As the title says I'm new to the forum and to omega watches in general. I recently bought an omega on ebay as an introduction to vintage omegas. Not wanting to spend a lot. Kinda sticking my little toe in to see how the water is so to speak. What can you tell me about the watch I purchased? I paid $170 usd for it. Did I get taken? Does this watch look original. thanks in advance for your replies.
Hi Toomann, Welcome to the Forum. Seems you did well in not overspending on your first Omega watch. From the pics you provide, the font looks like it is re-painted. The cal number dates it to approx 1965. By the look of it, it needs a service. Also, because the rotor seems to (have) touch(ed) the case-back. Wait for others to give more details. Hope this helps W
Welcome to the forum. I will say the logo/script has definitely been repainted. This will kill the value for any serious collector. Luckily you didn't spend too much money on it. If you enjoy the watch then wear it as is.
sorry to be the one to say it ... but ... in the future you better save your money than spending 170 bucks on a trainwreck like that ... (can you post a full pic of the dial) pay 350 for a nice, decent and well running and you are better off ... at least your newbie tax was in the low 3 digits ... ... and welcome to the club
Thanks for all your replies. I appreciate your honesty. That being said I'm not at all disappointed with the purchase. In it's current condition it's keeping good time. Lost about 12 seconds in a 24hr period. Still plan on getting it serviced. As for it's worth to a serious collector I really don't care. I buy watches because I like them. Without any interest in their resale value. If they have a good resale value great. But I rarely resell the watches that I buy. The face on the other hand for a 50yr old watch I don't expect to be pristine. There are a lot of those out on the internet. To me they look out of place. I think an old watch should look old. Just my opinion. But I am curious why so many dials need to be restored? Did the owners just not take care of them. Was it moisture getting inside and damaging them or sunlight just fading the dial?
You probably answered your question on refinished dials. Seems in the past, it was not uncommon to refinish dials if something bad happened to them. It was just a watch. Now come into the vintage market, the dial can be a make or break point of a deal. Most here will avoid a redial. That's not vintage, it's just a shame it had to be done. Part 2 of the equation is a bit different. It is total greed and trying to pass something off for something else. Usually something rarer and higher priced. Not sure if I made myself clear with my point. Hope I did. Now if you are buying to wear and do not have plans to submerge yourself completely in the vintage scene, that's OK. But understand that Omega forum is a bunch of watch enthusiasts that love vintage watches for there originally. We will call it as it is. Stick around, you will get the vibe around here soon enough.
Thanks for clarifying. I understand the whole idea of original in respect to it's value. Of course, part of what makes it valuable is it's scarcity. The less of them out there in original condition / untouched. The more valuable. I get it. And I get that part of collecting. I also respect that type of collector. I guess I don't agree with you on one point. Just because I wear my watches doesn't mean I'm not submerged in the vintage scene. Unless your definition of being submerged is very narrow and without room for someone like me who like vintage watches for what they are. Not necessarily for what they are worth monetarily. I hope I can express my opinions respectfully with those on the forum and be accepted for who I am. If there is room for someone like me I'll stick around. If not, no harm done and I'll go elsewhere.
Welcome Tooman Stick around Folks that stick up for themselves and have a diverse opinion are always welcome on the forum A word of warning though The more you hang around the more you are likely to become a WIS like the rest of us
Trust me, I get what you want out of this. The watch you bought is a vintage watch. Original case and movement. It has been redialed at some point in its life. This may perhaps even show the reality of vintage watches. They were tools, and as such were fixed in many ways to keep them working. We respect it. Just understand, that when asked, we will give an honest opinion from a collectors or perhaps a purists point of view. There is always room for anyone with a passion for watches here. We all collect for our own reasons. Stick around and enjoy the company. Did not want to make you feel unwanted, just wanted to prepare you for what we are. You have to have some tough skin to be here sometimes. But mostly just real good information.
I understand. I have thick skin and not easily offended. You are correct, we all collect for different reason. My reasons are closer to some and more distant to others. As long as an opinion is honestly given and not as an attack, I can take it and actually respect and look for that type of honesty. And yes, perhaps watches were even more of a tool in the past than today. That's part of the beauty of a mechanical watch vs a quartz movement. I find the workmanship that went into even the most common mechanical watch of the past to be fascinating. I just love it. So do I have a passion for vintage watches, yes! I believe I've been bit by the bug. And thanks for confirming what I looked up online about my watch. I figured it was the correct movement and case and case back. Hands and crown I believe are original as well. I didn't catch the details of the writing on the dial that tipped you guys off that it had been redone or at least someone had attempted it. It seems I have a lot to learn. I'll be watching and learning.
Redials are usually spotted due to uneven text, heavy text, script differences. Not easy sometimes as angle of the picture can distort an image enough not to know for sure. Just mill about and you will pick up things. I share your passion about the mechanical aspect of vintage watches. Some are just works of art. Too bad they all don't have see through case backs.
Interesting. doing a google image search on the 550 movement reveals many omega movements with a number 1 inside the omega logo. Including the 563 movement. Hopefully someone with experience will shed some light on what that means. If anything.
It designates the hand height of the movement. This means the parts that the hands mount to are different lengths to allow for watches with different dials (say those with thick applied markers rather than those with thinner painted dials) so the hands clear. So on these movements it will be the sweep seconds pinion, the cannon pinion, and the hour wheel. Modern watches also have these differences, so for example I think the ETA 2824-2 has something like 6 or more different hand heights available. The Onega 1120 has at least 4 going from memory... Cheers, Al
So the 1 inside the logo would mean a higher mounting set of hands due to the Onyx marker on my below constellation Thanks AL
Showoff! Those 500s are beautiful movements, the only thing, and I mean the only thing that could improve yours would be to have the swan neck with the little ball end on it. Much better than that chopped off version.
Hmm must have mist it then :/ But I'm pretty sure that I haven't , I have had a lot of mechanical omegas , Mabye it only appears in automatic calibers?
Well I have no idea what watches you have personally - I was actually referring to the photos on the forum that are posted - it's common to see it on the 55X and 56X calibers. But it's not just on automatic calibers, so you can clearly see it here on this Cal. 613: And on this 601: I'm not sure they always did this - can't really recall seeing it on older movements. And there will be unmarked heights, so it's only marked if it's different than the "standard" height. I will say the era above with the 55X, 56X, 75X, and 6XX movements are the most visibly marked for hand heights. As you can see here, on a modern 1120 it's much more subtle: Cheers, Al