New member introduction + my vintage Constellation journey

Hi all,

I have been lurking on the forum for a while but didn’t feel I had much of interest to say until now. This community and its combined knowledge is such a valuable resource, which I have gratefully consumed up to now, so I hope I can make some meaningful contributions going forward.

I am an engineer by trade based in the UK and have been fascinated by watches since my teens. I put this interest to one side through my 20s as I was also a fan of having some money in my pocket for other things (pints mostly). I am recently engaged and turning 30 this year so started giving thought to buying a decent watch to mark the occasions.

As a lover of mid century design in all its forms, I was inexorably pulled towards vintage, and 1950s Omega in particular. I quickly became captivated by the early Constellations: ref. 2852 especially but also 2652 and 2782, only to find the market is a minefield of poor condition and sloppy redials. Unlike many I wasn’t fixated on the pie pans - I am actually equally fond of the domed dials —What was most important to me was a steel cased crosshair dial with broad arrowhead indices, ideally in rose gold.

I spent months tracking listings on eBay, Chrono24, etc to learn the market, and studied the ancient texts of this forum (particularly
Show me your 2852) to become confident in identifying redials. Opportunities were few and far between, until with a mixture of inexperience and impatience I pulled the trigger on a eBay auction with blurry pictures and an incorrect description. It didn’t really tick the boxes for me but I could tell it was a 2852 with an original dial and I thought it was an opportunity to get a good deal. It turns out what I thought from the pictures was a fairly even patina was actually someone’s rough attempt to clean the dial:
Still, the case was decent, and to my surprise, the movement was in excellent condition and is running well. While it was probably a mistake to buy, it only increased my affection for these watches.

I have recently brought my search to a close when I won the watch below at auction. It’s perhaps not the 2852 of my dreams, but I absolutely love it, so that can wait for another day when I have a bit more to spend.

It’s a 2652-6 SC from around 1953 with a domed, two-tone champagne dial, rose gold indices and numerals at 3,6,9,12. It’s by no means mint, but the case is sharp and the dial is in as good condition as I’ve seen on a 2652 on the market. It’s all original as far as I can tell including and signed crystal; the only question mark for me is the crown, as I have seen 2652’s with both the decagonal crown and the Seamaster style clover crown. I will defer to the more knowledgeable member on that. movement looks decent and it’s keeping time but it probably needs a service.

All in all I’m delighted with what I’ve got, and feel like I paid an okay price at £1,300 all in. I may be catching the collectors bug, but my focus is very much on value for money and watches to actually wear day to day. Up next for me will probably be a Speedmaster Professional with tritium dial.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post and I would love to see any members 2652s if you’ve got one!

Thank you Dan. I take it that’s a 2852? Certainly an evolution of my watch I’d say. Yours is perhaps the ideal Constellation in my mind. The combination of the steel case, champagne dial, and rose gold furniture really does it for me, and the broad arrowhead indices are the best. Cracking lugs as well.

2652- Globemaster, cal 352

You and many others 😅

Beautiful watch and write-up, welcome to the forums! I think you did well in both attempts. The dial condition is sad on the first, but the case is quite attractive. There are many worse examples out there these days (frankensteins, cases polished to oblivion etc)