Swiss Made Lower on Dial

[Juri4n]

I bought a vintage Omega Seamaster 166.0204. Everything looks good and original, but the 'Swiss Made' on the dial is much lower than on my other vintage Omega watches. What could this mean? Is this a redial?

 

[onlyomega94]

At some point a third-party crystal has been fitted which has a tension ring with a slightly different profile that's a bit bigger than the original, meaning it covers some of the swiss made. The crystal is a part that is often changed during service or if it breaks etc. So not uncommon to see and not necessarily a problem unless you're a hardcore collector..

 

[Winston_Smith]

Agree with @onlyomega94 , could be annoying but this happens. It's the case with my today's wearer Eterna, sometimes the tension ring covering most of the SWISS text catches my eye. But I don't see it a necessarily big problem in terms of the watch's authenticity etc., that's the price I paid for a fitting glass!

That said if it were an Omega, I'd probably be more annoyed, especially if the glass didn't bear the Omega logo in the middle. But some don't care.

Edit: added picture for context.

 

[theluckyluke]

Pretty common indeed. Wouldn’t worry too much. It’s not like you can read the Swiss text from very far anyway!

 

[kingsrider]

Replace the crystal with a proper fitting tension ring and crystal. There is the possibility that the ring can rub the printing and cause dial damage,

 

[hoipolloi]

Because it was wrongly redialed.

 

[Winston_Smith]

kingsrider

Replace the crystal with a proper fitting tension ring and crystal. There is the possibility that the ring can rub the printing and cause dial damage,

Ahh you got me worried about the tension ring now 😬 Honestly I was always afraid of that, potentially if the crystal was under pressure somehow. I am just concerned that every time I want to change a small thing that annoys me for the better, it just gets worse, so I tried to avoid as long as it's not a serious concern. But the service time might be approaching anyway.

 

[kingsrider]

So it has been a while since I tried to source Omega parts. Cousins UK used to be a great source for Omega crystals. I see they still sell generic Omega crystals. Here is the link https://www.cousinsuk.com/category/omega-generic-glasses
This may be an option for you.

 

[SOG53]

No T? Has lumed dial and hands

 

[Winston_Smith]

SOG53

No T? Has lumed dial and hands

I was worried about that at first, too. But did a quick search and found out that it is very common with 166.0204. maybe they have changed the lume material from tritium for this one (or around this time)? Idk

 

[Winston_Smith]

Winston_Smith

I was worried about that at first, too. But did a quick search and found out that it is very common with 166.0204. maybe they have changed the lume material from tritium for this one (or around this time)? Idk

Omega's own reference picture for the model, limes but no T's.


Sold on OF

 

[padders]

There was no change in lume material, Omega used tritium all the way from 1963 to 1997 but some models do lack the Ts it is true. The Bond SMP is the most obvious, launched 1993-4 with tritium, no Ts in sight. The earlier Pre-Bond was the same. It does seem strange that some models have Ts and others don't but it is a thing, particularly from the 1980s onwards.

 

[Juri4n]

Thanks for all the comments! I am going to replace the crystal with an original crystal!