morning all

Wanted to firstly share a very very rare watch with you all and secondly its transformation from a bag of badgers in a real jewel

So, about six weeks ago I met a mate in Nottingham who amongst his other attributes is a budding watch dealer, we meet regularly for a coffee and he usually brings along a plastic bag of treasure for me, on this particular occasion he produced this sorry creature



As you can see from the images she was in a very poor way, the movement was full of rush and tbh it was so tarnished it looked like it had never even been cleaned, dial was stained...... But...... It was a solid gold model and more over a very very rare shackmans made 9ct cased model for the UK market, there were special order watches and something really special. Shackmans are responsible for the manufacture of omegas Milanese bracelets and the amazing quality omega mesh bands of the period

Anyway, took a gamble and got it home, first thing of note was the case and case back weigh a whopping 38 grams, massively more than the Swiss made cases! But the second thing was she was in an extremely sorry state. I cleaned the case with a gold cloth and it came back really well, when the tarnish had been removed it was clear it had never been refinished and although wearing a few war wounds was in remarkable cosmetic condition



So, I had a couple of services on account with Paul wirdnam AKA silverhawk, so down she went to him, virtually everything needed replacing, indexing, coils, all the big cost items and it's even had a new metal date wheel, Paul cleaned the dial, ultrasonic'd the case, replaced a MASS of parts with NOS items, replaced the date wheel and whole top components section of the movement, new stem, new crown and returned.

It came back to me working perfectly and keeping chronometer spec time



admittedly to most this would be enough but for me it needed more, something this rare (I accept not everyone places value on these electronic chronometers) needed to be just so, with that in mind it went straight off to Omega to be correctly refinished

It landed back with me this week and the result were simply amazing, so here is the finished article



Absolutely loving it, really nice chunky size, redish gold 9ct case looks awesome and the dial is really stand out, especially with the raised battons

Anyway, though I would share the journey, it's only taken 4 weeks from start to finish but it was nice to save it from the smelting pot, where too many of these vintage beauties ended up! I've only ever seen three other 9ct versions and non as nice as this one

Cheers Tom

 

That's a Grand transformation. Well rescued.

 

Thanks for sharing, seeing all of your posts on these electronic Omegas has me thinking ill own one at some point

 

Great story and watch. The end result is really stunning. I'm a fan of these f300s.

 

Thanks chaps

Although I know the purist's don't appreciate the electronic chronometers IMHO this is every bit as much watch as an 18K pie pan and the case is by FAR the best made gold cased connie I have ever owned, its just so robustly made and such great quality.

 

Very pretty, what is the reference, 188.5001 ? Diameter around 37mm ?

 

It is case number 198.5001 Paul who did the work has only seen one of these 9K f300 before with the same case number albeit with slightly different dial. The case number appears to be a "special" because the last conventional number assigned to an f300 is 198.0076. You wont fined198.5001 in the Dressings Catalogues. Some of Pauls research on f300 case numbers here:

http://electric-watches.co.uk/makers/omega/omega-f300-tuning-fork/omega-f300-case-numbers-and-dates/

 

Beautiful result! You have a good eye to see such potential in what many would have brushed aside as a "dog". Wear it in good health!

 

astonishing transformation -that case is exceptional -and well worth the additional 'swiss finishing school'

 

Here she is in a 1974 British catalogue, price when new was over £300, or roughly twice the price of a Speedmaster professional so I guess at the time it was an increasingly expensive watch, probably why it's got such stinking build quality

 

A real beauty!!

 

Fabulous. Any chance we could hear how the dial was cleaned? I've read so many "don't touch it unless you're ready to ruin it" posts I'm really curious.

 

Beautiful watch and good work!

 

The dial on this one was tritium than had fallen off on the dial, it was easy to clean with a cotton bud

I collect conatellation stardust, which are notoriously brittle, however they also 'fog' and get a layre of dirt over them, it will scare fellow forum members but I clean the dial with very mild mixture of hand soap and warm water and clean the whole dial with cotton buds!

I've clean speedy dials, sm300 dials and plenty of mq dials this way!

The other option is to use bluetac, which also works extremely well, just be careful around the printed areas

Thanks Tom

 

Very nice job Tom, well rescued!

 

Hey Tom,

I was wandering if you could help me out. I have a 1985001 exactly the same as this model, I believe also a 9k gold. I have the original receipt which shows a spend of £1886 in 1976. I was wandering what the value of this watch may be? Any help or info on the watch would be appreciated! Really is a stunning watch.

Best regards,

Brandon

 

Gold value is 450-500€. Calculated using the weight of 38 grams of the first post. A comparable stainless steel one will sell for 300 to 500€ depending on it's condition. So I would say it's value maybe between 750 and 1000€.

 

Hey Tom! This old post resurrected and I read the whole thing! Amazing save! I’m puzzled why you sent the watch to Omega after your watchmaker did all that work. What did they do for it that your guy hadn’t already or couldn’t do? Didn’t you run the risk that they would undo something your guy already did?

Great story and so nice to know this beauty is still in circulation!

 

He says above: case finish. I have sent hummers to STS before after a Paul or Keith T service to get back the factory finish.

TDH, thanks for sharing, I dream of finding a hummer like that. I have some lovely pieces but nothing that rare or special.

 

What does a case refinishing involve? And if you send to Omega for just that, will they agree to only do that?

Now, not to poke any bears, but...Why is a case refinishing not an issue in this community whereas polishing or a redial an unspeakable act? Just curious!