Omega Vintage Cioccolatone 3903 Gold 18kt Automatic -1947yr.

George K. · Jun 7, 2022

Hi Guys
Happens to own a Family Genuine vintage Omega Cioccolatone wristwatch, ordered and bought in Geneva-Switzerland in 1947 by my late father. Gold 18kt, Reference 3903, Unrestored, Automatic with Hammer mechanism (both manual winding and/or automatic) ,movement 342, with specific differences than the other watches of the same model which as I told ,make it special.
No data of previous auction or selling found according to a lot research of mine. No photos or any schematic appear in the Omega e-museum or Timeline, either for the specific watch.
Ιnitial construction, Not replica or assembled from pieces (casing up), no terminage nor redial .
Probably Unique left worldwide by now. Having no papers or box, working though fine.
I would be more than grateful, if you could give me your opinion- experience about any Selling Data base (auctions e.t.c.) results you know, with the specific characteristics for 1947 Omega watch or earlier..
Including photos ...Thanks in advance for any advise, idea or information.

cristos71 · Jun 7, 2022

Unfortunately your watch has had at some point in its life some restoration work. The dial has been re-done and the crown is not period correct. Also the case looks to have some polishing and the hour/minutes hands are either damaged or incorrect. The seconds hand is incorrect. All these things will have significant negative effect on the value.

Zapatta · Jun 7, 2022

The dial is obviously redialed and damaged.

George K. · Jun 7, 2022

cristos71
Unfortunately your watch has had at some point in its life some restoration work. The dial has been re-done and the crown is not period correct. Also the case looks to have some polishing and the hour/minutes hands are either damaged or incorrect. The seconds hand is incorrect. All these things will have significant negative effect on the value.

First of all, thank you so much for the answer.
Can't take an oath about any previous dial restoration during these 75 years. But ,what I really know for sure and tell, is that the case has no polishing (it looks like it, because of the camera flashing light) and the hour/minutes hands are correct and in very good shiny shape (besides my photo shooting results). Finding hard to admit about who is responsible for the damage on the right in the dial, due to my ignorance and
carelessness while opened it .
Can't say about the second hand ,although I found a couple of other 3903 watches with similar one.
Please enlighten me about the crown ,because the watchmaker who checked the watch a week ago, told me it is sure the original item overworked with the 3/4 of a century use (that's not for the internal small parts of it of course)...
A couple of fresh photos for the hour/minutes hands follow although I think I need a professional photographer ..
I would appreciate if you could share with us any pictures, bibliography, or any sources you have that helped you come to these conclusions.
Besides, that's what my post and disturbance to you all is about ...That's in addition to the lack of information in Omega Timeline or in the Internet, for watches of the 40's period.
Thanks a lot in advance.

George K. · Jun 7, 2022

Zapatta
The dial is obviously redialed and damaged.

I don't really know if it is redialed ,but you are chatting with the one who damaged it for sure...
Thank you so much for the answer..

sleepyastronaut · Jun 7, 2022

I imagine your dial is supposed to look something like these, though I'm not vouching for originality on any of the examples:

From https://www.chrono24.com/omega/vintage-whammer-automatic--id12477143.htm

From https://www.chrono24.com/omega/vintage-bumper-stainless-steel-ref3950-7--id11589199.htm

From https://www.chrono24.com/omega/cioccolatone-square-bumper--id21215689.htm (and missing the Swiss signature at 6)

Unfortunately, the most recent person to paint your dial does not appear to have been detail-oriented. Fortunately for you, a poorly dialed watch such as yours can always be repainted again.

George K. · Jun 7, 2022

sleepyastronaut
I imagine your dial is supposed to look something like these, though I'm not vouching for originality on any of the examples:

From https://www.chrono24.com/omega/vintage-whammer-automatic--id12477143.htm

From https://www.chrono24.com/omega/vintage-bumper-stainless-steel-ref3950-7--id11589199.htm

From https://www.chrono24.com/omega/cioccolatone-square-bumper--id21215689.htm (and missing the Swiss signature at 6)

Unfortunately, the most recent person to paint your dial does not appear to have been detail-oriented. Fortunately for you, a poorly dialed watch such as yours can always be repainted again.

A couple of watchmakers and watch dealers told me exactly the same...but also advised me not to do anything prior to be seen by anyone who would like to see it or buy it....
I also vote for your words above.... <<Not vouching for originality on any of the examples>>.
That makes two of us !!
Thank you very much for your answer.

cristos71 · Jun 7, 2022

sleepyastronaut
I imagine your dial is supposed to look something like these, though I'm not vouching for originality on any of the examples:

From https://www.chrono24.com/omega/vintage-whammer-automatic--id12477143.htm

From https://www.chrono24.com/omega/vintage-bumper-stainless-steel-ref3950-7--id11589199.htm

From https://www.chrono24.com/omega/cioccolatone-square-bumper--id21215689.htm (and missing the Swiss signature at 6)

Unfortunately, the most recent person to paint your dial does not appear to have been detail-oriented. Fortunately for you, a poorly dialed watch such as yours can always be repainted again.

All three of those are ref 3950 and not ref 3903.

cristos71 · Jun 7, 2022

Here's what I believe to be a period correct crown, compare the logo's.

Also here are correct hands, yours may well be correct but damaged at the ends, I don't know.

sleepyastronaut · Jun 7, 2022

G George K.
advised me not to do anything prior to be seen by anyone who would like to see it or buy it....

Best way to get this seen by anyone who would like to see it or buy it is to sell it on eBay, no reserve, starting at $1

George K. · Jun 7, 2022

cristos71
Here's what I believe to be a period correct crown, compare the logo's.

Also here are correct hands, yours may well be correct but damaged at the ends, I don't know.

On the contrary ,the enormous crown is one of the signs of a redial Omega..If we had the whole picture, I bet that there would be an engraved sign next to the crown, left or right, which I'm told that is mark of a redial watch of that era.
Ask yourself if Omega would make a delicate crown (equal sized and in the middle ) without exceeding the dimension of the case except slightly where needs to be or made a huge crown like the one above. And remember that we are talking about an automatic watch.
Please forgive my poor English...hope you understood what I'm talking about.
The hands are also correct...the photos though weren't.. Maybe now these are better..
Thanks for your time and answer.

George K. · Jun 7, 2022

sleepyastronaut
Best way to get this seen by anyone who would like to see it or buy it is to sell it on eBay, no reserve, starting at $1

Don't know about the terms and conditions and if this practice is restricted by law. I'll try to learn more about that..
Thanks a lot for the idea.

TexOmega · Jun 7, 2022

MSNWatch · Jun 7, 2022

cristos71
Unfortunately your watch has had at some point in its life some restoration work. The dial has been re-done and the crown is not period correct. Also the case looks to have some polishing and the hour/minutes hands are either damaged or incorrect. The seconds hand is incorrect. All these things will have significant negative effect on the value.

Agree with this.

From my collection: this model in rose gold:

DirtyDozen12 · Jun 7, 2022

G George K.
On the contrary ,the enormous crown is one of the signs of a redial Omega..If we had the whole picture, I bet that there would be an engraved sign next to the crown, left or right, which I'm told that is mark of a redial watch of that era.
Ask yourself if Omega would make a delicate crown (equal sized and in the middle ) without exceeding the dimension of the case except slightly where needs to be or made a huge crown like the one above. And remember that we are talking about an automatic watch.

Here is an image of this reference from Omega. As you can see, the crown more closely resembles the one posted by @cristos71, with a larger diameter and deeper serrations.

https://www.omegawatches.com/en-ch/watch-omega-other-omega-ot-3903

cristos71 · Jun 8, 2022

G George K.
On the contrary ,the enormous crown is one of the signs of a redial Omega..If we had the whole picture, I bet that there would be an engraved sign next to the crown, left or right, which I'm told that is mark of a redial watch of that era.
Ask yourself if Omega would make a delicate crown (equal sized and in the middle ) without exceeding the dimension of the case except slightly where needs to be or made a huge crown like the one above. And remember that we are talking about an automatic watch.
Please forgive my poor English...hope you understood what I'm talking about.
The hands are also correct...the photos though weren't.. Maybe now these are better..
Thanks for your time and answer.

Here a better picture of the crown and watch. I'd more describe it as 'proportionally correct' than 'enormous', but then I'm generally modest when talking about the size of my things 😁

George K. · Jun 8, 2022

cristos71
Here a better picture of the crown and watch. I'd more describe it as 'proportionally correct' than 'enormous', but then I'm generally modest when talking about the size of my things 😁

OK...That was really good... 😉 😀
But also, that's what I was telling you about, which is what I was told to check as a mark for an Omega wanna-be watch...Check the engraved mark on the left of the crown...Should an authentic Omega watch have any ??

MSNWatch
Agree with this.

From my collection: this model in rose gold:

[/QUOT
It really looks nice..Can you post some extra photos and telling us the serial number ? Which year are we talking about here?

George K. · Jun 8, 2022

DirtyDozen12
Here is an image of this reference from Omega. As you can see, the crown more closely resembles the one posted by @cristos71, with a larger diameter and deeper serrations.

https://www.omegawatches.com/en-ch/watch-omega-other-omega-ot-3903

Thanks a lot for sharing this. It looks to me more than a schematic image than a picture. Additionally, that's for 1951, 4 years later than mine..plus I really can't tell if the difference is due to the way of shooting in fact.
Anyway I think it is a strange thing and can't understand the reason why Omega's using sketched images for some models and pictures for others..
I was wondering...is it the same for the Museum ?? Has anybody been to Omega Museum in Switzerland ??

cristos71 · Jun 8, 2022

G George K.
OK...That was really good... 😉 😀
But also, that's what I was telling you about, which is what I was told to check as a mark for an Omega wanna-be watch...Check the engraved mark on the left of the crown...Should an authentic Omega watch have any ??

I can honestly say I've never heard of an engraved sign next to the crown on an Omega watch case as being a 'sign' of a re-dialed watch....this to me is just a bizarre concept and I would seriously discount it if I were you!

Is it not more likely that your crown is incorrect as I said in the beginning?

George K. · Jun 8, 2022

cristos71
I can honestly say I've never heard of an engraved sign next to the crown on an Omega watch case as being a 'sign' of a re-dialed watch....this to me is just a bizarre concept and I would seriously discount it if I were you!

Is it not more likely that your crown is incorrect as I said in the beginning?

Can't and don't want to argue with you...I told you what I was told long time ago, from a collector and watch seller for 45 years..
And that came after a question of mine of what that mark in several watches was about...
But I can easily tell you that mine doesn't have one...and my late father bought it himself in Omega Geneve, 75 years ago as a personal reward for a good deal.. And a couple of watch dealers that have checked it, told me nothing about having something out of the Omega parts after they opened it.
This is as far as my facts go........I'm trying to learn more from the best here, not to sell anything..

Omega Vintage Cioccolatone 3903 Gold 18kt Automatic -1947yr.

George K.

cristos71

Zapatta

George K.

George K.

sleepyastronaut

George K.

cristos71

cristos71

sleepyastronaut

George K.

George K.

TexOmega

MSNWatch

DirtyDozen12

cristos71

George K.

George K.

cristos71

George K.

Similar threads

REDUCED x2: Vintage Favre-Leuba Square Steel BLUE Daymatic “Cioccolatone”

SOLD : IWC 18kt. Automatic 1964-1965 (807A)

FS: 18kt Solid Gold Omega Vintage Bumper Cioccolatone

Omega Jumbo "Cioccolatone"" ref 3903 18k Yellow Gold