I just had my father's watch restored by Omega in Switzerland. Thinking about selling it. I think it is early 1970s, but have no idea. I have the replaced parts. The dial is original. The case is original. Crystal and bezel replaced. Omega didn't provide any serial number or date information on the invoice, but they may have it on file. Any thoughts?

 

The dial is not original, it has been rather poorly refinished, sorry. This completely kills the value by at least half.

 

+1

Dial definitely not original

The gold capping on the lugs appears chipped / inconsistent ?

Was there an inscription on the back of the case ?

 

No. It is a solid gold case. Why would Omega restore a fake dial? The New York store sent it for restoration to Switzerland. I have the receipt on the work they did. My dad may have received this as a reward from Ford Motor where he worked. He also had two other 1960s Omegas which were all authenticated by Omega.

 

We're not saying it's fake, just refinished.

 

I thought you said it was not original. They only cleaned it, but didn't replace anything on the dial. Just looking for some information on date this would have been made.

 

Refinishing a dial was common back in the day 50-80’s. Unfortunately it hurts collectors value.

If a watch had dial wear or needed new lume many third parties would clean up and reprint the watch dial. It was very very common. It’s real just not desired by collectors currently. Unfortunately it also negates any tie in to Tiffany as it’s not original dial printing.

 

What's the telltale sign to see if it was reprinted? The Omega symbol itself is raised. The other printing under a loop is very worn out. Any idea what it's worth?

 

The script is all wrong.

The value is probbly in the weight of the metal, plus a bit extra, if it's solid gold.

 

The finish isn't original. It was likely refinished 30odd years ago.

 

Fonts are wrong for the period, and the hour markers do not line up perfectly as they would on an original dial. Additionally this era watch would have been marked "T Swiss Made T" or similar at the bottom of the dial. Its almost impossible for a redial to have perfectly aligned markers due to the way they are reprinted using a rubber ball by hand, where as the original would have been screen or ball printed on a perfectly aligned jig for mass production. The dial furniture is correct and original to the watch IE the raised logo and hour indices.

While "Double Signed" watches with Tiffany can be worth slightly more, they have to be original dials and more highly sought after models for them to carry additional value to collectors. As the dial has been reprinted/refurbished aka redialed there is no way to confirm the Tiffany signature at this time as Tiffany does not have records. To be honest for models that are known and somewhat collected for double signatures even then many of them are still in question about being legitimate and not added in the 80's to increase value. Meister, Tiffany, and Cartier are the known and accepted double signatures on some Omega watches post the 40's. AFAIK only Meister can sometimes be verified via Omega. While this doesn't help you, but for future knowledge a solid gold model has higher odds of actually being a Tiffany watch in this period. They did not do plated or gold capped watches, and the stainless steel models that could have been double signed is somewhat limited to sports Chrono's.

 

Thanks everyone.