Rare 'No-Name' Constellations

For years I never encountered an Omega 'No-Name' Globemaster, later believing that most of these early calibre 354s exported by Omega to the U.S.and marketed as Globemasters had been redialled in the full Constellation livery.

Such are the riches of an increasingly globalised watch market, that, over the past twelve months, five have surfaced. The first I encountered was a cross-hair dialled example owned by Norman Garbaccio and featured in an earlier post (pictured above).

I had fairly well given up hope of seeing many others, but, knock me over with a feather, four have emerged intact recently, and I'm pleased to say that I acquired one of them. Two of these examples appeared on eBay and were not marketed as the rare pieces they indeed are.

Suffice to say, if you ever encounter one of these truly historical pieces, snap it up!

UPDATE Nov 2.

I have written an essay on 'No-Names' in an attempt to produce something definitive about the origins of these historical American pieces. Please click here to download the file

Washington Jewelers - Wake Up!

When a storefront dealer that trades on eBay continues to list a watch that it knows is a blatant fake, would you ever consider darkening its doorstep?

Washington Jewellers makes the claim that it is a family owned business with over 15 years experience in the repair and marketing of vintage watches.

With such experience, would it not be reasonable to assume that someone in the 'family' would know how to determine an authentic Constellation from what is essentially a cobbled-together monstrosity with the wrong calibre movement encased in a case that has little gold content and which is of a style never produced by Omega?

Sadly, Washington Jewelers is very much aware of the fact that it is selling a fake! I gave the 'heads up' just in case they were indeed unaware, referring to a thoroughly researched essay on the subject of 091919 cases and other fakes coming out of China and Vietnam. They ignored my communication. Others have emailed them and their response has been seemingly indifferent with the retort that an unsatisfied customer can return the watch if s/he doesn't like it.

But that's not the point is it Washington Jewelers? For a customer to be unsatisfied, they have to realise it's a fake....and if they don't, or if they're a newbie just wanting a genuine Omega vintage watch, that's ok? If they don't realise it's a fake, your conscience is clear?

Surely if you have integrity you will withdraw the watch and suffer the loss instead of passing it off to someone else who doesn't know they're buying a fake? Or is it your intention to 'transfer the misery'?

Based at 1742 Connecticut Avenue in Washington DC, this mob claims that the watch is "RARE, Collectible, All Original, MINT". In any reasonable interpretation of the English language, such a claim can be interpreted to mean that a REAL Omega solid gold Constellation is being offered.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Click here for the listing and compare the bloated prose in the listing with the facts of the matter:

• Omega never made a coin edge bezelled Constellation
  
• Omega never produced a Constellation with a 091919 case
  
• Casemaker, Artisanor SA, owner of the collective responsibility mark (Key 20) stamped in the case, never produced cases for solid gold Constellations. It's mark has been illegally appropriated and Washington Jewellers, knowing the case is a fake, is an accessory to this breach.
  
• It is a breach of the international laws governing gold purity (and indeed US law) to knowlingly pass off a precious metal as having a particular degree of purity when it doesnt.
  
• Omega never powered a Constellation with a calibre 565 movement.
  
• The fact that this seller is claiming the watch is 18k gold when it knows that it isnt is fraudulent misrepresentation.
  
• The dial on this watch is not original. It is a fake. Apart from many things wrong with the dial script and incorrect Tritium markings,the date surround is totally incorrect for this dial.
  
• As a fake, this watch is counterfeit and a breach of Omega's copyright and trademarks.
  
• The value of this watch is around 100 USD if one removes the calibre 565 movement and uses it for parts.
  

Pity the poor soul who gets landed with it!

As I asked above, would you deal with an oufit that knowlingly passes off a fake?

POSTSCRIPT: Washington Jewelers did not do the honourable thing and withdraw this watch. It sold for over US$2,200.00 Washington Jewelers sold their commercial honour and integrity for a meagre $2,200-odd dollars and some neophyte watch collector is in for a real shock.

See comments section for another 'suspect' offering by this family of......... well, you can fill in the blank.

Omegamania and the Lemming Effect

A number of Omega Constellation collectors, myself included, were somewhat unsettled by the Omegamania auction earlier this year and the prices attained for hitherto far less pricey pieces.

An article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal sheds some new light on the Omegamania auction, the subtext of which is don't be a lemming and pay post-Omegamania inflated prices for watches that the market valued at considerably less prior to the auction.

Click here for the article and commentary

Not White on Black - Degraded Silver on Black!

The wonderful thing about contradicting what one has said previously is that it implies that one is wiser today than one was yesterday!

And thus, I am about to offer some clarification on my previous post. I have always maintained that black Constellation dials with white lettering are not to factory specifications. In correspondence with Omega some time ago, I was informed that Omega did not produce black dials with white script in respect to 1950s and 60s Constellations. However I had cause for pause when Per Baun Christensen sent me the pictures featured in the post below. The original magnified pictures confirmed, in my opinion, that the dial was genuine.

What I did not consider, however, was the possibility of the white-looking script being in fact silver lettering that had degraded over time. Dial paint and lettering does deteriorate when in contact with either moisture or the sun. Top lacquers crack and degrade as a natural course, and unless a dial spends its life in a safe there's little guarantee of it remaining in its pristine state.

Tim Mackrain, offered the observation that the white script featured in my previous post may, in fact, be silver lettering that had lost most of its 'silvery-ness'. He examined in detail the dial above and detected definite traces of silver in the script. The dial is clearly a genuine dial because the reverse of the dial (pictured) shows no tell-tale glue or re-soldering and has the original machine marks that smoothed off any minute metal particles attached to the rivets on the applied markers and Omega logo.

Further checks are being made on Per Baum's dial and I suspect that under magnification the script will show some traces of silver.

So, the standard appears to be: 1. No dial with white script is correct, 2. black dials with gold markers and hands should have gold lettering, and 3. black dials with rhodium plated markers and hands should have silver lettering, sometimes degraded to the point that it looks white.

Because of the preponderance of black dials on Omega Constellations and indeed many other models, particular care needs to be taken to ensure that any degraded black dials with what appears to be white lettering have some trace of silver.

Black dials are popular on Omegas, and some online and bricks and mortar dealers are refinishing in black because the watches sell for higher prices. It may pay to remember that black was rare on most Omega models of the 50s and 60s and that most examples available are refinished previously ivory or silver dials.