Hi all

I have here a vintage Omega Seamaster dial and can't find any model with this layout.
The dial is made by Singer and the feet of the dial are matching the same position as
a 321 Speedmaster dial.

Anyone ever seen such a dial?

 

I have never seen one like this.
Although there are several "colorful" Seamaster 321 dial variations, it's safe to say that if a dial turns up and it looks like a hybrid between a speedy & a seamaster dial, with a very strange lume configuration, it is either a prototype, or it is a repainted dial. The latter would be my uneducated guess

 

When in doubt, not a prototype.

 

its a good looker......

 

could be a prototype. ticks most boxes. have seen prototypes like this kind for rolex as well...... never gone into production. sometimes Marcus found prototypes in switzerland. kind regards. achim

 

That one is in Switzerland too…found in a lot of Omega Parts near Biel

 

Don't know if it's authentic, but it surely looks great!

 

Hmm, prototypes is a strong word when the practices of the day in building a particular model called for various "samples". In the 50s and 60s the habit was to rely on case, dial and bracelet suppliers to come up with "concepts" from which the Creations department would make choices.

Evelyn Genta, recounting Gerald's experiences in the late Fifties and early Sixties, explained the process to me as a kind of hit and miss affair, totally unlike the design processes of today where in-house design departments follow the design from scratch. Even though Gerald was contracted to Omega, he worked almost exclusively with case, dial and bracelet makers who mixed and match design ideas until Creations Department boffins thought they had hit the mark. It was an organic process to say the least.

I've seen many so-called prototypes that are nothing more that built-up samples using un-numbered movements so as to provide the Omega creations Department with options. They are not prototypes but 'mock-ups'.

I rather like the Wikipedia definition (mirroring generally the acceptable dictionary definitions) of prototypes as "an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from." Prototypes in industry are generally a test product and undergo rigorous assessment and design change to arrive at an optimal expression of the product, whereas the samples produced for and by Omega in the 60s and 70s were not test products but visual representations of an idea mocked up so Omega marketing and creative boffins could make a choice.

So I think it's a stretching a very long bow to apply modern ideas of a prototype to practices 60 years ago that were very different.

Cheers

Desmond

 

I quite like it. There is a single register prototype dial which is similar

 

Ah nice to know…nice prototype the oneeyed

 

Dibs!

 

Dibs?

 

That means he wants to be first in line if you ever sell it

 

Ah i see

But he isn't first

 

But I called dibs!!!!!

 

Sure but there are some calls before you

 

Google 321 Seamaster for watches with that layout.

 

Not the first time I see it..

Photo courtesy A.Isnardi

 

Racing Seamaster?

 

Too much excited today, look at what Mr. Postman just brought me :



This needs some treatment and research and I'll make a dedicated post as we seem not to have much information about those cal.321 Seamasters...