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Omega Seamaster Professional 200

powerclocks
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Hi from Australia, I have been looking to perhaps buy an Omega Seamaster Professional 200, Movement reference DB 396:1042, as I do like the look of them, the price is nice, Diving Style, Water Resist, Automatic, Date Wheel and they look to be quite a sturdy watch as I can be tough on watches, I want a bit of advice from people that know watches, its not my forte, I was put off when I saw the jewel count? 7? why did they do that, even old trench watches I have are often sporting 14 or more jewels, it's a sign of quality and I would have thought a nice watch like this would have more, are there better options out there for the money? I usually wear divers watches. Thoughts? The picture is one I found on the net and if the owner wants it taken down just say so and I'll remove it. It is for display and educational purposes only.

G J P

Omega Seamaster Professional 200.webp
 
ErichPryde
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Is it, by chance, quartz? That would explain the jewel count- among other things.
 
fiberguy
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ErichPryde ErichPryde
Is it, by chance, quartz? That would explain the jewel count- among other things.
the DB 396:1042 has a quartz movement
 
padders
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The ones that are Automatic say Automatic on the dial.

As above, this one aint. It also looks to have replacement SL dial and hands by the way, not a bad thing necessarily if you want functional lume, but not something purists normally want on a watch that originally had tritium.

Try here for a fair bit of info on this family:

https://chronopedia.club/Omega_Seamaster_200m_Pre-Bond
 
A
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Wondering if Omega would implement these type of hands on the 300m, seems to suite the watch well
 
ErichPryde
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A artorias
Wondering if Omega would implement these type of hands on the 300m, seems to suite the watch well

They do look rather good, don't they? At this point it is hard to say. The last we saw of a similar style sword hand was on the Peter Blake line. It wouldn't bother me to see sword hands come back but I kind of doubt it will be in the SMP. The Heritage line seems to be doing fantastically with the broad Arrow handset, so hard to say where we might see it.
 
powerclocks
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ErichPryde ErichPryde
Is it, by chance, quartz? That would explain the jewel count- among other things.
No, it is Automatic, shame it looks so good and they chose to do that.
 
powerclocks
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fiberguy fiberguy
the DB 396:1042 has a quartz movement
The one I am looking at is Automatic, I probably chose the wrong picture to depict what I am looking at.
 
powerclocks
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padders padders
The ones that are Automatic say Automatic on the dial.

As above, this one aint. It also looks to have replacement SL dial and hands by the way, not a bad thing necessarily if you want functional lume, but not something purists normally want on a watch that originally had tritium.

Try here for a fair bit of info on this family:

https://chronopedia.club/Omega_Seamaster_200m_Pre-Bond
Thank you, the one pictured is just a generic picture I took from a net site, not the one I am looking at, I don't like to link eBay stuff to sites.
 
padders
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powerclocks powerclocks
The one I am looking at is Automatic, I probably chose the wrong picture to depict what I am looking at.
Ok well what is confusing us is that the Autos don't have only 7 jewels, that's just the quartz options. The Autos use the 1109 and 1111 movement, derivatives of the ETA 2892 and both have the more usual 21j.

If a general view of the model is what you are after, be aware that the Pre-Bond (as this 200m is commonly known) is now over 30 years old in all its flavours and since these were comparatively cheap back in the day, most are not in great shape as owners often skimped on expensive maintenance. Unless it has received a full Omega service, I wouldn't trust one to be fully waterproof any more and some parts such as bezels are now unobtainable even within the dealer network. If you are intending to get it wet or preform serious duty and you can stretch to the later Bond SMP, you probably should as those are just that little bit more durable. More expensive but more durable with better parts availability.

I've had 3 of these now. They are great but you'll be lucky to find one without issues of some kind. The bracelets for example are pretty fragile, wear easily and are often stretched
Edited:
 
ErichPryde
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powerclocks powerclocks
The one I am looking at is Automatic, I probably chose the wrong picture to depict what I am looking at.

Pretty sure you got your information wires crossed. The quartz movements only need a few jewels, hence the low jewel count. Something like a radio controlled quartz Citizen watch has six:

Screenshot_20250430_115705_Gallery.webp


Hope this, and the other responders, have answered your question.
 
powerclocks
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ErichPryde ErichPryde
Is it, by chance, quartz? That would explain the jewel count- among other things.

padders padders
Ok well what is confusing us is that the Autos don't have only 7 jewels, that's just the quartz options. The Autos use the 1109 and 1111 movement, derivatives of the ETA 2892 and both have the more usual 21j.

If a general view of the model is what you are after, be aware that the Pre-Bond (as this 200m is commonly known) is now over 30 years old in all its flavours and since these were comparatively cheap back in the day, most are not in great shape as owners often skimped on expensive maintenance. Unless it has received a full Omega service, I wouldn't trust one to be fully waterproof any more and some parts such as bezels are now unobtainable even within the dealer network. If you are intending to get it wet or preform serious duty and you can stretch to the later Bond SMP, you probably should as those are just that little bit more durable. More expensive but more durable with better parts availability.

I've had 3 of these now. They are great but you'll be lucky to find one without issues of some kind. The bracelets for example are pretty fragile, wear easily and are often stretched
I should have researched this a bit more before posting, yes, I must have been looking at the Quartz, funny, no one ever states in the heading/description the watch is quartz like they're ashamed of the fact, nearly every example I looked at never stated the watch had a quartz movement. Any way I know a lot more about these now and I can look for one that is suitable for my purposes, though the Automatic models are at least $1,000.00 more to buy.
 
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