RANDOM THOUGHTS: OMEGA CENTURY

This is the first of my two latest additions to my vintage Omega collection. A fellow member in our watch club based in the US went out of his way to take a long drive from his home to the store to check out the piece for me just to make sure I was making a good purchase. Thanks to him, I am now a happy owner of this watch.

My friend was able to get the lady sales clerk in the watch store to: (1) replace the old strap that the watch had with a new leather band (Louie of course got the lady to include the original band with my purchase); (2) include a leather case to protect the watch. Altogether, Louie's charm and looks got me these items with a total value of around $70.  The added bonus was I was able to save on shipping and duties by having my brother bring back my purchases with him when he came home to visit Manila last Sunday.


 Per my Omega references, the Century line was part of the 30mm collection which was marketed for the US, Italy, France, and Canada. This line is a contemporary of the Constellation line and the initial Century models used the same script font as the one used by the Constellation. Later models in the 1960s did not use the script font in the dial.

This watch has a caliber 30 T3-266. The entire dial is cream colored guilloche and has a minute circle with strokes. It has stamped gilt Arabic numerals, spike hour markers with radium dots and luminous Dauphine hands. Treatment of the dial gives it a textured/waffled look up close. The picture below which the dealer provided, shows the movement serial no. which dates this watch to around 1954. 

10k gold filled case back pictured below is stamped "Star Watch Case" which was an American company licensed by Omega to manufacture watch cases that were sold in the US market.