Vintage Omegas sub £1000 - What to look for?

[joropug]

An image in one of the threads in this forum got me curious about a vintage Omegas. In parallel I am re watching mad men and remembered how much I liked Don Draper’s JLC Memovox.

My primary watches are both silver with bracelets (Tag Heuer F1 43mm with Ceramic bezel / sunburst grey dial & Breitling Chronomat 38mm SleekT with polished finish, 38mm) so I figure any purchase I’d like something very different. Gold colour maybe, black, white or blue dial perhaps, leather strap.

I had a quick look on eBay and a watch stood out to me right away - for what it’s worth I don’t know what value this really has other than it’s value to me so may go for way more than I’d be interested in but here it is:



https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334807137420?mkcid=16&a...

It may be a bit early to jump right in but I really like the look of that - I want any purchase to be in good condition and reliable , I am personally less bothered about originality so long as I don’t overpay for trigger’s broom or buy a fake.

Any advice on what to look for / avoid when looking for this style at this price point? Open to other brands but I really like the look of the one pictured above style wise.

Like wise what would be your guess as to what the right price is for the linked watch?

[BrokenSkunk]

Could I point you to a response I wrote on Friday 12th August, here:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Hopefully it will have some pointers for you.

[joropug]

BrokenSkunk said:

Could I point you to a response I wrote on Friday 12th August, here:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Hopefully it will have some pointers for you.

Thanks that's really helpful working through it now

[sjg]

I bought a very similar one back in 2009 for my dad (birth year watch), just looked up the email and it's the same seller. I paid a lot less but then it was a long time ago.

No way to really verify authenticity, etc but it looked "right" inside and the dial, hands etc looked consistent with others I'd seen online. God knows about originality but it's several decades old so I wasn't really expecting it to be. I'm not sure there's a big market for faking small old Omegas either.

It's run fine since, he wears it often enough and keeps on a winder in between.

[joropug]

sjg said:

I bought a very similar one back in 2009 for my dad (birth year watch), just looked up the email and it's the same seller. I paid a lot less but then it was a long time ago.

No way to really verify authenticity, etc but it looked "right" inside and the dial, hands etc looked consistent with others I'd seen online. God knows about originality but it's several decades old so I wasn't really expecting it to be. I'm not sure there's a big market for faking small old Omegas either.

It's run fine since, he wears it often enough and keeps on a winder in between.

That's reassuring.

Looking at this one, the dial has been called out as refurbished - It looks good but I can't find an exact match so it has been customised to an extent I think - I like the look though.

The movement is right for the watch - the case back looks good too, presumably the case is the original and matches.

Was just looking at some forum posts on the movement. Looks like some parts are hard to come by now.

Food for thought

[BrokenSkunk]

sjg said:

I'm not sure there's a big market for faking small old Omegas either.

There's a massive market for tarted up frankenwatches like the one I talked about in the 'Near misses' thread. Prices have doubled in the last three years and a lot of unscrupulous sellers are cashing in.

If you're looking at an old Omega on ebay and it doesn't look knackered the chances of it being original is way less than 50%.

By non original I mean substantially altered. Usually there is a reprinted dial that looks nothing like the original (or isn't as good quality).
Or it could be completely fake, or anything inbetween.

The problem with these watches is, it's very often water or sweat ingress that has ruined the dial, and it will have also attacked parts of the movement too. Or the movement may just not have been serviced and is knackered.

Buying second hand vintage watches will always be a punt, no matter how much experience you have. But right now, buying Omega from ebay, with not a lot of knowledge to rely on is a tall odds gamble.

You may not care that the dial is reprinted, or the case refinished, I get that. But know that you're paying good money for something that may not be what it says it is and it may not go as well as you'd expect.

I should probably add that C24 is no better. I was looking at Pie-pan Constellations the other day. Many were redialled, and one poor thing even had a non-COSC grade movement.

Omega forums is a good place to ask advice, I'm not a member of that one. The guys there are very good, but do not expect them to take the pragmatic view of "if it looks nice and it goes, does it matter if it's original?"

Be careful out there.

[glazbagun]

Yeah pie-pan constellation was one of my "will have to get one day" watches, but the prices have shot up and even dross is looking for good money now.

Old Omegas and Lemanias used to be one of the affordable pleasures in watch collecting, but now they've gone the way of everything else. I guess there's still Longines.

[Bungleaio]

This is probably worth a read. They like to rust but are allegedly a 150mph car.

https://classics.honestjohn.co.uk/reviews/vauxhall...

[Ziplobb]

IIRC there was a small watchmaker with a shop in a side street in Midhurst with quite a few vintage Seamasters in the window. Might be worth a look. There does seem to be a lot of tired ones around. I bought one 25 years ago not working from a friend who had bought it in NY when he was in the merchant Navy. It needed a dial repaint which I resisted and now I am glad I did. My father also has one he bought in 1961 in the NAFFI in Germany. He hads worn that pretty much every day since no matter what he was doing.

[ChrisH79]

Bungleaio said:

This is probably worth a read. They like to rust but are allegedly a 150mph car.

https://classics.honestjohn.co.uk/reviews/vauxhall...

Personally I think a Carlton would be a much more solid investment especially a 24v GSI or a good CDX

[rowley birkin]

I used to trade in Omegas from this period as a hobby. I still have several original examples including a couple of 18 ct. Seamasters and a gold-capped pie-pan Constellation. I also have a 1966 Seamaster Deville with an original gloss black dial which looks like new. I would always go for originality. If the dial was so bad that it needed restoring then the watch has probably not been cherished.

[Dave.]

Bungleaio said:

This is probably worth a read. They like to rust but are allegedly a 150mph car.

https://classics.honestjohn.co.uk/reviews/vauxhall...

[Glasgowrob]

98 3.0 MV6

Needs inner and outer sills doing on drivers side passenger side done to a reasonable standard 2 years ago.

Second car for spares by seperate negotiation
£950 no offers

[hungry_hog]

If you are OCD like me, you should be able to take the watch into any Omega shop and get it verified

You can then buy the authenticity card (I think about GBP100). I did this for a Planet Ocean, as the watch was about 4k, maybe for a 1k watch it is a bit rich

[944 Man]

My advice would be to spend some time finding old period catalogues and looking at the dials and finishes available at the time. Very, very few still look appealing to today's market. Then look at all of the black dials that are found on the watches available for sale...

I have seen the comment above about a piece with a black dial and I am more than happy to accept it, but we both know how rare these were. At £1,000 most are a truly awful buy. And they are tiny.

[joropug]

944 Man said:

My advice would be to spend some time finding old period catalogues and looking at the dials and finishes available at the time. Very, very few still look appealing to today's market. Then look at all of the black dials that are found on the watches available for sale...

I have seen the comment above about a piece with a black dial and I am more than happy to accept it, but we both know how rare these were. At £1,000 most are a truly awful buy. And they are tiny.

The one I liked went for almost £1000 it was a bit rich for me and from the advice given and the listing it was clearly repainted and probably not worth that.

Yes I think it was a nice idea but probably not right for me - I am tempted to get another modern watch instead and might get a leather strap for my Breitling to rotate in now and again, just worried about scratching it in doing so.