In a recent writeup of the Seamaster 165.024 and 166.024 Big Triangle, Christie's Watch Shop says only military issue no date big triangle Seamaster are correct:

"Unlike civilian ‘Big Triangles’, these watches (military) were a non-date caliber with special engravings on the case back and fixed bars at the lugs. In today’s vintage market, authentic civilian ‘Big Triangle’ non-date SM300s do not exist."

http://www.christies.com/features/Omega-Seamaster-300-1966-Deconstructed-5897-1.aspx

Is this correct?

 

Uh, no. Lots of original and correct examples out there.

 

An English Omega Catalogue from 1967 - pic courtesy of old-omegas.com

 

The word is that these Omega catalogues are unreliable as a reference. They were preprinted well in advance of actual production. Learned this a while ago when I tried to convince the multitude that early Ed White's were correct with alpha hands. Not saying the catalogue is wrong, it just may not be right.

 

In your EW case, picture of a previous model was used. Did you think picture of a previous model was also used in these ads for the big triangle? Which one would it possibly be? There are just way many more original civilian big triangles than military issued ones.

 

So TNT, are you saying that civilian big triangle no dates are potentially correct and that the Christie's Watch Shop author is incorrect?

 

I'd say definitely, not potentially, correct.

 

Thanks. Hope Christie's does a better job providing facts for their Dec 15th Auction.

 

They actually have a qualifier "In today’s vintage market" which could be interpreted as none on sale at the moment.

 

Good point

 

And does anyone here really think that the auction house guys are the last word on anything when it comes to watches, art, wine, or whatever??? Don't believe everything that you read.

 

I don't. That's why I've reached out for the help of others.

 

I would take anything coming out of major auction house "watch department" with a grain of salt. They typically have experts who might know a lot about vintages watches in general, but rarely would they have deep expertise into specific brands (excluding perhaps brands such as Rolex and Patek, but I wouldn't know about that since I am not an expert on these.....;-). You are more likely to find the appropriate expertise on brand specific forums (such as this one). Having said that, the "big triangle" dial was sold on many civilian no date examples. Here are just a few examples I pulled off the web. I can also look at some reference material later today and post more images:

 

Thanks everyone for your help. I'm convinced!

 

Was planning on getting one of these babies in the future, thank you for this info, I'll be bookmarking this!

 

I should receive this one on Monday, and I'm interested in your opinions?

 

So you are the one who snared this quickly off of EBay. Well done.

 

You've left out the best part. It comes with a hard to find 1506/16 bracelet.

 

Yes! Can't wait to see it in the flesh! Sounds like it's a complete, one owner piece. Hoping the extract supports the story, but I feel good about it

 

A question I have is that I've read that the Big Triangle dial was not issued until 1967.