I picked up a 135.027 with an orange second hand at one point. I had planned to find a replacement white hand for it. However, I've seen quite a few examples of this watch with an orange second hand, so I'm starting to wonder why there are so many out in the world.

I saw a post on WUS where someone wrote that their watchmaker claims this model was available to purchase with an orange second hand. Maybe that is a possibility? I've also seen a poster positing (here on OF I believe) that Omega may have been out-of-stock on this part at one point, and replaced the original part with this orange second hand during services while the white second hand was unavailable.

I'd like to hear get people's thoughts, conjectures, angry shouting etc on how this could have happened, because it seems to me there are too many in the wild (examples below) for it to happen by coincidence that several watchmakers decided to replace the original part with this same orange second hand. I'm not trying to establish there is some rare SM 120 ultraman to line my pocket or something along those lines. Just curious to hear the thoughts and opinions of others who have been collecting and looking at vintage Omega vintage for much longer than myself.

So what do you think?

A. Orange second hand is original to some SM 120 in the 135/136/165/166.027 line
B. Orange second hand was used as a service part at some point while the original was unavailable
C. Rogue watchmakers did this you simpleton.
D. Alternate theories – Martians, pranks by collector spouses, time traveling part pilferers?

Examples:




And the WUS post I referenced above that the pervious pic is from:



I'm pretty sure the first image is the watch I wound up with, although I don't think it's from the auction I purchased the watch from (it came on a black leather strap). The second to last picture is from a YouTube video that comes up if you search 135.027. Not sure where I got the rest of them from. I saved these several months ago when I had been wondering about this for a while.

Here is mine:



Looking forward to hearing people's thoughts.

 

Cant speak to the orange hand but mine came with a silver second hand when I got it and slender white min/hour hands (like a Speedy’s) and I figured it was just a hack watchmaker our there who replaced the parts during a service with the wrong hands (I have since replaced them with the correct hands) but I have seen others just like mine (even here on OF), so have been left to deduce that when the parts weren’t available from Omega, they substituted the closest fitting part- so my vote would be B....
But- why would they have used an orange second hand rather than just another white or silver hand from a different model? The 565 was available in a ton of watches so I find it hard to believe they had no other replacement hands the right length other than an orange one (and then why not just paint it white?)- which would then lead to C
But more than one watchmaker doing this?!?! I find it hard to believe that there was a conspiracy of Oompa-Lumpa watchmakers out there who specifically replaced all white SM120 hands with orange hands....although I never trusted those Oompa-lumpas.
So all I got left is it was a factory option (like the Ultraman) or an alien conspiracy...which goes back to the Oompa-lumpas

 

I know nothing of this reference. However, I do know, that usually when Omega (or any manufacturer for that matter) make parts for a watch, they will be sized correctly, and that hand to me on those watches just looks too short (I would expect it to come to, or slightly past, the minute track).

Here are some consistent examples (I think there are Dynamics with orange hands too...and most likely others).







There are lots of Omega's from this era with that color/shape hand...so a common enough part to find and switch. All just my humble 2c opinion.

 

In response to @JwRosenthal , I officially move to make “Oompa-lumpas” response “E” for voting purposes, as I find it the most plausible answer.

And those are some good points @eugeneandresson . A quick glance at my 135.027 with what I believe is the correct white second hand, and it looks like it does extends a bit further than this orange second hand does, although neither go past the minute track. I’ll take a look at some of the pics in the SM 120 mega-thread to compare and maybe post some side-by-side pics in morning as well.

Thanks for the responses, keep them coming!

 

My vote goes for rogue watchmakers with customers wanting a cool orange hand as replacement. I have seen this on many dress seamasters as well.
This is of course speculation, but I doubt that Omega would use the orange seconds hand as a replacement. (I think I have also only seen this orange version used as a sweeping seconds on watches with chrono functionality).

With that said the original seconds hands don't extend (much?) further than the orange one.
Here's a good reference watch: https://omegaforums.net/threads/near-perfect-mint-omega-seamaster-120-diver-136-027-w-papers.78137/

 

Thanks for the input @jeppehh

In addition to chronographs, the orange second hand can be found on a variety of Dynamic and Geneve models. I believe all of the Geneve Admiralty line had colored and often orange second hands, and there were also versions of references 13X.041 and 16X.041 (often branded Geneve) that had orange second hands as well.

Here’s a 166.041 example:



Although all of these watches featured hour and minute hands that were painted white and black, and I can’t think of any non-chronograph Omegas where an orange or colored second hand was paired with silver hands like that of a SM 120. The a colored second hand paired with silver hour / minute hands seems to be a rarity even in chronographs. I can only think of the white-dialed SM chronograph @eugeneandresson posted above as an example.

 

the uber-rare ultraman seamaster!

 

Saw another example on Chrono 24 recently, so thought I’d try to revive this conversation.

https://www.chrono24.com/omega/seamaster-120--id17616536.htm?SETLANG=en_US&SETCURR=USD

 

E: Umpaloompas seems the most plausible explanation