I’m meant to be having a quiet year but I’ve ended up buying four 60’s Omegas over the last few months. This is the latest, a Seamaster 120 auto, ref 166.027. I’ve been keeping an ear to the ground for another of these as the no crown guard 37mm case and matte black dial are a winning combination for me.

This is clearly an example that’s seen some use (or been bashed about at the back of a drawer) but with the exception of the service crown, everything seems correct. The case is marked but sharp, the movement is in good nick but crying out for a service, the bezel has lost its pip and barely moves but it’s aged to a lovely dark grey and critically, under that scratches Omega stamped crystal the dial appears to be flawless with beautiful lume.
It also came with a stretched 1035 bracelet with mis-matched ends. I’m unsure whether to get this restored as I don’t believe it was originally used on these 120’s, with the 1067 being the flat link option. Then again, if added at the point of sale I guess you never say never.

Anyway, a few pictures before it goes for a spruce up.

 

Nice find! A polish of the plexi alone will make a hell of a difference. Congrats.

 

Looks great! Can’t wait to see it cleaned up. If you decide to swap bracelets, you should consider a 1069. I find it looks quite nice on these old divers.

 

It’s funny you say that. I’ve kept a 1069 with 524 ends in my parts box waiting for a SM120 to come back into my collection.

 

Great find, congrats! Looking forward to seeing it cleaned up!

 

Sweet pickup! I just sold mine so this makes me miss it

 

Nice! But where’s the other 3?

 

Nice one! Wearability is really high- I tend to prefer it over my SM300

 

That's going to clean up nicely. I would like to see a afterspa picture.

 

Ha, well there’s this grey dial DeVille



Then this blue dial 165.002



and then this Geneve with crosshair

 

Oh and a Camaro

 

Nice find, congrats! It‘s one of my favorite watches despite the date window

 

Promising looking catch. I nice reference indeed!

 

That’s a nice Camaro and that grey dial on the deville

You have good taste sir.

 

Beautiful

 

Very nice, i've one in very similar condition, not as nice as yours, but they all seem to suffer from the bezel-twiddling over the years, maybe a nervous or impatient thing gradually wears the teeth away, i had mine serviced by STS a year ago, and asked if they could faithfully redo the lume which had dropped out of the hour hand, see what you think

 

Looks good. There’s two distinct avenues with assessing the condition of vintage watches IMO. The safe queen and the beautifully aged. Both have their merits.
Obviously in terms of value, safe queen wins out and it’s amazing to hunt down 50+ year old watches that look like they were made a couple of years ago. However, the (dis)gracefully aged and patina’d look is arguably much more interesting and nuanced as the line between attraction/patina/damage is subjective and often fine.

 

Subjective is the keyword that's often forgotten i think,
But none of the nonsense for sale on ebay (fake bezels and dials etc) could be called a subjective difference in taste in how one would like to see an aged vintage, especially when they state them as being all original or 100% vintage, but they do sell, for shocking prices as well when you check the box to see a list of completed sales
Does the bezel lume pip on yours still retain any luminescence? Mine does ever so slightly for about half an hour, so there must be some fragments of tritium left in there, far from blinding though, it wouldn't be warding off any ships from rocky coastlines

Here is mine before the service and hour hand lume refurb