Vintage Seamaster Advice (Potential Overpayment)

timecube

I believe the standard answer they give you here on Omega Forums is

😉

Now....
the For Sale-by-dealer forum
https://omegaforums.net/forums/watches-for-sale/
and For Sale-by-anyone-else forum
https://omegaforums.net/forums/private-watch-sales/
are a little bit tricky for a newcomer to navigate.

Until you have 200+ posts under your belt you can't directly respond to any of those threads.
What you CAN do is send a private message to any of the sellers, and work something out through there.
I haven't bought or sold anything there myself, but I suspect due to the integrity of the community here it is likely you would be able to find a decent watch at a decent price, with decent surety.

There are plenty of meta-discussions about "For Sale" threads and subforums postings and listings if you're interested. Look for stickied threads to get a better sense of what's what.

padders

A sensible approach. A watch like that might struggle to make £500 on here due to the replacement dial. It might make more like £750 on ebay due to the shiny shiny factor which appeals to some buyers there and where there would be less awareness of the replacement parts. It is still an attractive piece after all.

Someone, maybe the dealer maybe not, has spent the thick end of £500 servicing that and replacing the dial if it was done the way I suspect. You could argue therefore a fair dealer price would be the £500 true value, plus the £500 service cost plus a notional profit. On that basis your £1K figure looks about right, low even. This is partly why many of is steer clear of dealers and closet dealers.

ps for reference here is what the original dial for that model looked like, this is the non date but is from exactly the same Seamaster model 16X.0002 otherwise. I happen to have a damaged one, note how the fonts are different to yours:

padders

A sensible approach. A watch like that might struggle to make £500 on here due to the replacement dial. It might make more like £750 on ebay due to the shiny shiny factor which appeals to some buyers there and where there would be less awareness of the replacement parts. It is still an attractive piece after all.

Someone, maybe the dealer maybe not, has spent the thick end of £500 servicing that and replacing the dial if it was done the way I suspect. You could argue therefore a fair dealer price would be the £500 true value, plus the £500 service cost plus a notional profit. On that basis your £1K figure looks about right, low even. This is partly why many of is steer clear of dealers and closet dealers.

ps for reference here is what the original dial for that model looked like, this is the non date but is from exactly the same Seamaster model 16X.0002 otherwise. I happen to have a damaged one, note how the fonts are subtly different to yours:

VetPsychWars

I wouldn't worry too much about "overpaying" when you're keeping it forever.

Vintage watches, like vintage mechanical anything, wear out. Their parts are worn and need replacement. I can guarantee you that, when Omega serviced this watch, there was very little of the original movement left. You are not buying serviced, you are essentially buying what is known as "remanufactured". It is nearly new.

As Al Archer has pointed out, every one of these they return to as-new factory condition, the retail cost of the parts is very high. Of course, since they are essentially buying from themselves, their ultimate cost is low.

You are looking for something to wear day in and day out, and it appeals to you... I for one would not be terribly concerned about the cost. Amortize it over the next 30 years, let's say, because you could easily keep it that long, assuming a proper service every three to five years.

If you like it, buy it. A lot of the people here who say "you paid too much" consider themselves collectors and collectors are always looking for a bargain, and when they find one, they think that is the proper price.

I paid $4000 for a WatchCo Seamaster 300. Some think it's worth that. Others don't. I honestly don't care what they think because it keeps excellent time, looks great, and I like it.

Tom

wagudc

An independent watchmaker who is experienced with vintage watches will maintain original parts or source period-correct replacements. The folks here can recommend such a person depending on your location.

wagudc

I was responding to the statement that every vintage watch that was serviced would similarly be in non-original condition. I agree 100% movement parts should be replaced when worn, but hands, original dial finish, etc. could be preserved.

efauser

At least two times.

aps26469

I am looking around on this forum for a while now and learned a lot. However on prices I think there is something like a “local premium”. If I see what people in the US pay and what we in Europe pay there is a large difference (except for high end watches). Don’t forget that a USD 600 US watch already costs the average European around USD 750 post import. Having said that in this particular case it is highly overpaid but more than two times? Mmmmm...... not sure.