What are peoples thoughts on this Ed White? Would be new territory for me. https://www.ebay.com/itm/143077427382?ViewItem=&item=143077427382Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network
The watch is nice but it looks relumed to me, dial plots darker than most, hands look perfectly matching and very white whereas the subdial hands look damaged.
Service hands, painted and relumed, I think. The watch does appear to have correct pushers. The crown appears to be a reproduction of a proper A1 crown. Best I could do with listing photos: And what the crown should look like:
@oddboy & @dantheman3u4i : I’ve gathered that somebody has been casting replica A1 crowns, given how much they are going for now. I’ve already forgotten where I was tipped off, but I’m sure it was somewhere here? Anyway, the replicas won’t show the correct segmentation that the period A1s have. I’m ready to be corrected if I’ve got this wrong. Examples: OLD: The above crown is from a vintage Seamaster 300 MODERN COUNTERFEIT I think. Cast to look like vintage.
I wouldn’t pretend to have the expertise to speak on this. But I’m sure it got a few people here checking their Speedmaster crowns...
@airansun Very interesting observations. I am sure I've also seen another type of aftermarket crowns for sale on ebay recently, but can't find a direct link to one of the auctions. This is what I found right now: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/nos-omega-style-steel-crown-463414971
I have had original omega ( in omega blister packets) flat foot crowns with no crimping marks ages ago, it is not always a sign of a replica crown. These flat foot crowns just used a more modern manufacture process. The old crowns had an outer shell which was crimped on. Cheers, Michael
An old thread from 2013 shows the crowns without crimping in their Omega packages. https://omegaforums.net/threads/speedmaster-crowns.7964/page-2
Here you will find the aftermarket (not authentic) crowns> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-...h=item1cc6ddaabc:g:RScAAOSwHrlcPaJZ:rk:8:pf:0Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network
This one is a modern service replacement, IMO. It may have been made by/for Omega, but it’s not going to be original to any vintage 321. My point was that I wouldn’t pay vintage A1 crown prices for a modern reproduction of it, whether made for Omega or not. And this modern crown would always bother me on one of my watches; I’d rather have a period service replacement. Some of the people selling these Omega reproductions are getting vintage prices because some buyers can’t tell the difference. (Oh, and I think I can visually distinguish the tops of the crowns, between the vintage and modern; the modern do not have the same sharp definition, around the symbol and at the edge of the top, as do the vintage.) This is like the modern vs. vintage 1171 Omega bracelets. We know how to distinguish between them for a reason. But that’s just me.
I know about your offers. But your crowns looked different then... They were OFrei parts, made to match.