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Seamaster 300 from Watchco...., now bidding and no BIN anymore....

mozambique
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CajunTiger CajunTiger
?

I wear a vintage watch every day without any fear of bashing it. I don't take any precautions and in the past 20 years Ive never had an issue.

Well that's just personal preference. Having said that, if I dropped $4k on a watchco 300 I would want to treat it with a little respect too.
 
CajunTiger
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mozambique mozambique
Well that's just personal preference. Having said that, if I dropped $4k on a watchco 300 I would want to treat it with a little respect too.

its a tool. But you could always try this if you are that concerned.
 
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mozambique
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I can't really agree that a watch costing around $4k can really be considered a 'tool'. A $50 Timex from Walmart, now that's a tool. I do like your bubble wrap accessory though. Does that come in blue?
 
CajunTiger
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mozambique mozambique
I can't really agree that a watch costing around $4k can really be considered a 'tool'. A $50 Timex from Walmart, now that's a tool. I do like your bubble wrap accessory though. Does that come in blue?

They don't call them tool watches for nothing. They are tools designed for a task...in the case of the Seamaster, its to use while diving, and it was built to handle this task admirably. I have quite a few that are 50 years old...been worn most their life and still run like new. A watch is meant to wear not baby.

and there are plenty that cost far more than $4000.
 
pascs
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Will be interesting to see where the price goes. I have a 552 SM300 which I bought from Watchco in 2012, it came with a 166.0324 case back and I later bought a 165.0024 case back from them when they had their sale some time back.

I also have a spare 552 movement with 24,222,xxx serial number which I believe came from an original SM300, makes me wonder what the value of the serial number is worth 😁
Edited:
 
LaurentBxl
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CajunTiger CajunTiger
?

I wear a vintage watch every day without any fear of bashing it. I don't take any precautions and in the past 20 years Ive never had an issue.

Well good for you! But to give another perspective, i don't do some activities like motorbiking with a vintage watch for which the case, crown and crystal are hard or impossible to find (like my polerouter sub), if I go down and the watch hits the ground this is game over... but I'm willing to take the risk with my watchco...
 
mozambique
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CajunTiger CajunTiger
They don't call them tool watches for nothing. They are tools designed for a task...in the case of the Seamaster, its to use while diving, and it was built to handle this task admirably. I have quite a few that are 50 years old...been worn most their life and still run like new. A watch is meant to wear not baby.

and there are plenty that cost far more than $4000.

Yes, they were tool watches when new, but their value has obviously increased since then. My speedmaster is probably worth $25k by now. Am I gonna wear it when gardening......I don't think so. Unfortunately, at least in my opinion, at a certain $ value, I just don't want to take a gamble by routinely wearing it.
 
CajunTiger
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LaurentBxl LaurentBxl
Well good for you! But to give another perspective, i don't do some activities like motorbiking with a vintage watch for which the case, crown and crystal are hard or impossible to find (like my polerouter sub), if I go down and the watch hits the ground this is game over... but I'm willing to take the risk with my watchco...

well, sorry but I misunderstood the original post to mean he was afraid of dinging his watch from normal daily use...not extreme sports.
I usually take my watch off in those situations. But regardless, my watch stays on my wrist 95% of my waking hours...they get banged around and survived to tell the stories just as they did the previous 40-50 years. If properly serviced they are no more fragile today than the day they were new.

I also didn't mean to imply that there is anything wrong with protecting a vintage watch...its just that I would rather enjoy mine as it was intended. I didn't spend my $$ to look at it sitting on a shelf in the safe, I bought it to wear it. YMMV
 
roryoc11
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LaurentBxl LaurentBxl
I bought an non date directly from them recently (Marcus and Giverny were really helpful). The price was a lot more reasonable, but of course the movement does not come from a SM300... I don't see the point in buying such a premium for the simple fact that the movement is from a SM300...

How much are the non dates going for direct from watchco?
 
LaurentBxl
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There was a group buy a few months ago, Marcus offered me the same price, around $2.6k for the head if I remember.
 
uwsearch
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wsfarrell wsfarrell
This is total BS.

case including bezel and crown 800
dial 300
hands 100
total 1200

05 166024 2 IMG_6594.JPG


Is that BS my friend ??
 
watchyouwant
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not the prices.... you forgot the movement incl. a service, BTW..........
The BS is, that NO Omega service Center will build one for you. kind regards. achim
 
uwsearch
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You're funny guys, why would I say that ? This watch was rebuilt for that price by an omega official service Center. . Not all service Center would do it, but at least one does it, so please show some respect in your comments, thanks..
 
padders
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You're funny guys, why would I say that ? This watch was rebuilt for that price by an omega official service Center. . Not all service Center would do it, but at least one does it, so please show some respect in your comments, thanks..
Well instead of enigmatically giving us half the story, why not tell all. To suggest even indirectly that anyone can walk into their local Boutique, slap down a bare 565 and $1500 and get back a SM300 is at best misleading and at worst just BS.
 
JimInOz
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You're funny guys, why would I say that ? This watch was rebuilt for that price by an omega official service Center. . Not all service Center would do it, but at least one does it, so please show some respect in your comments, thanks..

Whatever else you contribute to this thread, I'd seriously recommend that you do not disclose the specific Omega Service Centre.

Unless of course it's just a guy in a shop with a sign "Omega Service Centre".
 
uwsearch
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True story? My father in law worked for Gameo, You all know Gameo, right? He got retired long ago when gameo moved to Bienne but kept a real treasure in spare parts.
He gave me some true new old stock seamasters from the 60-70ies he made himself including a big blue with wrong hands. As he couldn't get the original ones I tried to source big blue hands... nothing on the web at that time and I checked locally.. an official service center did it for me and did some more things for me like that 166.0324...
 
ChrisN
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uwsearch uwsearch
You're funny guys, why would I say that ? This watch was rebuilt for that price by an omega official service Center. . Not all service Center would do it, but at least one does it, so please show some respect in your comments, thanks..

Is the difference in prices down to your location? I get the feeling you're in Switzerland? I know that to Spain, the import duties can be 40% for Swiss items.

If you got the head only, fully serviced for €1500 including the cost of the movement then that is a very good deal today. To be honest, you could do it for that using parts from Cousins about 3 years ago but they're much more expensive now and it's likely €2000-2500. Otto Frei would be similar, I think.

Regards, Chris
 
Edward53
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uwsearch uwsearch
case including bezel and crown 800
dial 300
hands 100
total 1200

05 166024 2 IMG_6594.JPG

That is VERY nice for the money. May I ask, was the 565 originally in a Seamaster 300, in which case I can see why an Omega service centre would rebuild it? Or was the movement from something else like a Geneve, unbranded Omega, etc?
 
uwsearch
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Edward53 Edward53
That is VERY nice for the money. May I ask, was the 565 originally in a Seamaster 300, in which case I can see why an Omega service centre would rebuild it? Or was the movement from something else like a Geneve, unbranded Omega, etc?
Omega has a big problem about the origin of their movement in vintage watches, especially seamasters divers, as movements were systematically swapped during service to save time (in Switzerland). They had a stock of serviced movement (that they prepared when they extra time or not too much to do) and put them in newly arrived watches.
So Omega can't say that they don't accept a Seamaster with a Geneve movement as that situation comes from their own former service policy.
I saw the other day a Seamaster 120 166.073 recently serviced by Omega Bienne with a very low 25M serial...

Talking about price, that was 2015 Omega official price, about the same price you could get it from watcho, cousins and others 5 years ago... before they double their prices...
 
watchyouwant
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"So Omega can't say that they don't accept a Seamaster with a Geneve movement as that situation comes from their own former service policy."........ But they DO say that. maybe you can write excerpts from the archives. but your word might not be good enough for collectors. just follow Omega Company procedure; like it or not. and this kind of speculative behaviour is a waste of time for me. Ask the more expensive Rolex Collectors that question and your statement ; maybe about Rolex cal. 1530, that was in dress watches and very expensive Toolwatches as well. they will not even bother to answer that silly statement. kind regards. achim
 
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