Being a big fan of Gérald Genta designs, I just found an article by Desmond Guilfoyle about the design work that Genta did for Omega in the 1960s. I’d read in several magazines and websites that Genta was responsible for some of the Omega Seamaster and Omega Constellation designs, but never knew which ones exactly.

Picture by Ms. Stefania Slenzio von LUXURY GRIFFES S.A.

Desmond was able to get in touch with Evelyne Genta, Gérald’s wife, and managed to have her asking him which models he designed for the most famous brand from Bienne. It seems – and I suspected this already – that he at least is responsible for designing the Omega Constellation C-model from the late 1960s/early 1970s. I actually had one a few years back, with tuning-fork movement (based on a Bulova Accutron movement), but sold it before it would break-down on me.. I think the watch was produced in the mid-1970s. Another downside was that it had a gold-plated case. One scratch or dent and it would become very ugly.

Below is an example of a C-shape Constellation (ref.168.009) that Genta designed:

Photo by Antiquorum

Furthermore, he designed the Constellation with reference number 14900. Therefore, I assume that the successor models of the 14900, the 167.005 and 168.005 are also from the hands of Gérald Genta. And to me, being a Genta fan, this is a cool finding, because this means that my father’s Constellation (on which I did a write-up about a week ago) is probably a Genta design as well.

Photo by WatchesToBuy

If you want to read the full article on Gérald Genta and his work for Omega, please click here for Desmond’s superb story.

My great grandfather, my grandparents and my father all bought (or got) Omega watches in the 1960s. My grandfather still wears his Omega Constellation (which I reviewed here) and my father owns his grandfather’s Constellation and an Omega Geneve. He doesn’t wear any of them, but a O&W mechanical military style watch instead (I don’t know why). However, I recently took my great grandfather’s Constellation (which was bought in 1965, my dad still has the box, booklet, papers and original bill) with me for a small service. The watch lost its original crown, it was terribly scratched on the caseback, didn’t have an original Omega crystal, the Constellation symbol on the caseback was sitting loose and the original gold buckle was lost long time ago.

How come? Well, I guess it must have been somewhere in the late 1970s or early 1980s, it was in the possession of my grandfather at that time, so he had two of them. His own Constellation and my great grandfather’s Constellation. The latter one stopped working at some point. I don’t think my grandfather had (or has) much Fingerspitzengefühl for mechanics, as he used soap/dish water and brush to give it a good cleaning! The watch got water inside and it was ruined. So when he was about to throw it into the trash can, my father saved it and took it with him to see if he could have it fixed (oh yeah, this is a true story).

My father took it to a local watch shop (early 1980s) and had it fixed for quite some money. He remembers the shop clerk telling him that he should have kept it in a glass of water when bringing it to him, so he wouldn’t have to worry about any rust. Anyway, the watch got fixed, with a few scars and my father kept it. It was probably at this repair job when the original crystal, crown and buckle got lost. I don’t think it mattered much at that time, since cheap quartz watches were more convenient and there was simply no use for mechanical watches anymore. I am afraid that a lot of similar watches had similar destinies (trash bins).

Anyway, a few weeks ago I told him I was probably able to get him the original crown and showed a picture of a similar Constellation with its original crown in the Journey Through Time book, written by Marco Richon of Omega. He was excited about it and gave me the watch to have the original crown and clasp installed.

When I took the watch to my watchmaker, who is specialized in Omega (especially vintage models), he told me he also would replace the crystal with an original one and to have some of the scratches removed. The dial could be fixed too, but I think the smudgy dial on this watch tells a story. A story of dish water and a clumsy grandfather. So I asked him to leave the dials and hands alone, and just fixed all the other stuff

He did, and what a marvelous job! The original plastic crystal has this gold ring that puts it in the right place inside the watch case, it also features the Omega sign in the middle of the crystal. The crown is 14ct gold and fits superb on this watch. The 14ct gold buckle is of an older Omega model, but it does the job. The caseback got polished as well, removing the scratches of a pair of scissors that was once used to open it up to have it cleaned with dish water. The goldcapped lugs and the (solid) gold lunette are still in perfect shape, sharp edges where they belong and shiny on the surfaces.

I always had a weak spot for vintage Constellations, but this one really tells a story. Together with the original box, booklet (stamped by Kwekkeboom, who still exist but are no longer Omega dealer) and bill.. I think this is just a little treasure!

As you can see, the dial is smudged in the upper left corner, although the photo makes it worse than it is in real life. The tritium in the beautiful gold hands is long gone… Other wise, the watch looks superb again.. The Omega caliber 551 almost got drowned in the late 1970s/early 1980s, but is keeping time fine again.

If you are a sucker for these vintage beauties, make sure to check out the Constellation blog by Mondodes.

My fellow Omega addict Mauriche, mailed me a photo of his wonderful Omega Marine Chronometer. This is not the average clunky 1970s Omega watch, this one is quite special actually. The Omega Marine Chronometer features a 2.4Mhz quartz movement that is graded as a ‘Marine Chronometer’. There are similar Omega Megaquartz 2400 watches from that era, but these lack the ‘Marine Chronometer’ wording on the bezel of the watch. The Omega Megaquartz 2400 was introduced in 1973 in both gold and steel versions (reference BA/ST 396.0806) and in 1974, Omega introduced the ‘Marine Chronometer’ model in steel (ST 398.0836) with caliber 1511 and in 1975 (ST 398.0832) with caliber 1516. The 1974 model is limited to 1000 units and the 1975 model to 8000 units, according to this list. Bill Sohne, the Omega specialist, wrote a clarifying article at http://www.chronomaddox.com/omega_megaquartz_2400.html.

Mauriche, owner of the watch as pictured below, is a lucky bastard to have it complete with original Omega manual (Megaquartz 2400 booklet in German), Omega warrantee card, Marine Chronometer certificate of the Besancon University, Marine Chronometer test report by Omega, original box, price tag (3450 Swiss francs), receipt and all spare links for its bracelet. Wow!

He bought it from the first owner, a German gentlemen who bought it in 1976 in Basel.

Related link: http://www.mancini99.freeserve.co.uk/Megaquartz_con.html