Lume plots seem orange to me. Bezel worn out.

 

Lots of issues. Wrong chrono minute hand, needs a new bezel, and something is up with the lume as you mention. But to me the biggest issue is the case has been polished to "chrome" appearance:

 

Here is mine..... hope it helps...

 

I quite like it as it is, but I am sure it is better to pay more for a nice example and probably easier than fixing all the issues with this one. I think the difficulty would be finding a bezel, the other things like sorting the case out and getting a new chrono minute hand are probably straight forward.

 

Not worth the time and effort unless you prepare to wait and the one is under priced.

 

What do you think is going on with the lume?

 

Maybe nothing. I just have never seen a Big Blue with lume that has aged to that orange color -- they usually age to more sand-colored or light beige, or a patina that is more green than orange. It's possible that the color arrived that way naturally and might look good with a correct, matching handset/bezel. Or maybe the lighting in those photos is making it look more orange than it would look in person.

But I've read tales of people artificially aging Submariner or Speedmaster dials to get a dark orange patina effect, so I suppose it's possible that's what happened here too.

The lume is better than this example though!

 

That's helped me to want one even more than I did before...

 

I think lighting or filters might have been used for the photos. The bezel is also a very nice shade of blue, overall it has a nice look to it, perhaps this has been done on purpose to turn a turd into an attractive turd. Personally I would consider buying this watch if the price was giveaway cheap, but if I unwrapped it and it did not look exactly like it does in the pictures I would not be a happy shopper.

 

I find it a very poor, ugly and charmless example and would advise anyone considering buying it not to.

 

I find it strange that in the Rolex world a "ghost" bezel like this would be desirable but not in the Omega world?

It all appears original except the chrono hand.

 

To my eye that is a bezel that has been painted over with a non-matching, darker paint, as opposed to "ghost" which is a result of fading that causes the bezel to get lighter.

 

Looking at the way the material in the bezel is sitting, I'd take a punt on it being some sort of filler/polymer rather than the original bezel insert... thinking some sort of coloured modelling clay from the way it sits in between the metal bevels of the bezel itself.

Am I right in my understanding that the bezel inserts are NLA for these?

Could explain why someone got creative.

If the price were right, I'd be tempted to pick it up, have the case regrained, and run it with no bezel...

 

A "ghost" bezel is in principle a naturally faded original bezel insert, what we have here looks like someone just painted in the steel bezel with a blue paint

 

I strongly advise against even considering this horrific mess of a watch. I think the original dial was trashed and this is an artificially aged replacement dial. Look at the colour of the inner bezel, if the original dial was there it would be this same faded colour.
The bezel, which looks awful, has been covered above. The case is over polished in the extreme and we haven't even seen the case back or movement.

 

Sold for $3320. Consider this onePurchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network that sold last month for $4100 which was better in every possible way. It would cost way more than $800 to make the $3320 example look respectable, and even then will never look as good as the $4100 example.

 

As it turns out you were correct. I had to press the seller but at least he said it.

 

Bezel is discontinued and NLA...

 

A much more attractive example which I think went for a very good price for the buyer, although not perfect it is evenly aged and has good character.

These are very attractive watches in a picture and I was after one for ages when I was collecting 70´s Omega. After handling a few I realised that they are for me a bit too bulky and top heavy whilst wearing. IMO you need to have a very large wrist indeed to be able to give a SM120 justice

 

Perfectly described about last month's watch - not a museum piece but an honest watch I'd be proud to own and wear. And spot on about the comfort of the Big Blue. I love mine but I usually only wear it for a half-day at a time because it isn't very comfortable.