If the watch is of sentimental value and originality is of importance, finding another watch that is in need of repair and restoration and using the part off of that one could be a solution. If you find one cheap enough it might even be less costly than having one custom made.
This is another option. But unfortunately finding a non running 166.010 seems a harder task than finding the bezel alone 😁. The only watches I found are working and surely not cheap.
I was wondering if the bezel is shared with other seamaster references, to try widening the search for it. Does anyone know?
I don’t believe the bezel is common to any other references.
168.024, but they don't tend to be cheaper than 166.010s, given that they're basically the same watch with a chronometer certification.
@p_rover where are you located? I know someone who can produce a bezel if he's given an example to model it after. He's in Austria though, and only having one produced won't be cheap. I'd guess around 200-250€.
As suggested, the cheapest option will likely be to buy a donor. If it's a cheap one that has an issue that's only limited to a single part, let's say it's a non-runner, you can sell the rest for parts and should be able to recoup most of your investment. Good hand sets, dials, but even cases without a bezel and non-running movements sell well. As is so often the case, you'll have to decide wether you want to invest time or money.
What is the part number to try finding one?
I was wondering if the bezel is shared with other seamaster references, to try widening the search for it. Does anyone know?
168.024, but they don't tend to be cheaper than 166.010s, given that they're basically the same watch with a chronometer certification.
Thank you very much for your help. I'm located in Italy.
I'm looking to find a donor to pick a good bezel and sell the rest of the watch as parts, as you suggested. But I think it will be a long search to find a good one at a resoneable price. For the moment I found one in Japan, but it's not so cheap and I have to pay taxes and I really don't know if it worth to invest on it.
I need to figure out how much I can get from selling the parts as spares to see how much the bezel alone will cost me.
Interesting, even though they share a case and the case backs are regularly double-stamped, they use different bezels? Since you only mention the 14763 as having the same bezel, that means that even between 165.010 and 166.010 there must be differences in the bezels, unless Omega uses different part numbers for identical parts, which wouldn't make sense really.
Or just buy a good 166.010 and sell your friend's watch and let someone else deal with the hassle. It's a common reference (especially in Japan), and there's not enough money involved to spend all this time and energy on hunting a donor and selling the parts, IMO.
That's another way to solve the problem, even if it is not so convenient to sell a damaged watch. Apart from the bezel the watch is perfect and runs great.
