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Kyle also posted on Purist (smart guy Kyle is in seeking to broaden his search for diverse input - I think he is getting a very good education 😉 ) and your ad ties in with the point at which Omega decided to send its watches to the BOs to be officially certified, said to be around 1951. A change in regulations meant that companies could not do in-house testing and call the watch a chronometer but had to send the movements to a third party. So, arguably, any watch movement produced prior to 1951 would not have the Officially Certified appellation but just chronometer and any movement produced after 1951 would have Officially Certified.
My 352 12.2 is marked as well. All the lettering appears to be the same weight though.
Just when we though it was safe to call this model a non-Centenary...
The example from the TZ-UK thread in Kyle's last post had an extract of the archives done with some interesting information:
http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.php?222519-My-grandfather-s-Omega&p=2376512&viewfull=1#post2376512
That particular example has an 11.5M serial number, but was listed as being delivered to Thailand in late 1949, well before there would have been any requirement for placing the "officially certified" on the dial. I think the dial is original, but don't really know enough about this particular model to be sure. The printing doesn't look embossed as Desmond mentions in his post above, but the font seems to be correct.
Now, I don't know what to think...
gatorcpa
I know we are sorting out details here and I may have missed it but is there still any doubt whatsoever that officially certified is correct and original from the omega factory on the 343s contained in case ref. 2499 (no matter whether we call it centenary or not)? IMO there is no doubt that dials with the officially certified script are correct and the example that Kyle originally posted here is the real deal.
I think we can say with certainty that later serial 2499s did have Officially Certified and that they were most probably produced in 1951, judging from the serials Ive been able to find.
I search an old hard disc with Centenary info and came up with two different examples of the 2499 with the Officially Certified script. Nopte also the embossed lettering on these later models, when the lettering on the first gen and most of the seond gen was not nearly as raised.They are definitely 2499s but one would imagine Centenary maybe being downplayed three years after 1948.
I might set down in a separate essay what we have collectively discovered (attributions of course). Here are the pics.
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