Hi all,

I'm (still) on the search for my first vintage omega. Have been searching thoroughly through eBay and have come across these 2. Both sellers are 100% positive reviews with 100+ vintage watch sales.

I'm leaning towards the Seamaster Geneve... while the Constellation looks very unique and fantastic to me, I feel given it's seemingly rarer(?) movement and also much smaller size (I'm looking for an everyday watch in a corporate job), servicing practicality makes the Seamaster a more solid first vintage watch choice...

Anyway, would love to get people's opinions on authenticity and valuation:

1: Seamaster Geneve 166.002 cal 565, cross hair dial & date
buyer does not mention any parts as 'refinished' besides from a replaced band





2: Constellation Automatic Chronometer Cal 712. (c 1966) 167.021

Very thin movement and smaller watch in general. 34mm wide with the crown.
The seller has mentioned that this watch should probably be serviced... and
"The movement could also do with a new support ring as it is missing one part of the existing one, this isn't affecting the watch at all really and it's just me being thorough.

 

i'm no expert here, but i'm not sure there's such an animal as a 'seamaster geneve'. either it's a seamaster or a geneve, right?

p.s.: not crazy about the constellation dial fonts

 

A couple of a Seamaster Geneve examples on this forum, here and here, for comparison.

 

i stand corrected on the 'seamaster geneve' dilemma i had.
still not crazy about the font on that connie dial, though...

 

I'm surely no expert at all and you might want to wait until the experts chime in. But here's my opinion.

I vote redial on both and wouldn't buy any of them. Btw I haven't even checked if the movements are right, but given the look of the dials I would pass anyway.

Seamaster: the interrupted crosshairs doesn't seem to be right. -> redial

Constellation: second hand is too short and the "automatic" should be written in capital letters... -> redial plus wrong hands

 

Ps:
@OmegaBear : from 1965 to 1967, Omega sold watches with "Seamster Genève" on the dial. After that they just called these watches Genève (c.f. picture from AJTT below. I'm sorry it's in German...)




@hrobi : i suggest to take a look at the private watch sale section. ( https://omegaforums.net/forums/private-watch-sales/ )
There are plenty of nice pieces for a fair price. You'll get a nice original watch there if you keep an eye on it.

 

oooh cal. 712 nice!

 

Lowercase writing is correct on these according to Desmond: http://omega-constellation-collecto...6/strangely-nothing-of-substance-appears.html

Seconds hand looks broken or replaced but the rest looks ok to me (but I know nothing).

 

i stand corrected on my second point of concern as well..

 

I really like this ultra thin Constellation but I do agree the movement maintenance could be a concern so it's probably not the best choice as a first vintage.

 

Again I know nothing so don't trust my opinion but the Geneva looks very tired but not a redial to me. I don't know if the broken crosshair is a definitive telltale but the printing looks too fine and good quality for a redial.

 

Thanks for the advice! Yeah I've been trying to look around for information as well on the seamaster geneve. To my understanding they were made at a transitional point in between sea master and geneve, in the late 60s.

There aren't many seamaster geneve's with the cross hair on the dial, however I have found a few! Here's an example that went for sale on reddit:



The dial is very similar, however a few small differences, the most noticeable just the line immediately above the 6 o'clock being dashed vs solid. Allegedly both are original dials but like you said, redialled seems most likely.

I have been looking around the private watch sales thread! Nothing yet that is within my budget and aesthetic, so perhaps just a bit of patience is key

 

Thanks for the feedback!
Yeah from what I gather (I also know nothing, and most likely less than you haha), one obviously good way to tell if it's a redial or not is to check if the actual model officially existed/was made by omega. given I've found a few examples of the exact same combination of dial and case and movement, I assume it might be genuine... (Obviously this is by no means a guarantee)

Yeah I agree, the broken cross hair seems like a good sign to me... See the above photos I've recently attached of another similar piece that was sold over the Internet!

 

...

 

Yeahhh I agree. There's just nothing atm on here that I'm interested in sadly. There are a few nice pieces on chrono24 but that's also a bit of a black box, and also very overpriced.

Really under $650 USD would be fantastic and is my goal, but would be willing to go a little higher for something really nice....

 

I was in a similar situation to you.

Wanted something nice I can wear to work (sometimes).
New to watches. (I'm still new, but I'm reading as much as I can every day).
Looking on eBay but feeling unsure about it.

I waited until the right watch came along. I ended up buying the watch below here on FS, and I could easily find its history through the sellers history. It's worth the wait!

View attachment 234919

Would you consider a different brand? Zenith are a very quality watch brand and their vintages can be much cheaper.

 

Sent you a PM