, so it just has the steel one. The watch winds easily using the crown or via the automatic mechanism as I wear it, and setting the date/time seems to work consistently with how I've seen the 752 described (pull out one position to set time, no hacking, need to move forward 24 hours at a time to get the day of the week to advance, pulling out to the next position advances the day of the month by one number each time). The dial says T SWISS MADE T, and there is lume on the hands and hour markers that is very very dim, consistent with 50 year old tritium (gone through 4 half-lives at this point). If I shine a bright flashlight on the face, the lume will glow for just a few seconds before fading back to its very dim level. The crystal has the Omega logo in the center; not sure if it was replaced when it was serviced. It "looks" old to me, with some scratches and such, but I have no way of knowing. Similarly, the crown has the Omega logo on it, but I have no idea if it was replaced on servicing. The case and bracelet overall have a number of scratches and wear on them as well, but the sunburst finishing on the bezel is still there, so whoever did do the servicing didn't do any polishing as far as I can tell. Heck, all of the scratches could have just come from rolling around in the box with the other watches - all the wear on the caseback looks like it just came from the bracelet rubbing against it. 馃榾
I have not yet opened up the watch (and I do not have the tools/skills to do so, especially with it needing to get opened from the dial side), so I cannot verify the condition/originality of what's inside to get the serial number and other markings off of the case interior. The watch does run consistently over the few days that I've worn it. Seems to gain a little over 20-25 seconds per day, and it did the same when I left it sitting on its back (crystal up) on my desk to check power reserve (it ran for 49 hours and 15 minutes). I have not yet gotten any kind of actual time grapher measurements to check actual gain/loss, amplitude, etc nor have I done any real study of how much time gets gained/loss in different positions.
I know many here would recommend that I get the watch sent in for service, and I'm looking around at options both via mail in services as well as in person in the northern Chicagoland area. I've perused some of the threads that talk about service recommendations, but if anyone has ones that they'd like to share, I would love to hear. I would like to get someone who has access to Omega parts and who is willing to put up with my level of attention to detail without getting impatient/testy. I'm not too interested in making the watch look like brand new (after all, part of the charm is the vintage look), but I would like to do what's necessary to make sure that it's mechanically sound and clean since I do want to wear it regularly and have it stay reasonably on time from day to day.
OK I think I've blathered on long enough, and it's time to attach some photos. I know the lighting isn't ideal on a many of these, so if there are particular angles that people might want to see in more detail, let me know and I'll try to get some better shots with an actual macro camera. I will say that the wrist shot makes it look a lot bigger on my wrist than it actually is just because of the angle of how close the camera on my phone was.
Once again, thanks much for reading this far if you made it this far, thanks as well for all of the educational material on the forums and links to other sites, and thanks in advance for any specific input/insights that people might have about this watch in particular!
