Worn out 165.026 case watch project

So I have all these 55x parts left over from various projects. I decided to chance a worn out case. Not quite sure why I did not add that to my eBay addiction mega thread. Well I do tend to get busy with the Dickens Christmas fair this time of year.

I like to grab parts when ever I see them on eBay. The excuse Is I skip lunch (or in the case this morning breakfast) to justify the expense. Unfortunatly I do have to help santa with the parts farming costs. At least I save on the labor fees.

I was actually surprised I got this garbage case. The seller accepted my BIN which basically covered shipping.

What is interesting is it looks like someone took a grinder to the edges. Was a bit surprised that they are hollow ground. I think there is enough material on the lugs to retain spring bars. Surprisingly the logo and writing on the back is visible when lit with a strong light.

Omega killed the vintage section of the website. I was able to to some research here and online that indicates this should have a cosmic dial. This might be the perfect case for one of my dial painting experiments as it looks like this case can take a flat and not domed dial. I do not think that there was a separate bezel. This is a large case.

My guess is someone really loved this case and wore it everyday. The front of the case is not too bad. Although I can not figure out how the wear patterns can be so undercut, and leave the text somewhat there.

Economically this makes absolutely no sense. It just goes to show that I work on these for pure entertainment.

The other justification is it will keep the movement parts together and somewhat protected.

Thats great! One of my projects is the smaller version of that, the 166.022 (I think?), a tool-105 case, that was an absolutely amazing watch that cleaned up amazingly!

Rear of the case kinda stinks but not really a problem, you can't see that part when you're wearing it! IT MIGHT be an opportunity to see if you can polish the marks out and try plating! I picked up a $90 gold plating kit (it would be $60 if i wasn't working on stainless!) that I'm going to give a try to, might be an entertaining thing to try! https://www.beckerindustries.com/