Hello all, What do you think of my early 50s Seamaster? Of course it's not an Omega at all. This is a Baume & Co watch I have recently picked up. What attracted me to it is how much it looks like an early Seamaster. I really like the look of 40s and early 50s watches, especially Omegas. Here is a close up with a picture of a similar period Seamaster I found on the internet below. Baume & Co are not the same company as Baume & Mercier though they both originate from the same family. Apparently one of the Baume brothers came to London and set up business in the early 1800s. I found an article from 1949 talking about how they had moved to their then current location in 1844. They were the UK and Empire agents for Longines and Heuer. There are a lot of Longines cased by them. They seem to be an above average maker and actually marketed themselves as "The good watch" with the implication if you want a "good" watch buy a Baume. Anyway what I was wondering was which came first the chicken or the egg? Is this a manufacturer cashing in with a copy of the popular Omega Seamaster or was it that the Seamaster was Omega's version of the generic waterproof "sports" watch and therefore had the same look as other sports watches? Stylistically the Baume seems slightly earlier, Early 50s? The movement I think is an FHF 28 (picture below). So can anyone educate me on how the Seamaster developed it's look? Thanks all. Carl
Hello Hijak, That's just the style I was thinking about. I knew I had seen an early Seamaster with the more deco like numbers and bowler hat crown. Couldn't find anything when I googled though. So what do you think, copying Omega or just that waterproof, shockproof, antimagnetic, luminous watches of the era branded as sports watches tended to look like this and Omega are just following on from that trend before the Seamaster got it's own style. I have noticed a few other sports watches of the 40s and fities with the two tone dial and it seems to be mainly the Seamasters in the Omega range that had this. It just struck me how similar to an Omega it was. Thanks. Carl
My watch above is a reference 2635 with a cal. 354 movement inside and the style of the numerals on the dial are known as Breguet. The ref. 2635 above is from circa. 1952, so who copied who is anyone's guess. If you Google the reference # and/or Breguet you will find quite a bit of info about these. Personally I think all three watches in this thread, so far, have significant differences. Yes there are some similarities as watches from the fifties had a certain style but the details on each watch, such as the hands, lugs and overall case styles are quite different.
This is the state of affairs by 1959 for a manual-wind Seamster (Cal.520); case diameter is 33.5mm. Edit: Reference is CK 14722
Beautiful watch, love the Alpha hands! This watch really falls in line with the sixties style Seamasters like these (transitional, if you will)... Ref. 136.011 ~1964 Ref. 14905 ~1963