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Seamaster 166.020 - *Now New to Me 9/22/20

kip595
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Hey guys, how does the dial on this look to your eyes? Does it just need a good cleaning and probably new crystal, or my eyes deceiving me on the fonts' correctness? it seems correct, but possible too thickly inked? The owner admits they don't have any history, and we both agree it's been polished.

These are all I have right now - sorry the 'Swiss Made' is so hard to see, hoping for better pics from'em.

As always, all thoughts are appreciated!

img_2088-jpg.15445882

img_2090-jpg.15445883
 
kip595
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Went ahead and snagged this little guy, so I'll do a proper set of photos when it arrives!
 
kip595
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Couple of snaps after a decent light cleaning and a bracelet from the Curated Wrist instead of the cracked cheapie it came on - terrible indoor lighting but hope to follow up w/better soon.

Not sure if it's a keeper yet, wears great though. Non original crystal, but it just needed a wipe and a dab of polywatch and the dial beneath, original as far as I can tell under loupe myself, is lovely. It's hard to see, but after looking in direct sunlight earlier, I strongly suspect the hands were relumed at some point, but if so they did an excellent job at the time. I could be wrong; it's only in bright sunlight the color seems a bit too green - I'll try to get more and cleaner images soon.

*The date roll-over is fine, I just forgot to set the date before wearing it today!

Omega 166-020 .jpeg Omega 166-020 wrist.jpeg
 
masteroftime
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Looks great. I actually just bought one of these as a project. Beware the lugs though, I've seen quite a few of these with bent/broken lugs.
 
kip595
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masteroftime masteroftime
Looks great. I actually just bought one of these as a project. Beware the lugs though, I've seen quite a few of these with bent/broken lugs.

Part of why I grabbed this one was how relatively un-marred the lugs were - they are easily the 'delicate' aspect of this design, IMO - I actually snipped away the old leather to remove the spring-bars easily, and very gently eased in the new BoR...and I'm glad it looks good (I think, anyway), because I don't see any way to coax it back off easily!

And thanks! 😀
 
masteroftime
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kip595 kip595
Part of why I grabbed this one was how relatively un-marred the lugs were - they are easily the 'delicate' aspect of this design, IMO - I actually snipped away the old leather to remove the spring-bars easily, and very gently eased in the new BoR...and I'm glad it looks good (I think, anyway), because I don't see any way to coax it back off easily!

And thanks! 😀

It definitely looks great and crisp! Wear it in good health! BTW, do you know what these have in them? I assume a 56x...
 
SkunkPrince
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Polywatch is way expensive. Get some Novus polish from your hardware store or Amazon.
 
kip595
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@masteroftime Thanks! This one has the straight 560 with 17j - serviced in 2015, keeps it to well w/in about a half minute a day so far (2 days in) but not as spot on as my Air King from '63.

@SkunkPrince Good point about Poly, just still have some left in a tube so figure I might as well use it up. 😀
 
masteroftime
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oh, cool! It's definitely capable of the precisness of the Airking. Are you sure its been serviced recently if its running 30s/d? Not to draw alarm, but most of 56x's that I've bought seem to have been neglected for a while and still manage to stay close to 5s/d. I may just be getting lucky, but the 56x movements are really great.
 
kip595
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masteroftime masteroftime
oh, cool! It's definitely capable of the precisness of the Airking. Are you sure its been serviced recently if its running 30s/d? Not to draw alarm, but most of 56x's that I've bought seem to have been neglected for a while and still manage to stay close to 5s/d. I may just be getting lucky, but the 56x movements are really great.

It was, under the prior owner (though I don't think this was when the lume was done, to me that work looks older) - but I don't have their receipts to see what all was done. I should clarify the w/in 30 seconds is strictly observational; it hasn't gotten to be placed on a proper timegrapher yet.

I stumbled into acquiring two other 56X models ages ago, probably 4-5 years now - neither did better than a minute +- per 24, but I knew they'd been left sitting for years - ended up trading them, but for a Winchester instead of another watch!
 
nkhandekar
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This one looks good. The lugs appear to be nice and sharp, which is a real bonus. One of the Seamaster deVilles I had (cal 565) always gained 30s a day even after a service. The other one stays around 10s fast a day after a service. They are great watches. Wear and enjoy.
 
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