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Need larger photos to evaluate, especially the dial.
Dial looks original to me, although some of the printing has begun to erode at the top. Not crazy about the rust on the case back lip and around the snapback enclosure. This means there was a water intrusion issue at one point in this watch's life. Rust is a bit like cancer to a watch case. You can probably address the issue with a watchmaker familiar with rust removal, but it is likely to return someday.
The crown doesn't seem to fit properly to the case. Could be a modern Omega replacement.
It is possible that the movement was serviced and any rust inside was addressed...or not. The price seems like one for a pristine example. Clearly, this one is not pristine.
gatorcpa
It’s difficult timepiece to find pristine and priced well. Ran across one from Omega Enthusiast for $12,500 (not even considering, but is close to pristine) and another for ~$9,000 from a different seller but condition not pristine (see attached photo). I may wait a bit to see if others become available.
I may be off on my idea of value, but if you actually want to wear this watch you need to be very careful. Many, many parts made of unobtanium.
gatorcpa
The Omega Enthusiast watch was previously discussed on the Forum and was generally panned especially with the laughable asking price.
Makes sense, he’s way in left field on pricing. This timepiece is interesting. You see pricing anywhere from $2,500-$12,500. Hard to gauge where the market should actually be. My thought is pristine should probably be around $5,000 tops. Fair?
I would say you'll be hard pushed to find a pristine one for $5000 but you should be able to get a nice one for that money yes.
I know this is beating a dead horse, but I am always amazed by the pricing on the Omega Enthusiast website. Here is an example of an Omega cosmic Moonphase ref 2606 that sold on eBAY Januray 9th for a < 2,600$ - See screen capture below.
Now if you look carefully at the dial of this watch you will see some distinctive markings (see picture below).
Now if we go to the Omega Enthusiast website we seem the same watch listed, only a few week later (see screen shot below).
We can see it is the same watch because of the markings on the dial (see picture below):
Although he lists the watch as having an original signed crown, the watch on his website has the crown replaced and is now priced at double what it sold for 4 weeks ago 😀.
Bottom line - do you research and find better deals on places like the OF.
For the OP, I'd suggest doing a really thorough search for auction sales and cross-reference with condition. That will help you understand the market better for yourself.
The Omega Enthusiast steel example is also far from pristine. Look at the pitting on the case back. Someone treated that case with rust remover. Nothing wrong with that, but only one with a lot of rust is going to leave pits like that. For $12K, they could have had some laser welding done to fix that.
My thoughts on these watches is simply stay away. The poor condition examples are likely to break and will be incredibly expensive to fix. The very few nice ones will be expensive to begin with.
I would say $5,000 is a starter. If I was going to spend that, I’d look for solid gold. 14K being a little bit better than 18K because it’s a tiny bit harder. It’s not going to be that much more for gold, but the cases tend to protect the movements a little bit better than the steel.
gatorcpa
I know this is beating a dead horse, but I am always amazed by the pricing on the Omega Enthusiast website. Here is an example of an Omega cosmic Moonphase ref 2606 that sold on eBAY Januray 9th for a < 2,600$ - See screen capture below.
Now if you look carefully at the dial of this watch you will see some distinctive markings (see picture below).
Now if we go to the Omega Enthusiast website we seem the same watch listed, only a few week later (see screen shot below).
We can see it is the same watch because of the markings on the dial (see picture below):
Although he lists the watch as having an original signed crown, the watch on his website has the crown replaced and is now priced at double what it sold for 4 weeks ago 😀.
Bottom line - do you research and find better deals on places like the OF.
Ok, thanks for advice. Any recs on auctions to check? The main I’ve looked at are Invaluable, eBay, and general Google searches for the specific reference.