Hi there, awesome community, never knew you existed. I received this watch from my late dad and and sitting on the fence between keeping it and selling it. If selling, I want to be a responsible seller and have an accurate understanding of the legitimacy of his watch. Thanks in advance.

My dad usually wore his Rolex but he’s had this since forever. Hope the pictures do it justice. Sorry it's in poor condition and not tuned/restored. I don't have the tools necessary to take the case back off.

 

The bracelet, if it is an Omega BOR, is worth a significant amount of the total value there.

Honestly is the best policy, so here it goes. The Seamaster 30 is an abundant but reliable and quite affordable model, and yours is negatively affected by the relatively amateurish engraving on the back.

If an engraving was a professionally done monogram, or neatly scripted name, or had some historic significance to the broader public, it might not hurt the value too much. But that looks like it was done by somebody who didn't know what they were doing.

To summarize:
The good - the bracelet (if it's Omega), the dial condition, and the case sharpness.
The bad - the non-original crown.
The ugly - the case back engraving.

Welcome to the forums.

 

And now you can try to open it and post some pictures..

 

I would agree on the bracelet and on the case sharpness but not on the dial condition.
In my opinion the dial has had a water damage. The water damage would normally also be recognizeable with the movement.
Bring it to a watchmaker to open the caseback and you will know more.
Best regards

 

+1. Having the dial restored will be expensive and will actually reduce its value. Either get it serviced and continue to own your Dad's watch, or put it on ebay as it is. It'd probably make £150-200.

Some people will say you shouldn't sell it because it is a family heirloom. Whilst I get that (and I'm keeping my Dad's watch despite never wearing it), I say it's yours and you can do whatever you like with it.

 

I don't care about the dial condition so much as I care about its originality.
If a dial is legible and not ugly, don't touch it.
If it's ugly but legible, sell it. Somebody somewhere might find it aesthetically pleasing.
If it's totally illegible, redial it.

 

Thanks guys, I will try to get the case back removed. Will post some pics of the band specifically. I have better heirlooms in better condition and and with more sentimental value. Here’s a vid I took of the movement. May post it here or throw it on eBay. Will post pics when I get it open. Can anyone ID the year and caliber?

 

Caliber should be 286 hand winding. Year of production should be between 1960 and 1965. You can check this with the serial number in the movement and there should be an engraving on the inner side of the case back After the reference. (Should be reference 135.003 or 135.007)
Duffy

 

Specs

 

Here's some pics of the band, will post movement pics and video as soon as i get a jeweler to get the case back off. Thanks everyone for your help. I won't be restoring it, will leave as is and probably put up on fleabay. Yeah the engravings are my dad's initials he did with a hand-held engraver

 

Unfortunately it seems to be a (partially) generic bracelet. Not sure if it's mostly generic or mostly Omega, though. Maybe someone else has a better eye for that.

 

Not sure, but what does the bracelet manufacturer's mark (in the oval on the inside of the clasp) say? It's unfortunately illegible in the photo.

 

Somewhere, I have the correct outside clasp piece for that bracelet, with the Ω symbol. No idea what they're worth as an individual part. If you're interested, I'll see if I can track it down.

 

Here’s a better picture

 

It's not clear from any of those photographs what the number on the inside of the clasp is - in the first image, for all the world it looks to me like "1075". In the second image, it looks like "1038", but it might be "1088" or "1068". The only one of those numbers which belongs on an Omega bracelet is 1068, and that's for a 7 link bracelet, not a 5 link.

Can you confirm yourself what the number is?

 

1036, and the other one says 11o.12, not sure what that means. I got the case back open and will post the movement and back. It’s pretty inside!

 

It’s a 286 caliber. Is there a way to know the year? Thanks so much for your help, if anyone’s interested please feel free to PM me

 

1036 makes sense - that's the correct number for a 5 bead bracelet like yours. The movement is in very nice condition and the even toning implies that nothing has been replaced.

According to Omega, it's from 1962.
https://www.omegawatches.com/watch-omega-seamaster-30-st-135-0003

 

And movement serial number suggests 1963. Which is consistent with a reference introduced in 1962.
http://chronomaddox.com/omega_serial_numbers.html

 

Thanks. Here’s what it looks like in motion