Seamaster 120m 166.073 IDF air force

Hi ,
Sorry for the bad pics i didn’t had a chance to take good pictures of it yet .

so today i bought one of my grail watches , a Seamaster 120m 166.073 gifted by the IDF (Israel Defence Forces ) to a graduate of the air force pilot training course on march 1972 .

I was able to buy the watch from the original owner , he told me he was a helicopter pilot most of his service .

there is no extract from the archives , but i did ask the owner to write a letter which states that it was his watch and some info on his background . once Omega will offer again (hopefully) the extract i will go ahead and order it for this watch .

I do have 2 questions about this watch :


1. The date dial - mine has a silver date dial but i always heard that the IDF model only came with a black date dial. Except for one watch online with a white/silver date dial i didn’t saw any .
I did ask the owner if he remembers any service he might have done to the watch which may replaced the date dial but he said he doesn’t remember such a thing .

2. The bracelet - mine has a 1153/138 with a 634 end link . most of the 166.073 that i saw came with 1170 bracelet .

and unfortunately i am missing one end link for this watch and if anyone saw one for sale i would appreciate if you could share it with me .

the watch has seen better days but it is in original condition , the watch does work but i am going to give it to my go to watchmaker and take good care of this watch so it will continue to work for the next 50 years as well .

An interesting fact about the IDF omegas that you might not be aware of ,
all of the IDF Omegas where a personal gift from the army unlike the Eterna Kontiki and others which required like any other military equipment to sign on one and give it back later on as it was military property .
( 3 fun facts on the Eterna - 1 -a lot of soldiers who signed on the Eterna reported that they’ve lost the watch and got put on a military trial which mostly ended on a symbolic fine as its not like losing a weapon and they kept the watch for themselves . 2- you didn’t had to be from the commando s-13 to sign the Eterna , my father was a soldier in the navy and signed on one for a short period of time in the 80s and he said he returned it quickly because it was in bad condition and not working properly. 3- i do not remember what year it was but one day the ministry of defence decided to auction the remaining Eternas and if i remember correctly , in the mix there were about 8 NOS ones ) .

Back to the Omegas , so the fact it was a personal gift explains the fact the watches do not have the IDF markings on the case back . there were a few more Omega models except the 166.073 which was also given ,
the 166.073 was given both blue and black dials in the early 70s.
165.014 Seamaster 300 was given in the mid 60s.
165.024 Seamaster 300 in the late 60s
198.0016 Seamaster 120 F300 early - mid 70s
I know about a couple speedmaster pro's which was given as well but i do not know exactly when , my guess is also in the 70s .

as far as i know that is all of the Omegas that the IDF has given and none of them has marking on the back because it was a personal gift only given to the graduates of the air force pilots course .

sorry for making this post so long , but i hope that if you did read it in full at least you found it interesting .

@AdamVT227 - The black date wheel really sits well with the dial as above, gives it a very cool look. Personally, I like the black date wheel. I am convinced that the white date wheel is correct but a lot harder to find - dare I say rarer. I have a friend whose father was issued with one along with sunglasses and a jacket at graduation and the date wheel has never been changed. You are very lucky to find this watch especially with the white date wheel. So, in answer to your question, I say:

1. I have seen a two white date wheels with CoA, and I can confirm at least one original owner stated the white date wheel has not been replaced.

2. The bracelet would be a 1170 with 634 ends
.

Thanks !
The original owner said this watch came with sunglasses too but i cant recall anything about a jacket , but it makes sense .
as for the bracelet , I really don't think it has been replaced , maybe just the clasp?
the bracelet number can be seen on many different bracelet so maybe a standard replacement clasp?
the rest of the bracelet is exactly a 1170 , and has 634 end links .
I thought about buying a 1170 clasp and replace it but have decided to stay original as it gets .

BTW my watch from the above post has returned from service and thanks to a very kind member here I was able to get a pair of new 634 end links .
I will take some nice photos of the watch and upload later on .

Looking forward to some updated pics, Adam.

I would also like to point out, and only to my understanding (certainly unauthenticated but strong hearsay by pilots issued with these) that the black dials (with white or black date wheels) were IDF issue and blue dials were civilian issue. Would be keen for someone to show me a blue dial with a CoA showing with "produced for the Israeli Defense Force" on it. That would end that speculation.

I wouldn’t say those are great photos but it's what i was able to do

before i got the new end links I put a Tudor nato on it and I really liked the way it looked , also fitting the military history .
I think it won't be the last time that nato will be on it 😁

it is a very honest watch , you can definitely see it's been through a lot .
I would love in the future adding a better example to my collection , but for now I'm happy with what i've got .

Having contemplating thoughts on the fact i polished the crystal but i wear this watch a lot and originally it was almost not see through ( and theres already some new scuffs 😬).

What an awesome looking watch you have there. Great look with the NATO on it.