Well. Saw this nice reference 167.005, rare calibre 551 and couldn't help myself. Made an offer that was accepted, to my pleasant surprise. Case appears unpolished; observatory is in nice shape; original yellow gasket is present which gave me confidence in the watch's authenticity. Really nice dial. Although it doesn't come with a date function, which is what I originally wanted, the fact that only 37,000 of these were produced (none with date function) made me pull the trigger. Advertised as an estate find.

 

Had to edit above post to add the observatory. Sorry.

 

Very nice, congratulations.

Some further reading you might find interesting http://download850.mediafire.com/b6rrtcpc1iwg/j62tp0t79p66ubj/Omega+History+Making+Movement.pdf

 

Some 167.005 in this transition time had mixed hour markers. The ones at 12/3/6/9 had onyx inserts and the rest had black paint on top.
This one looks like one of these.

 

Thank you for the kind words and interesting read. This came up on eBay very unexpectedly as a buy it now. I had done some research on this example and knew It was special so I made an offer well below the buy it now price taking into consideration a service and nice BOR bracelet without certainty it would be accepted. Well, I received the immediate response that my offer had been accepted and was very pleased.

 

Thank you, and thank you to all of the forum members for having the patience and willingness to share your knowledge. I hope to reciprocate one day when I know more than just enough to be dangerous.

I had sent a message to the seller about the hour markers and hands and whether they were onyx inserts or paint, but didn’t have patience to wait for a response because i didn’t think it would last long. I’ll post better photos when it arrives.

 

nice catch, huge congrats and wear in good health

 

Great first catch! If you really are that chagrined about not having a date complication, I am happy to take it off your hands and send you a Seiko 5.

 

Thank you both very much.

Looks like I’m just going to go through life without knowing what day it is. Or I could just buy another vintage Omega with a date complication.

 

Nice. I recently wound up with a well-preserved Constellation and when I opened it up and saw a gasket that was NOT reduced to a black paste, I thought something had gone terribly wrong. It was like the first time my grandmother served me fresh produce as a child*. Having been raised on frozen vegetables, I thought spinach was naturally cube-shaped and non-soggy green beans were stale.

* I was the child; my grandmother was a good deal older at that time.

 

Beautiful. Congrats! I'd love to pick one up in the future.

 

It really looks great. You did very well.

 

Great footnote.

You can’t write well-preserved Constellation without putting up a photo.

 

Thank you. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while. But seriously, had it not been for this forum opening my eyes to what constitutes a collectible vintage Omega I would have just passed it by.

 

Haha I made an offer as well but got rejected. Guess your offer was better than mine

 

I think I just got lucky and hit his bottom line. Not bad for $500, eh. Lol.

 

Thought you'd never ask! Apologies for the ape hair.

I'll pretend that I also got this for $500, but the date window and the bracelet cost an extra $500.

 

Very nice!

 

For real? My offer was higher than that, strange

 

Holy shit! I think only @watchknut can beat you on that kind of score.