Hi Everyone,
First time poster long time Omega lover. As you can tell by my user name I'm a New Zealander and work as a crew foreman in a West Coast timber mill (hence the avatar and the nickname of "Chopper").I own a couple of old Omegas and have bought and sold a few others over the years, as well as a few other brands. The one I need some advice on is the one that started it all back in the eighties. I bought this piece literally off a watchmakers wrist. It's always been my favourite,well serviced and never had a hard life, works perfectly and keeps great time. I've looked at similar watches and the pricing is so varied it gave me a headache.
On the last service I got the watchmaker to write me a little blurb on the background and condition of the watch he has been the only person that's had it's back off and knows the watch well, following are his words verbatim.

"The watch is an Omega, stainless cased, Calibre 27DLPC (from 1949, this calibre became Omega 381). It has a production number of 10931949, which would indicate it was made in 1946. It's case number is 2471/1.
The watch has had a gentle life showing little signs of external wear and the movement is in perfect, unmolested, well serviced condition."
I've attached some photos and thanks in advance for any advice offered. I know I can't sell it here
untill a lot more posts. I understand the rules and am happy to comply. I'm just really after some advice and thoughts.

Cheers Kiwi (Chopper)

 

Nice watch in nice condition too. The crown is a later replacement but otherwise I'd say it is in very good original condition with a clean dial that hasn't seen any moisture over the years ( unlike the majority seen )

As you say pricing on these is all over the place, I was just a few days ago looking through sold EBay listings for the Cosmic's and there were a few sold recently in the $1500-$2000 range. The condition of those weren't great and I put the EBay watches at the lower end of the scale.

IMHO these ref's are still a great bargain in the vintage world, bomb full of charm and character and with a very useful complication that is nowhere else to be found across the vintage Omega range. I think maybe a lot of collectors are nervous about re-dials and servicing issues and that keeps the price down. Ref 2471 examples in steel in excellent condition I'd put at $2750 and up all depending on which dial/hand variation it is. Radium filled syringe hands with a radium Arabic numeral dial brings the most when it rarely shows up, that one in excellent shape would probably auction at over $5k

If yours were mine I'd think I'd value it around the $2.75k- $3k mark

 

Amen. @cristos71 knows this stuff

 

They are really great watches to collect, typically as with many 1950's Omega references, there are many subtly differing dial and hand combinations which keeps the hunt interesting...

Here's one of my favourite 2471's

 

I read somewhere that a lot of these have been redialled. Is there a reference table somewhere that has known original references?

 

The Cosmic references are 2606, 2471, 2486 and the square shaped 3944. Dials, as with all vintage watches, should be evaluated on an individual basis.

 

thank you! now its time to hop down the rabbit hole! see you all in a few days!

 

Hi, yeah I was thinking around the $2.5 - $2.75k. Thanks for the reply. I've had a couple of offers at 2k and one at 2.5 but I think I might hang out for the extra 250. Sorry about the late reply I've been off chasing hungry suicidal trout in our back country. Gotta be the best fishery in the world and nothing that has big claws or teeth that can gnaw on you or eat you down here. No bears, big cats, wolves, snakes or even deadly creepy crawlies and fish that are happy to gobble man made flies...ahhh bliss.