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om swiss made om

Peemacgee
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peterkirk01 peterkirk01
So it is actually a 168.004. Nice.

strictly speaking yes and no.
It is a .5004, a British version of an .004
The last Swiss versions of an .004 were sold around '67 (IIRC), superseded by the 168.010 - as you first thought of your watch.
But the British liked to tarry somewhat, in design terms, which is why you also see British 'lyre-lug' Connies being produced right through the 60s, even though they stopped officially being produced (in Switzerland) in around '62

These are very good quality cases, the equal of the Swiss cases

Still doesn't explain the 'missing' medallion though.....
 
Peemacgee
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peterkirk01 peterkirk01
Most of the 168.004's on ebay are caliber 561. Is this normal.

only a very few (very late) 168.004s carried cal 564s, the vast majority were 561s
 
peterkirk01
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When you look at the outside of the caseback there is a milled circle which certainly held so sort of medallion. The caseback is cut into randomly probably to help with the adhesion.
 
gatorcpa
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The Ref. 168.5004 is a "hidden crown" model, which means that the original crown would have been recessed into the case.

p25.jpg


So the crown here is an incorrect replacement for starters.

The serial number of the movement is 33M, which would indicate a production date of around 1973 or so. In addition, the center of the rotor assembly on these later 56X/75X movements is a little different than on earlier versions. This is consistent with the production date.

1973 seems very late in terms of the production of the Ref. 168.5004. I would be wary of this being a replacement movement.

I don't know if it would be possible to find a proper replacement medallion for this watch. Probably not.

For all these reasons, I would not consider this a collector grade watch and would price it based on gold content, plus $100 to $200 for the working movement.
gatorcpa
 
Peemacgee
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It’s hard to tell for sure but I think the London date letter is a ‘q’ for approx 1971, which by my reckoning matches the approx 71 movt date
Edit
I agree that it’s altogether quite late for a 168.5004
 
peterkirk01
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gatorcpa gatorcpa
The Ref. 168.5004 is a "hidden crown" model, which means that the original crown would have been recessed into the case.

p25.jpg


So the crown here is an incorrect replacement for starters.

The serial number of the movement is 33M, which would indicate a production date of around 1973 or so. In addition, the center of the rotor assembly on these later 56X/75X movements is a little different than on earlier versions. This is consistent with the production date.

1973 seems very late in terms of the production of the Ref. 168.5004. I would be wary of this being a replacement movement.

I don't know if it would be possible to find a proper replacement medallion for this watch. Probably not.

For all these reasons, I would not consider this a collector grade watch and would price it based on gold content, plus $100 to $200 for the working movement.
gatorcpa
Thanks for your input.
 
gatorcpa
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I took another look on the Old-Omegas website, and there is a 1971 UK catalog that refers to the Ref. 168.5004 still being produced at that time.

p8.jpg


The dial is an exact match, so my guess is that the same caseback was probably used for the .5014 (deluxe - with gold dial) and .5004 (standard dial). So that is OK and consistent with the movement serial number.

Still, the crown and missing medallion are concerns.
gatorcpa
 
peterkirk01
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Other contributors mentioned that the medallion was normally cast into the 18ct complete backcase so a missing medallion would be very strange. Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated. Thanks.
 
Davidt
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Have you looked for other examples of this reference to find hi res pictures of the caseback? You may be able to tell from these if any had the medallion separate from the caseback.
 
peterkirk01
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Yes I have done so and I cannot find any. Thanks for your input.
 
Davidt
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peterkirk01 peterkirk01
Yes I have done so and I cannot find any. Thanks for your input.

Are you saying you haven’t found any examples at all or just none with what appears to be a separate caseback and medallion?
 
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