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Got me one of them Omegas today...


ubiquitous

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  • 2 weeks later...

Randy,

First want to say that your SM300 is a really nice watch. You got a sweet one. Now, I'm no Omega expert by a long shot, but they do have some real problems. There is a lot of Tritium on the dial indices and hands. If you have a date model, you have an open "window into the movement. That tritium is 40+ years old, it's going to flake off. On the No date SM300's probably wouldn't pose such a problem, but on the 166 .024's could be bad. In fact Ziggy has 2 SM300's of mine right now. A "Remade" with genuine movement and a really nice genuine. Both are 166.024's (That is the designation for the date model for those non SM fanatics out there!!) a couple of weeks ago, my genuine started to suddenly run fast by about 30-45 minutes per day! I called Ziggy and explained the problem. He said it was caused by friction. Now the only plausible explanation that I can come up with is that some of the tritium flaked off and is floating around in the movement.

What I'm doing is replacing the bezel, dial, hands and crystal on the genuine with NOS parts. Doesn't look like the tritium is aged at all on the NOS stuff as it has been inside sealed dark packages. If they fit, He is also going to relume the old genuine hands and dial from the genuine watch and replace the fake stuff on the "Remade" watch. So if thety fit, I will have a genuine with all NOS bezel, hands, dial and crystal and a fake with genuine relumed hands and dial as well as a genuine bezel and crystal.

If you have a 166.024, I would urge you to either replace dial and hands with NOS or have them relumed. just insurance against future problems.

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Hey, Arthur!

Thanks much for the very kind words!

The model I have is the no-date 165.024, so no date window on the dial to allow crumbs of tritium to fall through. However, I am still a bit concerned about the tritium on the hands. There are signs of cracking, and I want to make sure that none of the crumbs fall into the movement to cause problems. So... I'll probably start my hunt for some new parts as well from watchco or watchadoo to replace the old aging bits (I'll put those away for safe keeping; it's always nice to be able to say you have the original parts still).

Please post some pics of your 166.024 twins! I'd love to see them!

Cheers,

Randy

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Randy,

After I posted, I went back and saw that you had a 165.024. That has to be the most traditional SM300.

As soon as mine get back from Rob's watch spa, I'll post pictures.I'm hoping that the genuine dial and bezel will fit on the fake. I know the hands will, as it is a genuine Omega movement. Waqtchco andWatchadoo are the best around for sourcing parts. I wasable to buy a couple of things from Watchadoo directly, after spending a bundle on the NOS bezel and dial. Seems like the Aussies have the SM300 market cornered. It would be interesting to know how they are able to source so many nice watches and parts.Timeman.net had 5 Seamaster Ploprof's last week on his site.That is truly the holy grail of Omega dive watches. I will own one one of these days, but the price is pretty steep.

Good luck in your quest for parts. Even though they are expensive, at least they are still available. Try to find a Doxa sub300T NOS bezel or dial !!

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