Rarest OMEGA: 1947 Tourbillon 30, modified cal.30

[gmmy775]

I am thinking, with Ashley Budgen's knowledge base and connections in the Omega heirarchy, that this watch would be a prime candidate for a comprehensive article in "Omega Stories". As far as I know (not counting the infamous faked up "insider" Speedmaster of a couple of years ago), this is the most that has been paid for an Omega at auction...just north of 1.5M in US dollars. Rather than flesh out the little that I know about this watch, I will furnish an auction result link, and a couple of images. Hopefully DSIO will take it from there and entertain us all with another amazing write-up.
https://www.phillips.com/detail/OMEGA/CH080217/182

My understanding is that this tourbillon was created with the cal. 30 as the base movement

 

[gmmy775]

As a follow-up to my original post, I received link today from Phillips for the upcoming Hong Kong auction, which includes a "Tourbillon 30" that was one of 12 specially cased by Omega in 1987.
https://www.phillips.com/detail/omega/HK080224/914

an excerpt from the catalog essay:
"The project was leaded by Mr. J-P Matthey Claudet, watchmaker at Omega, and the movements were entirely hand made. Mr. Marcel Vuilleumier, director of the Horological School in the Vallee de Joux, was the master watchmaker that designed the Tourbillon caliber. To mention that movement number 10’595’933 achieved the remarkable score of 867.7 points in 1950. The highest result ever achieved in this category. The present example is the 2nd last tourbillon made and was tested at the Neuchatel Observatory in 1947, and further adjusted by Master regulateur Alfred Jacquard.
In 1987, seven of these twelve movements were discovered by Omega and entirely rebuilt, they were then cased in gold and silver livery and offered to a select group of collectors (like the present example)."

 

[dsio]

I’ve thought about these often, never seen one in person but it’s one of the coolest pieces they’ve ever made and the story of how the movements were cased in the 80s is hilarious.

Edited: Apr 30, 2024

 

[gmmy775]

dsio

I’ve thought about these often, never seen one in person but it’s one of the coolest pieces they’ve ever made and the story of how the movements were cased in the 80s is hilarious.

If I recall, the auction isn't until the end of May, so Phillips will actively be trying to stir up as much interest as possible. Not trying to swell your head, but your journalism is rather good. I would expect that your positioning amongst Omegaphiles would make you an ideal candidate for collaboration with them. I expect that Phillips has so much inside info on this item that it would fill a chapter. With a thoughtful presentation, I believe they would welcome any inquiries from you concerning granular details. After all, "That's kind of your thing"---to borrow from Caitlan Clark.
It also seems that Omega brass might appreciate the enhanced enthusiast exposure. Maybe they could illuminate what is the status of the five remaining tourbillon movements that they didn't case?
Anyhow, I am a big fan of your work. And I think it would be ultra cool to see an O Forum regular score that watch!

 

[gmmy775]

Just checked to see how much that Omega Tourbillon sold for a couple of days ago. In US Dollars it was about 107,000. In Euros it was about 99,000. In Swiss Francs about 77,000. And in the British Pound it was roughly 85,000. I thought it might go higher than that, but still not bad for an Omega.