Omega Seamaster Memomatic Watches

The Omega Memomatic collection from the early 1970s is notable in a numbers of ways: superb case design, ground-breaking functional features and amazing dials that remain appealing to the contemporary eye.

Only 35,000 pieces were produced over four models, and Memomatics have risen steeply in value over the last couple of years. An original and well-preserved model I acquired four years ago for USD $600.00 would, today, be likely to fetch in the vicinity of $2000.00, or considerably more in a brick and mortar vintage dealership.

The calibre 980 movement that powers the Memomatic was a technological triumph in its day, and this, combined with the overall aesthetics of the watch is what is fuelling increased interest today. Click here for an essay that surveys all of the models in the collection

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Fake Watches, Google, and Organised Crime

This site, as you'll notice, features Google advertising, the proceeds of which pay for the costs of content production and off-site server and hosting imposts for the numerous essays I've made available to subscribers. I think Google advertising is a good thing and it provides options to many people who chance upon this site while searching for internet deals on both new and vintage Omega watches.

Ever since I signed on to Adsense I have had a running battle with Google over the advertising of fake watches. If you call them replicas or homage watches, you're deluding yourself. They're out and out fakes, largely produced by the Chinese, and are a parasitic by-product of the hard marketing and promotional yards put in over the years by the manufacturers of authentic brands.

There is overwhelming evidence of organised crime involvement in both the production and distribution of fake watches. Chinese triads have cornered the production end and so-called reputable Chinese manufacturers knowingly supply these criminal groups with their movements. Organised crime in the U.S., Europe and other major centres take care of the distribution, mainly through on-line sites that constantly change their URLs and marketing platforms.

There is also evidence that the fake watch 'industry' is not as benign as people would like to kid themselves it is. Where big money is involved, the next thing to happen is for the low-life that control the industry to hire 'muscle' to protect their interests. This is particularly so at the distribution end where private investigators specialising in tracking the principals of these operations on behalf of brand owners have been threatened, beaten and in several cases murdered.

Now, let's get one thing straight. The selling and marketing of fake watches is illegal in most civilised countries that operate under the rule of law. The activities of criminal gangs - from the fraudulent customs inventories used to conceal bulk imports of fake watches to the money laundering that occurs to conceal the massive profits made from this activity - it's all illegal. If you buy a fake watch, you are supporting, and indeed an accessory to, all of the above. Same thing goes for Google.

By allowing a preponderance of text ads that advertise 'replica' watches in the text, Google becomes an accessory to all of the illegal activities sustaining the fake watch trade. I have contacted Google many times (and believe me its not easy at all to have any human to human contact with this organisation) to demand it does something about advertisements offering pirated and illegal product. Not a word in response have I heard from this so-called good corporate citizen. So I block every ad appearing on this site that advertises fake watches. But, because Google advertises in geographic regions, I don't get to see ads targeted to countries outside my own region.

There are two things I can do. (1) Pursue other options to fund the costs of running this site so as to move away from dependence on Google advertising and (2) subscribe to international campaigns that attempt to disrupt the distribution end of this sordid trade: hence my support of the "Fake watches are for fake people" campaign. If, in the meantime, an ad gets through please accept my apologies.

According to a recent world-wide survey (SEE POSTING BELOW), more than 66.4% of all searches for fake watches come from Google's home country, the U.S.A. The market is huge for this illegal activity in the U.S. Is that why Google won't act to use it's massive computer and software engineering power to filter these ads out? Is advertising revenue clouding Google's moral judgement and does the company somehow attempt to delude itself by preferring to view the massive distrubtion of fake watches as a victimless crime? Believe me, it aint!

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A Fake Omega 18K Constellation Watch Slips Through at Antiquorum Auction

Many collectors and neophytes gravitate towards large prestigious watch auction houses because of an expectation that a filtering system exists between seller and buyer to ensure that the house doesn’t allow fakes and seriously suspect pieces to come to market under their banner.

As in the world of art, Auction houses like Sothebys, Antiquorum, Bonhams, Christies and others have experts on hand to review the watches submitted for sale, as much to protect their reputations as reliable and astute sources of quality collectibles as to protect unsuspecting buyers.

Imagine my surprise then when a Frankenfake ‘gold’ Omega Constellation appeared in Antiquorum’s June 11 New York catalogue. This auction was billed as an "Important Collectors' Wristwatches, Pocket Watches & Clocks Sale”, and according to the advertising hype “An exciting selection of watches owned by 20th century icons, including two watches owned by Steve McQueen (the Heuer Monaco worn in the movie ‘Le Mans’, and a Rolex Submariner, Ref. 5512), Franklin D. Roosevelt's Tiffany & Co.-branded Movado triple-date calendar, and an 18 karat yellow gold Cartier Pasha given to Sammy Davis Jr. by Frank Sinatra.”

Amongst this “exciting selection of watches” at the July 11 auction was Lot 158 describing, and I quote, a “Yellow Gold Constellation Omega, Automatic, Chronometer, Officially Certified, No. 33087860, Ref. 091919. Made in the 1970s. Fine, center seconds, self-winding, water-resistant, 18K yellow gold wristwatch with date and a gold Omega buckle”. The listing (click here) went on to describe the technical features of the watch and identified the movement as a calibre 565.

Without looking at the watch itself, any expert worth his or her salt should have smelled a rat immediately simply by reviewing the description. It is common knowledge amongst experts in vintage watches that the reference 091919 is a Vietnamese faked case purporting to look like an Omega Constellation case number 168.005. A number of these 091919 cases have been tested and have shown little gold content at all, and in this instance the unusual tarnishing and surface condition of the watch case should have alerted the ‘expert’ who examined this watch that something was decidedly wrong. The expert would have also noticed upon examining the inner case that something was awry and that the hermetic sealing system at the crown was non-existent.

In the written expert’s “Overall Opinion” the watch was described as “Good”. My question is, good for what? Had the so-called expert consulted readily available data on Omega Constellations of the period he would have discovered that calibre 565 never powered Omega Constellations. Had he looked at the inner case back (see example above) of this watch he would have discovered crude stampings of responsibility marks and purity declarations. He would have further discovered that the coarse rendition of the Helvetia stamp did not include the assay office code at the base of the mark, and he would have discovered that the case makers mark indicated a maker’s code that never produced cases for Omega.

Had the so-called expert looked closely at the dial, he would have noticed that it was a fake dial, and not manufactured by Omega. He would have spotted: (1) the lack of correct facets on the applied chronometer star,(2) incorrect styling of the date surround, (3) the poorly cast Omega symbol and logo, (4) the wrongly labelled ‘T Swiss T’ printing at the base of the dial which indicates that both markers and hands should be luminescent, (5) the incorrect upper-case poorly printed lettering lacking in serifs that fails the standard MOY test, (6) the incorrect rendition of the ‘Constellation’ lettering, (7) the wrong hands (the minute hand is too short) despite the ‘expert’s claim that they were “original” and (8) incorrect arrowhead markers that were phased out by Omega in around 1960 on a watch that had a serial number that indicated movement production in 1971.

The real tragedy arising from this seemingly negligent, or at least gormless, appraisal as it appeared in the Antiquorum catalogue description is that someone believed it and paid US$ 3,600.00 including buyer’s premium. All the expert had to do was a contrastive analysis with a real gold Constellation in lot 155 of the same auction and this embarrassment would have been avoided!

The argument that signficiant details of the watch were revealed in the listing that would allow an expert to determine that it was a Frankenfake doesn’t even hold water on eBay and most certainly should never be offered in mitigation by a well-known auction house, so let’s hope we don’t hear that excuse trotted out.

This watch should never have appeared in an “important collectors” Antiquorum catalogue. It is not even a clever fake, with at least 15 flags to its non-authenticity. The so-called ‘expert’ who appraised this watch and described it as good overall should be pensioned off because s/he has compromised the fragile integrity under which all auction houses operate.

I have emailed Antiquorum in New York advising them of my intention to post a critique of Lot 158 and offering the organisation the opportunity to respond to the points made. It is customary for reputable auction houses, such as Antiquorum, upon discovering having sold a fake during an auction to approach the buyer and offer a full refund. I hope to hear from them that they have done just that.

For a comprehensive essay on authenticating solid gold Omega Constellations please click here

POSTSCRIPT

I received an email from Julian Scharer at Antiquorum, offering thanks for pointing out the status of the watch and advising that the sale has been cancelled and the watch returned to the consignor.

This is a good result and Antiquorum deserves praise for its quick resolution to the issue. Now, about that expert? :)

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Nicolas Hayek - One of Switzerland's Living National Treasures

Nicholas Hayek is, indisputably, one of Switzerland’s most colourful and dynamic living treasures. He is revered as a saviour of Swiss watch manufacturing and reviled by some purists who advocate just the kind of approach to watchmaking that brought the Swiss to their knees in the first place. But adore him or condemn him, no one can take away his great achievements in helping resuscitate the dinosaur at death’s door that represented the Swiss watch industry in the late 1970s.

I wrote an essay in 2006 on Hayek and two of his major ‘collaborateurs’ , Pierre Arnold and Ernst Thomke, who through insight and sheer force of personality transformed the industry into the robust and healthy entity it is today. Click here to read that essay.

Hayek, represents a grand lesson in what could be termed principle-centred entrepreneurialism. His philosophy was, and is, based on creation and growth, of a world of potential abundance instead of scarcity, and a fundamental understanding of some of the most powerful and intrinsic levers that motivate human acquisitiveness. He also personifies a hard-headed mercantilism that has its roots as much in the bazaars of Beirut than it does in the boardrooms of Bienne.

Omega aficionados owe him a great debt, for had he not taken up the challenge and convinced a group of conservative bankers that the dinosaur still had a heart beat and could be nursed back into rude health, our beloved Omega brand may not exist today.

Hayek is entering his golden years and, fortunately, theTimeTV has recorded for posterity a variety of interviews that document this amazing man’s endeavours during the darkest hours of Swiss horology.

In this short video, Hayek explains how he came to be involved in the rescue of some of Switzerland’s greatest brands.

Click here for a short piece on how the swatch phenomenon was born.

In this 1990s video, Hayek shares prophetic insights into some of the very issues that contributed to the current malaise in western economies.

Omega Seamaster Magic!

For those who are interested in how the Ancient Order of Frankenmeisters practice their Evil Magic, view this eBay listing. It’s a true exemplar of the work of a high priest of this subterranean world of playing God with lonely, loose parts looking around for a warm balance cock to make their life complete.

This monster has been listed by eBay seller jjw2838 who, surprisingly, still clings on to 100% feedback (but perhaps not for long). While I am neither suggesting he knows, or doesn’t know, that this watch is an unholy union of different Omega watch models, I am suggesting that someone behind jjw2838’s electronic store front does!

Notice that jjw2838 sells a lot of parts and bitsa Rolexes, and so it can be assumed that parts know their way around him. Perhaps the magnetic fields on some of them are so powerful that they attract each other into fully functioning movements? After all, we are talking “bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble” here!

So, which body parts were exhumed to produce this Seamaster abomination? Well, Lets start with the case, which does indeed look like the case shape of a model 165.002, as indicated by the inner case back. So, we can extrapolate that our Frankenmeister first stole into some watch graveyard and dug up a case 165.002.

As any good mortician would do, our Frankenmeister then proceeded to remove all (or most) of case 165.002’s vital organs. We know this, because case 165.002 should have innards upon which are stamped the calibre number 552! (Check the Omega database for the reference 165.0002)

We also know from birth records at Omega that calibre 552 came into this world blind, and, yet, the high priest behind jjw2838’s Seamaster has given it one eye, through which we can view the days of the month!!!! Cross yourselves and smother your bodies with Garlic – QUICKLY!

In looking at the very clean, almost new looking, calibre 562 that now sits in the body of the formerly deceased case 165.002, we notice that the rotor bridge is stamped “Adjusted to five (5) positions and temperature”. Now, some would assume that fully a certified calibre 562 (there were some) was simply removed from its worn out body and placed in 165.002’s lifeless carcass. But, is that really likely?

Could we believe that a Frankmeister would be so stupid as to swap the complete innards from a chronometer graded watch without making sure that the Frankenmonster’s face depicted that a chronometer was beating within? Surely it would be too great a temptation? No, another trip to the graveyard is a more likely scenario, where some newly interred wretch of a chronometer was relieved of its rotor bridge and rotor.

Finally we arrive at the complexion of the dial. One may chance upon slightly swarthy Seamasters of this vintage, but remember these models were produced in grey, dreary Western Switzerland and had a pallor similar to that on blades of grass completely deprived of sunlight. Their faces do not have the rich, dark colour tones of deepest Africa or widows who have retired to Southern Florida. They are decidedly pallid! So, this not-so-smart, but highly competent, Frankenmeister has produced an effect similar to that of putting the head of Robert Mugabe on to the body of Ana Ivanović!

It’s all such a pity really, because the person behind this truly hideous creation could, with the appropriate epiphany, use his not inconsiderable skills in restoring watches as close to the factory specifications as possible. Funny how some people are attracted to the dark side in spite of an easier path, isn’t it?

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Great Moments in Omega Constellation History

As Ryan Rooney noted here in his blog, it’s generally acknowledged that the Omega mid-500 series chronometer calibres (551, 561, 564 and 751) were the finest family of production movements ever made. He also identified the movement serial numbers that were part of one of the most famous events in production watch history – the straight run of one hundred thousand certified chronometers.

Click here for a follow-up on Ryan’s post and a definitive list, pictures of the official BO certificates and serial numbers of the three ‘great moments’ in Omega’s production history – straight runs of 1,000, 20,000 and 100,000 certified chronometers. The file is large and may take some moments to download.

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