Newbie here - just bought a neo-vintage Omega Seamaster for my husband

[seamaster2511]

Hello everyone!

I’m new here and I just bought an Omega Seamaster 2552.80 online as a surprise for my husband for his birthday.

Is anyone able to tell just from the pictures whether this is authentic? And also the year of production?

looking forward to understand the watch expertise and community!

 

[Donn Chambers]

It’s real, but it is the midsize model, so only 36mm across. Hope your husband likes smaller watches.

 

[sathomasga]

Great gift! I hope your husband appreciates it.

seamaster2511

And also the year of production?

There may be a serial number engraved on the lug at 7 o'clock. If present, that will be enough to determine the production year (more or less.)

(I know that quartz models have the serial number there, but I'm not sure about the automatic version.)

 

[padders]

It looks to be a SuperLuminova dial. That model wasn’t made beyond around 1998 so that puts an upper date on it as they changed to SL lume in 1997. Unless the dial was changed in which case it could be from maybe 1994 until then.

If you’d like to share the asking price we can comment on if it’s a fair deal.

It’s not the most desirable SMP variation so don’t compare prices with the Bond 2531.80, these sell for less, maybe 30-40% less than the full size Bond due to the smaller size and steel bezel.

 

[seamaster2511]

Thanks for the input everyone! It’s all very helpful and happy to learn more about this.

I havent actually received the watch yet so I can’t check the serial number just yet but will be sure to! How do I determine the production year from the serial number?

I got the watch from a professional dealer on Chrono24 for around USD1,500 without box or papers. Would that be a reasonable price?

This watch will actually be my husband’s first venture into luxury watches, and I was hoping for a 1994 production year as that’s my husband’s birth year.

 

[TexOmega]

Reasonable price if it works ok and no parts are needed..... plan on a service cost, too. $300-500

Also, hope the bracelet fits ok and not too small, if so, factor in cost of additional links.

 

[sathomasga]

seamaster2511

How do I determine the production year from the serial number?

Here is a list that Omega published at one time. It has a few errors, but is good for an initial estimate. There are many web sites that let you input an Omega serial number and get the production date, but most are probably using this data as the source.

 

[sathomasga]

TexOmega

Also, hope the bracelet fits ok and not too small, if so, factor in cost of additional links.

At least it has both half-links, which is a good sign.

 

[padders]

sathomasga

Here is a list that Omega published at one time. It has a few errors, but is good for an initial estimate. There are many web sites that let you input an Omega serial number and get the production date, but most are probably using this data as the source.

The list above can give an idea for some earlier Omega models but will be less useful to the OP as it is wide of the mark on a lot of stuff after around 1986, I'd be surprised if it had in fact been published by an official Omega channel. You can date watches of this era with the serial but you need data points from similar models. The problem is that from the 1980s onwards different models used different serial ranges so you can no longer use a single table.