zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

Chuck Wrote :-

Here is my "WHOOPS: eBay post for today...
Omega Speedmaster Mark III, 70er Jahre, Neuzustand!

My main concern is that while I've seen so many "Cushion Cased Mark III's" to think that Omega probably made them this way, I've never before seen a Cushion Cased Mark III with the black dial that's ordinarily seen in the "Volcano" cased version of the Mark III.

Hi Chuck, cool auction !

I'm afraid I'll have to "sit on the fence" about the watch itself. I have never seen a speedmaster MK III in THAT case in ANY of the period literature that I have seen.

I don't have a copy of SAGA in front of me, but I'm really still undecided about these watches and whther they are just redialed Seamasters ( a small theory here... A Seamaster is designed to get wet, many some of them have got water damaged & the Speedy MK III dial was the cheapest/easiest dial to get/fit ? ) Maybe this question will be answered in Marco's new book.

But what REALLY woke me up about this auction is coming below....

This caseback is very interesting... It appears that a Case Reference number has been hastily crossed out and a new one added with the assistance of a drafting style engraving machine... Of you look at the "6" under high magnification one can easily see that the lower part of the "6" where it loops around and up to meet the left portion of the numeral overlaps the horizonal portion.

Looking at the crossed out Case Reference number I can discern that the number crossed out was either 176.001 or 176.007. Since it would make no sense to cross out 176.007 and then re-engrave it, it would seem most likely that the number is 176.001. The finny thing about the 176.001 is that I've never seen one of them ever anywhere in my travels. I don't know if this model is a "re-tasked prototype, or a put-together cobbled together with scavenged parts, or absolutely original [although I seriously tend to doubt the latter] but I think it qualifies for our WHEW or WHOOPS posts.

I do have some concrete info on the 176.001.

I think it was an experimental watch ( prototype if you like ) that was never manufactured for end customers.

Looking through my "archived" pics on my PC I found this. I'll freely admit, I have no Idea where I got it from. It either came directly from the Museum themselves as a reply to a query , or someone that I know with a 1971 dealers catalogue sent me this scan.

I would tip on the Museum.

Here's the Pic...

Some points (no Particular order ).

• It's dated 1 Nov '71 ( Bottom right corner )


• The writing in the bottomleft corner is French & says something like "replaced by 176.0007 18.3.72" ( 18 March '72)


• The dial is only marked Omega Automatic, so not directly a Sea or speedmaster, even though the heading at the top of the paper suggests it would be one of those models


• It's waterproof to 6 ATM ( 60 meters )


• It doesn't look like it has a rotating bezel, but would look good with one IMHO


• I would GUESS It has a "Puck" type system, where the movement sits in a puck, that is pushed into the outer case, There are various 1040 (or 1041 ) powered watches with this type of case system


• Isn't the Centre minute hand ( with the "arrowhead" ) unusual ? I've never seen this on an Omega before


• I think the dial needs bolder Hour markers. The dial just looks "weak" to me. Not "finished". I don't like it