Various Seamaster 300 with military specifications (retrofitted screw down crown, fixed spring bars and regular “0552” engraved on the case backs with other numbers) appear with a dial that bears no big triangle or circled T. According to different collectors, they were issued like this and the dial is not a replacement dial, but the original dial. It would be the market that would inevitably impose -today- the dial to be either a big triangle dial, or a circled T dial, often both. On my profile, you can see a photo (found on this forum) of various Seamaster 300 RN milspec issued with all sort of dial combination, including a regular dial just like the civilian watches...
Any opinion or help on the subject?
(One other thing is, as a past soldier, I would have prefered during discrete operation to wear nothing on my watch that linked me to my military affiliation...)

 

Pictures?

 

Sure.

 

You are mixing quite a couple of things up here. Do a search here and on the MWR forum and read everything all over again.

What's your point? Help with what???

 

It seems clear that some of the first issued SM300 watches did not have the circled T dial. These first watches where army issued (W10) not Royal Navy (0552).

 

Juste help me to clear out those points I get mixed up with. What I meant, said in other words: can a 300 Seamaster RN be issued with no circled t and no big triangle? I am not talking about the W10 first models.

 

c

 

According to exchanges on MWR Forum on this subject: "The UK military use the circle-T marking to indicate the presence of the radioactive luminescent material Tritium. We see the SM300 (military) watches both with and without these markings. Some people like to see the circle-T as it is an indication that the dial has military provenance and not a replacement".

 

^^this^^

 

May be clear for you, I find it more complex.

Given the strict rules of MOD about miltary issue items, find it difficult to believe that the first issued SM300 (1967 onwards) watches did not have the circled T dial.

These would be over ten years after, by protocol, Radium was banned, and the use of tritium allowed only with the indication on dial (T). Most 1953 Omegas had dials replaced because of this (fat-arrow tritium vs. thin-arrow radium).

I would rather like to see the Omega extract confirming the military issuing of these watches. And, in this case, would very much think that it is very likely that, once passed in civilian hands, the original T dial was swapped for a non-T dial.

BWs
Franco

 

I went through the excellent "Guide to military Timepieces" ( ZM. Wesolowski, Windrow & Greene, 1996). Special forces and diver"s wristwatches are gone through. For the seamaster 300 Roya Navy model, just one perfect exemple: big triangle but...no circled T! And I really doubt the author, one of the top military watch experts, would have taken as exemple a military timepiece with a dial replacement...
According to these informations, there seems to be different dial options: -Big triangle and no circled T (BT-no CT), big triangle + circled T (BT +CT), as well as no BT +CT and No BT-No CT. Of course, they all have the classic military specifications (except for the W10 that for the first models has no screw down crown).

Exemple of no BT+CT
https://www.phillips.com/detail/OMEGA/CH080117/103
Different exemples of no BT-no CT models, like this W10 model
https://amsterdamvintagewatches.com/shop/omega-seamaster-300-military-165-024/
And there seems to be also RN (0552) no BT-No BC dial models -not a replacement but originally issued like that- as seen on different pictures and auctions.

In other words, a circled T (which is very easely faked) is not a proof that a Seamaster military 300 is correct, and it's lack does not mean it is not. The authenticity depends on the dial, that has to be genuine (with all sorts of combination), as well as the retrofitted screw down crown (except some W10 models), the fixed spring bars and the regular engravings on the case back, combined with the information of the extract- which is decisive.

 

Love the price guide in the above book .

 

Love it to. But it's back in...1996!

 

Not exactly ground breaking research, so you are saying it depends on many different factors?
Wow.

You missed out the movement serial numbers, they usually are in a specific range, depending on which issue it was.

 

The point is not that "it depends on many factors" as you write it but that it does not depend on the circled T and the big triangle.
I did not miss the movement serial number: the extract of Omega archive is mainly based on it.

 

So since you are somewhat of an expert, and as has already been asked, what exactly is your point?

 

Tough crowd

 

Yes