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gatorcpa
··ΩF InvestiGator... off my grail list.
I've been looking for an Omega Centenary for a long time. Probably to the point that I've given up several times over the years. Every so often, I'll go back to eBay and type it in to the search box. There's always something there, generally overpriced by about 2 to 3 times.
Imagine my surprise when one with a rather reasonable Buy-it-now price showed up floating in the Bay. I saved it, intending to ask questions of the seller in the morning. However, the next day, the seller decided to raise the BIN price by $500. Being the cheap collector that I am, I decided to let this one run to the end, hoping that the seller would re-list and I could make an offer for the original price that got me interested in the first place. That auction ran out and the seller immediately relisted it as a regular auction, not a BIN. Now I had another 10 days to contemplate. You are not seeing that one, because it is still up for bids.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, another identical Centenary popped up that I hadn't noticed before. This one had only a day to run and was priced (at the time) less than the BIN price of the first one. So I loaded up the Gixen with a little more than what I was going to pay for the first watch and waited. Here is one of the eBay pictures:
Ended up at somewhat less than my snipe bid. Bullseye!
The discoloration of the dial in the picture is really a shadow from the seller's phone.
Yes, the springbars are gold in color. Are they the original 18K gold ones that were supposed to have come with this watch? I don't know. I'll get them tested in due time. This watch has the newer Cal. 343 movement, as opposed to the 1948 Jubilee cal. 28,10 JUB.
Engraved back to the President of a trade association:
I'll have that groove addressed at the next service. But it is running well and the rotor does not seem to be stuck at all.
From what I've seen there were three production runs of Ref. 2499:
1. Serial Number range around 10.8M - these are the 1948 originals without "Officially Certified" and with the Cal. 28,10 JUB.
2. Serial Number range around 11.5M - these also do not have "Officially Certified", but have the Cal. 343. That's this example. Probably sold around 1949-51.
3. Serial Number range around 12.3M - these have both "Officially Certified" and the Cal. 343. @kyle L had a couple of nice examples of this one. I believe these were made after the 1951 requirement that chronometers had to have independent testing.
It took me a couple of hours of Polywatch and cotton T-shirt to due my best with the crystal, clean up the remnants of leather bands past and old DNA removal. My strap box was barren of any decent 18mm bands, but an Alligator is on the way. This was the best I can do, and the reality looks much better than this picture:
The crystal has some stress cracks and is likely beyond salvage. Does anyone know the part number of a replacement crystal?
The crown looks correct at least:
Thank you all for sticking with me this long. I'll try to get a better picture when the 18mm arrives later this week
Take care, and as @Bill Sohne says, "Good Hunting"!
gatorcpa
I've been looking for an Omega Centenary for a long time. Probably to the point that I've given up several times over the years. Every so often, I'll go back to eBay and type it in to the search box. There's always something there, generally overpriced by about 2 to 3 times.
Imagine my surprise when one with a rather reasonable Buy-it-now price showed up floating in the Bay. I saved it, intending to ask questions of the seller in the morning. However, the next day, the seller decided to raise the BIN price by $500. Being the cheap collector that I am, I decided to let this one run to the end, hoping that the seller would re-list and I could make an offer for the original price that got me interested in the first place. That auction ran out and the seller immediately relisted it as a regular auction, not a BIN. Now I had another 10 days to contemplate. You are not seeing that one, because it is still up for bids.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, another identical Centenary popped up that I hadn't noticed before. This one had only a day to run and was priced (at the time) less than the BIN price of the first one. So I loaded up the Gixen with a little more than what I was going to pay for the first watch and waited. Here is one of the eBay pictures:
Ended up at somewhat less than my snipe bid. Bullseye!
The discoloration of the dial in the picture is really a shadow from the seller's phone.
Yes, the springbars are gold in color. Are they the original 18K gold ones that were supposed to have come with this watch? I don't know. I'll get them tested in due time. This watch has the newer Cal. 343 movement, as opposed to the 1948 Jubilee cal. 28,10 JUB.
Engraved back to the President of a trade association:
I'll have that groove addressed at the next service. But it is running well and the rotor does not seem to be stuck at all.
From what I've seen there were three production runs of Ref. 2499:
1. Serial Number range around 10.8M - these are the 1948 originals without "Officially Certified" and with the Cal. 28,10 JUB.
2. Serial Number range around 11.5M - these also do not have "Officially Certified", but have the Cal. 343. That's this example. Probably sold around 1949-51.
3. Serial Number range around 12.3M - these have both "Officially Certified" and the Cal. 343. @kyle L had a couple of nice examples of this one. I believe these were made after the 1951 requirement that chronometers had to have independent testing.
It took me a couple of hours of Polywatch and cotton T-shirt to due my best with the crystal, clean up the remnants of leather bands past and old DNA removal. My strap box was barren of any decent 18mm bands, but an Alligator is on the way. This was the best I can do, and the reality looks much better than this picture:
The crystal has some stress cracks and is likely beyond salvage. Does anyone know the part number of a replacement crystal?
The crown looks correct at least:
Thank you all for sticking with me this long. I'll try to get a better picture when the 18mm arrives later this week
Take care, and as @Bill Sohne says, "Good Hunting"!
gatorcpa
Edited:
