Fake Omegas have been around for decades. These days, Thai and Chinese fakes have reached a quality that was unheard of back in the late nineteen sixties when this little beauty was spawned.
The pictures show a fake Omega 25 ‘Electra’ with an unbreakable mainspring, which, for these Russian made one jewel movements, was probably the only thing that was unbreakable.
During the cold war, the Russians would do anything for a bit of hard currency. They exported these pieces of junk to Hong Kong and circuitously to the U.S. and Italy where they were transformed into all sorts of brand name facsimiles.
This fake Electra is believed the be the handiwork of the ‘Honkies’, produced at a time when Hong Kong was not the sophisticated watch part manufacturing centre that it is today.
And just for good measure, below are a series of 1960s fake Constellations
You may want to double check the diamond dial C-shape Constellation at the bottom of your article that you've labeled as a "fake". I believe you'll find that's a genuine circa 1981 case reference 6228D powered by an Omega quartz caliber 1346.
ReplyDeleteYes, I thought that it was one of the US cased gold plates when I first saw it some years back. But the script of Constellation was hybrid and looked more like earlier models. The lug length also looked too short.
ReplyDeleteI am always willing to be contradicted though :)
I can't find anything wrong with the "Constellation" logo in the photo. It matches perfectly (as well as my poor watchmaker eyes can see) the logo in my 1981 Omega catalog:
ReplyDeletehttp://farm5.static.flickr.com/4132/4996713575_36788d9b09_b.jpg
I've also had similar models on my watch bench:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3658/3357884864_ec4f8f77a9.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3601/3357068663_bedaaa7b6d.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3581/3357885564_51b08f9417.jpg
While the layout of the "Quartz" printing is in a different area of the dial, it wasn't uncommon for Omega to have several different dial layouts over a production run. The dial picture I posted above shows one of these common variations: the "Chronometer" logo is missing and the Omega logo is printed, rather than applied.
Responding to your comment on "shorter lugs", I don't see a difference in the lug size when comparing your blog photo to the catalog picture or to my watch photo. The blog photo hands, applied markers, "Swiss Made" typeface and other small details (which were usually ignored/overlooked in older fakes) are accurate when compared to the Omega catalog photos. I'm quite confident that the picture you've shown is an authentic Constellation model.
The older fakes of the "Onega" and "Electra" era C-shapes didn't mimic the actual Omega models this well and never had diamond dials (that I've ever seen). The fakes didn't begin closely mimicking the fine details of actual Omega models until roughly the early 2000s. And it certainly wouldn't be tempting for a replica manufacturer to make a modern fake of a relatively undesirable 1980s Omega quartz model; it isn't a collector favorite like the older vintage Constellations with the fake ref "091919" modern fake cases.
I think that the evidence is pretty compelling that this is a genuine Omega model. You may want to consider removing it from the blog bost and replacing the picture with one of the many other fake Omega examples. There are (unfortunately) many many other examples to choose from.
Yes, I think I agree with you, although I am still doubtful about the dial.
ReplyDeleteAgree re different dials, but usually the model numbers tended to be different if the dial configuration was changed beyond cosmetic alterations. This may, in my opinion be a refinished dial.
Yes I will pull the pic as the more I look at it the more I agree with your general observations. Thanks for taking the time to follow this up
Regards
Desmond