zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

Dear all, as a lot of us round here and other posts I got my collector's bug a few years ago thanks to our late Chuck Maddox.
And as such, it was quite natural for me to follow the Speedy passion I already had - and a nice, run-of-the-mill Speedy Moonwatch was followed by a Mark IV (ref. 176.009).
Now the Mark IV is a really astonishing watch, but after years wearing mine I still have some doubts:

1- Is the 'blue horizon' in the 24-hr subdial legit?
2- Should the 24-hr arrow be lumed or not?

As for the 1st question, from the info I gathered here and on other fora, all factory specimens came with the dark grey / black and only after market (i.e. service) dials have the blue horizon, like the one below that was mounted on my Mark IV when it was completely restored by Omege themselves.

IMHO this blue streak, while not an ugly thing itself, does put the overall dial off balance and does make the watch less appealing. I simply cannot help wondering why Omega did not (or, as I suspect, currently does not) have the replacement done to the same specs as the original.

My first Mark IV (below)

came in a very good from Equador, I was lucky enough to get it at the starting bid and it was in remarkable shape, with a very gently aged dial and still some sunburst finish on the case. It lasted roughly 3 years of continuous wearing, and then Omega had a complete overhaul and insisted they mount the new dial above as the feet of the original one were damaged. Black horizon, unlumed 24-hr arrow on the subdial at 9, and it was in completely unrestored conditions.

A few years later I was able to get an astonishing NOS one from the gentleman Jasper Bitter at classicheuer.com. It's been sitting in a safe ever since, but I love the NOS features it has:

I love this piece, but still it puzzles me a lot: on the one hand, it does confirm my idea on the 'horizon' issue (it's factory NOS, so black horizon) but on the other hands it has the lumed arrow.

So even if the very large majority of Mk IV's have non-lumed arrow, this NOS one has - and I am sure it has been untouched since its birth...
Any ideas anybody?
Cheers,
Fabrizio