Just as soon as I start trying to learn the about Seamaster 300's, I'm watching the auction site and one pops up for an extremely good price (assuming it's even an 80% watch), with two extremely poor photos.

Well, I leap despite my relative ignorance, and it just arrived today.

Anyone with ultra-knowledge of SM300's add or detract from my observations below?

The 550 movement is very grimey, but still has consistent and bright color (under the grime). It's a 27, xxx,xxx. (It's ticking from the shipping here, but I wish I could stop it!)

The case back purports a 165.024. This seems to square with the movement #'s. (Unfortunately, some oaf with likely a pair of scissors ruined an otherwise great case back.)

The case itself is clean, with an almost suspiciously clean bezel, but that seems to be consistently aged with the dial. Bezel turns fine.

As for the dial, the biggest annoyance is a gap of lume in the largest sword hand. There are also a couple of tiny spots on the black, which appear more oily than the otherwise consistently matte black dial (look between the 10 and 11 lumes, and just south east of the "9").

No clue about the bracelet, though at least the clasp hinge is definitely not Omega.

What to do about the lume gap!?!

Thanks, gents.

Edit: The more I look at it, the more this bezel must be a replacement - ammiright? It appears to be a circa '69 bezel, with rounded '3', flat-top '4' and angled serif on '1'. Also, would it be common for the "swiss made" to be obscured by a silver ring circling the dial?

 

Hope you got it at a good price. The bracelet looks good though based on end links and the link tightness. Case also looks good just the dial and hands are in bad shape with the bezel being a replacement. Movement definitely needs a service.

 

The lume gap begs the question - where did that lume go?

Service should be priority #1....

Easy to stop the movement if you can remove the automatic....but letting it run down won't be a huge issue IMO.

Cheers, Al

 

the swan-neck regulator looks like it is broken.
you will probably have to buy another cheap one and make a decent sm 300 out of the two. then sell the ugly one left to someone else.
when you buy the other one, concentrate on the dial and the hands. it is the sexy part of the watch.
good luck

 

Al, I defer to you on this, but the shape and texture of the "missing" piece would almost suggest that the lume kind of melted and retracted into a missing oval with soft rounded edges -- rather than instead appearing as though a 'chunk' fell out.

 

Truly begs the question of " What you paid"?

 

Was $5,000 a good deal?

I'm just joshin'. I got a good enough deal given the risk taken.

 

You changed your name to Josh?

Hmmm, might be a good avatar message in there somewhere........

 

Main Entry: 1josh
Pronunciation: \ˈjäsh\
Function: verb
Etymology: origin unknown
Date: 1845
intransitive verb: to engage in banter : joketransitive verb: to tease good-naturedly : kid
— josh·er noun

 

"just Josh, by gosh"

 

what Al wrote.
Next, what omegastar wrote.

When you're all done put a Khaki NATO strap on what you keep; sell what you have left and enjoy your hot new tropical - tropic watch.

*edit

it appears your watch is a PERFECT candidate for this new fangled laser welding stuff. if you can get the caseback restored to original for ~150 bucks I bet it would add a minimum of $300/400 in overall value to this sort of watch. This of course is just an uneducated guess.

 

The bezel is NOT a replacement one. It's genuine and in fact in a pretty good shape. That alone is a good start. Bezel's are harder to get in nice condition than dial and hands. The lume on the numbers and 5 min. markers is all-right and not messed with IMO. And it's not a SL replacement one, but the last iteration af the SM300 2.gen bezels (five in total). The difference to the replacement one is A: the 5 i 50 is more closed, B: the 1's serif is shorter and C: the numbers are a bit thinner. This version bezel match the reference no. and movement no. pretty well.
The really dark lume on the dial and hands is pretty often seen in these late 165.024 and 166.024's. Don't know if Omega used some other lume or the examples I've seen simply had more exposure to sun and/or water! Below is one of mine where the dial's lume looks a bit like yours.
The crystal ring could be silver original, but that was typical for the earlier examples (and on replacement crystal). Later examples had black rings, but rarely seen as crystals most often have been replaced.
Anyway: you have to hunt down a better dial/hands that match that bezel, and find another caseback, and fix that movement - but then you will have a very fine example.

 

Thank you for the information!

 

Watch now for sale in FS thread.