I have a question about an Omega watch that I am wondering if someone can help me with. My father passed recently and I came across a watch he has had my entire life, but never wore. I don’t know the whole story of it, but I know he didn’t purchase it. It may have been a gift from an ex wife, which is my best guess since he didn’t tell my mom how he got it either. Anyway, I asked the watchmaker at my jeweler to authenticate it and he confirmed that it is a real Omega. However, he said that it is not gold (gold plated). I asked for the serial number and he gave me a number (that points to 1947 on the serial number chart I found on here) along with another number of “14327”, which I discovered on the Omega website would be a 1953 DE LUXE CHRONOMETER but should be 18K gold. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

 

First bit of guidance would be to post photos.

 

Without pictures we can't help you much

 

The jeweler still has it, but I found this picture which is nearly identical except my fathers is not as polished. I’ll post some more pictures when I pick it up.

 

Hi,

I have a question about an Omega watch that I am hopinb someone can help me with. My father passed recently and I came across a watch he has had my entire life but never wore. I don’t know the whole story of it, but I know he didn’t purchase it. It may have been a gift from an ex wife, which is my best guess since he didn’t tell my mom how he got it either. Anyway, I asked the watchmaker at my jeweler to authenticate it and he confirmed that it is a real Omega. However, he said that it is not gold (gold plated I assume). I asked for the serial number and he gave me a number along with another number of “14327”, which I discovered on the Omega website would be a 1953 DE LUXE CHRONOMETER but should be gold according to the website. Any guidance you can give would be greatly appreciated!

 

Here are photos

 

The first thing they said was that it wasn’t gold, but they opened it, confirmed it was real and gave me the two numbers on the inside. According to the serial number it should be from 1947, but the Omega website says 1953 so that is why I’m stumped.

 

As Kyle said, this is a special watch.

Whatever you do do not let anyone polish the case, marks and nicks are part of the watch's history, it will also devalue it considerably.

A good clear photo of the movement and the inside of the case back would be great.

It is shown in A Journey Through Time on page 265.

 

The omega logo is not straight?

 

Jeweler not knowing it's gold? I doubt that. Could be he was hoping you would sell it to him cheap. I could be wrong but....
Beautiful piece!

 

Wow, that is extremely interesting. I’ve been looking for anything like that for the past 3 months. I didn’t let the jeweler do anything to the watch. I’d love to be able to get a picture of the movement, but I picked it up already.

One thing though, I just noticed that there are crosshairs on the one in the photo, but not on my dads. Any idea why that would be?

 

I thought the same, but they actually said they didn’t know enough about vintage watches to appraise it and didn’t even mention buying it. They were very clear to state it isn’t gold so they couldn’t even give me an estimate of how much the gold would be worth.

 

I think the watchmaker is just a battery changer.
Really nice watch.

 

Omega serial numbers did not always increase in step with the date. Some movements were produced and used immediately in watches, other movements were set aside for production of other editions.

The 11,000,000 series for example, commenced in 1947 and continued through to 1950, and was still used in low production until 1953.

 

The watch is worth many times more than the gold value.

 

Omega typically offered several styles of dials for any given reference. Look a little closer, the gold figures on the one I posted are different as well as having cross-hairs.

 

No, it is. It may be the photo. I took it on my phone.

 

Wow. I’m fascinated by all of this. Since I’m obviously not very good at research because I’ve learned more about this watch in 10 minutes from all of you than I have in months on my own, I’m wondering one more thing. Would anyone have a suggestion of how to get it properly appraised? I love that it has history, which makes me want to get an original (or as close to) band and wear it, but since it doesn’t have much sentimental value I would consider letting it go to someone that would appreciate it if it is as special as you say.

I can’t thank you all enough for your quick and helpful replies