Hi there!

I recently purchased a lovely 18kt solid gold Constellation, which came with a solid gold buckle. Unfortunately, the buckle turned out to be pink gold, while the watch is yellow gold. I will therefore let the buckle go, in search for a yellow gold one instead, but in doing so, I will need to be sure that it actually is solid gold and which carat.

The problem is, that I am guessing it is a non-swiss produced as the markings clearly isn't english or french. I would greatly appreciate any knowledge on a buckle of this type. I have attached a couple of photos, but if more photos are necessary, please let me know!

 

Some guesses that it might be Hebrew?

 

Looking at the alphabets of the world, my best guess would be Cyrillic letters in a Turkic language

 

Turkey have used latin letters for the last 100 years.
I’ll go for hebrew as well.

 

It's not Hebrew.

@Banner Roar has been on the prowl for pink gold buckle. Not sure if he was willing to pay for pure gold though. Taggin in case he wants to see!

Edit: It's also definitely not Yiddish. Same characters as Hebrew...

 

Yiddish, perhaps.

 

The Turkic language family is bigger than only Turkish.

I see symbols on the buckle that aren’t covered by Hebrew counterparts.

 

If you look at the 1st and 3rd symbol from the left you have in the cyrillic script:

г


It is the 2nd symbol that has me puzzled. I don’t see it in hebrew. In the cyrillic script there is a symbol that looks the part:

ҹ
Ꚇ

 

I would say that the splodges on the right looks like the numbers "585" which would indicate 14K.
Are there anything stamped on the pin itself or on the side of the buckle?

One thing is pretty clear, it is an aftermarket buckle. As far as I know, most original 18K buckles were made by AW and should always be clearly stamped with "SWISS" and a maker's mark together with "750".

 

A lot of great detective work going on in this thread!

Why would you give such a clear statement, following up by an "as far as I know"? It is a well-known fact that there were locally produced solid gold Omega buckles that as a consequence, did not have the common Swiss markings.
Thereby I am not stating that this buckle isn't aftermarket, but your reasons for stating why it is, are not correct.

 

I totally missed the 585 option.

OP can you take a pic straight on, not from an angle?

 

The term "aftermarket" doesn't mean that it is necessarily unoriginal, only that it was purchased after the sale. Locally produced and sanctioned aftermarket buckles are no less original, but may be less collectible - that's a different story. If the buckle is made by a non-sanctioned producer it's another situation all together, but how would you determine that? Omega didn't brand their buckles like the did with their bracelets, so barring period documents, adverts, etc. determining what is correct will be near impossible.

 

My apologies I see the term "aftermarket" is often being used to describe items that are clearly downright fakes, which is why I did not agree that the term would seem appropriate here.

Yes, here you go

 

My post was just as much directed to @Omegista - one of the points is that the terms of unoriginal and aftermarket which he used is not very correct in this case

I think that @BartH would like photos of the rear of the buckle too

 

Of course! I hope these helps!

 

I stand corrected.

 

You could well be right in saying that this particular piece is unoriginal. As Gator says, the logo isn't very well shaped (the feet of the Omega are differently sized, for one thing) and this is also seen on unoriginal bracelets where local goldsmiths have fashioned logos on generic bracelets.

 

Arabic hallmarks?

 

I am definitely saddened to hear that it may not be an original Omega buckle. I will have it tested for gold content in one of the following days