New piece: Omega De Ville Prestige

In recent years I sort of started losing interest in watches and slimmed down my watch collection to only 1 watch, my trusted SMP 2531.80 that I’ve worn daily during the last 2 years in all sorts of circumstances. Diving, paddle boarding, hiking, skiing and surfing, I think it has seen more action that most watches 😀

In the past months I started longing for a piece that I could wear comfortably on a leather strap and that would work well with straps (and clothing) of any color. This was mostly triggered by my brother who started wearing his 5 digit sub on leather, an amazing combination.

I decided to fill this gap in my “collection” and first turned to the Speedmaster (the king of strap monsters) but after long consideration I decided that I want something less sporty, smaller and thinner. I briefly looked at a Rolex Datejust 16234 with silver dial but the prices that the sellers are quoting are way too much for what is ultimately not a high end watch imo.

My continued search led me to proper dress watches, a category I absolutely didn’t care for before. Here I discovered my new grail watch: the Patek Calatrava 5107G (sadly not within my budget atm). As the Calatravas have a pretty generic design that at some point has been part of most watch manufacturer’s catalogues I decided to check out Omega’s dress offering. Their current pieces starting at 39mm I consider too big so I turned to vintage. The pieces I liked most were the pie pan dial Constellations of the sixties and seventies. Some things put me off there, questionable (service) history, non hacking movements without quick set date and a size of 34mm which I would consider being slightly too small for modern standards, even though I definitely prefer modestly sized watches.

I didn’t give up and moved on to browse through slightly more modern dress offerings of both Omega and others and ultimately ended up finding something to my liking in Omega’s seemingly not that popular De Ville Prestige range.

Incoming: Ref. 424.10.37.20.02.001
With a size of 36.8mm it's a perfect middle ground between the small sizes of 60 years ago and modern dress watches, retaining vintage vibes but also not making it look like a watch worn by my great grandfather during WWII. A huge added bonus, they are real bargains on the used market! After getting it I immediately put it on a strap and am very happy with the choice.

Anyhow, any story is of course useless without pics 😀

Beautiful watch and a really nice two-watch combo. You have all your bases covered.

I have looked at the 36.8mm De Ville's before. Does the lack of minute markers bother you? I prefer the overall look of the dials without the minute markers vs. the De Ville's that have them. But I have a mental block about not having the markers to read a specific time. Even though we usually glace at our watches for approximate times.

It looks fantastic, congratulations on your new acquisition!

The De Ville line is underappreciated.

I agree … underappreciated and in some cases, wildly undervalued. Last year I picked up a Deville Hour Vision Chronograph (431.10.42.51.02.001) on eBay for lunch money, at least relative to original retail. A beautifully finished watch with a great design and fantastic bracelet, all for about the retail price of a new Tissot. Hard to pass up.

The lack of minute markers is what I really like. I've never had a watch without them but it gives the dial a very clean and "peaceful" look as minute precision seems to matter less.

I think it's because the dress offering of Omega has been too scattered across basically every line (Seamaster, De Ville, Constellation, Geneva,...). And then the De Ville having again their own sub-lines (Prestige, Tresor,...) 🙄 Imo if they consolidated all dress watches under the same line it would raise the (sub)brand's value.

But well, good for us. Modern co-axial Omegas for Tissot money. Can't wait to wear it for the next black tie event 😅

A good friend got something very similar from his wife the morning of their wedding (she had it delivered to the hotel we were using to get ready, cause, can't see each other the day of).

Every time I see him he's wearing it. It is beat to all hell and back.

It still looks great.

Always a beauty on the wrist.......Congratulation

The deville 36.8 is such a fun dress watch with 9.9 thickness. Besides mido baroncelli and orient, the de ville prestige is value king. I bought it to wear for a bit and pass down to daughter in 9 years.

Now that I have a Two tone Globemaster, my de ville is forgotten.🙁