The classic black Omega SMP has, and probably always will be, my favorite watch. In fact I love it so much that I bought, franken’ed, and modded a rep to backup my gen! This way I can do things like hit the batting cages, go paintballing, and run around corners with impunity.
The current rep of the SMP is decent out-of-the-box, but there are several major flaws, the first 3 of which can be spotted from across a table:
1. Missing lume marker at 3 o’clock (for the Bond version). This glaring error appears to have been fixed, but there’s more than a few unlucky people that ended up with this one. I actually wrote a quick fix for this which I may post soon.
2. Bad pearl. Whether it’s size, construction, lume color, or placement in the triangle, great pearls are still all too rare on our reps. Obvious tell.
3. Misaligned insert. Very obvious if you know to look for it.
4. HEV placement. You can tell if you have the watch in your hand looking at it straight on, but it can be quite hard to spot on the wrist even if you’re looking for it.
5. Crown Guards. You can tell if you know to look for it. With CG shaping on subs so common, I always wondered why hardly anyone does it for the SMP. From what I’ve seen, the closed-factory correct HEV models are the only ones to get the CGs right (if anything, the "V" may be a tiny bit too wide on these).
Gen dial, hands, insert, and reshaped CGs have addressed everything but the HEV on my SMP (if you’re patient and alert, you can get parts at great prices on the bay and other places).
Here’s how I fixed my CGs. First, the problem:
The difference is quite obvious in person.
You can clearly see the problems with the rep CG in this beautiful shot by By-Tor. Time to get started.
The whole watch needs to be taken apart, including the bezel and tube.
Rep case after initial shaping. After this initial shaping, I went over the area with a metal file.
It does take a steady hand to use the Dremel. If you’re patient and don’t mind carpal tunnel, you can try filing or sandpaper all the way.
The result. Deeper “V” shape with steeper sides, a flat bottom which extends to the edge of the bezel, and you can see where the crown touches the case.
You’ll notice that compared to the gen, the rep crown is about .5mm taller and has no bevel at the bottom. Fortunately these are details that are virtually impossible to see if you’re not 3 inches away and looking at a gen for comparison, so they don’t really bother me.
Of course you will never get forged or CNC’ed precision by hand, but the results were very satisfactory. It looks quite good, and I dare say that I would be fooled if I saw this on someone else’s wrist. A correct HEV case would bring this watch to near perfection, but I’m not going to keep my fingers crossed. Still, this is a great rep and with a little work you can get it amazingly close to gen. I hope this inspires some fellow SMP lovers!
Parting Shot:
The current rep of the SMP is decent out-of-the-box, but there are several major flaws, the first 3 of which can be spotted from across a table:
1. Missing lume marker at 3 o’clock (for the Bond version). This glaring error appears to have been fixed, but there’s more than a few unlucky people that ended up with this one. I actually wrote a quick fix for this which I may post soon.
2. Bad pearl. Whether it’s size, construction, lume color, or placement in the triangle, great pearls are still all too rare on our reps. Obvious tell.
3. Misaligned insert. Very obvious if you know to look for it.
4. HEV placement. You can tell if you have the watch in your hand looking at it straight on, but it can be quite hard to spot on the wrist even if you’re looking for it.
5. Crown Guards. You can tell if you know to look for it. With CG shaping on subs so common, I always wondered why hardly anyone does it for the SMP. From what I’ve seen, the closed-factory correct HEV models are the only ones to get the CGs right (if anything, the "V" may be a tiny bit too wide on these).
Gen dial, hands, insert, and reshaped CGs have addressed everything but the HEV on my SMP (if you’re patient and alert, you can get parts at great prices on the bay and other places).
Here’s how I fixed my CGs. First, the problem:
The difference is quite obvious in person.
You can clearly see the problems with the rep CG in this beautiful shot by By-Tor. Time to get started.
The whole watch needs to be taken apart, including the bezel and tube.
Rep case after initial shaping. After this initial shaping, I went over the area with a metal file.
It does take a steady hand to use the Dremel. If you’re patient and don’t mind carpal tunnel, you can try filing or sandpaper all the way.
The result. Deeper “V” shape with steeper sides, a flat bottom which extends to the edge of the bezel, and you can see where the crown touches the case.
You’ll notice that compared to the gen, the rep crown is about .5mm taller and has no bevel at the bottom. Fortunately these are details that are virtually impossible to see if you’re not 3 inches away and looking at a gen for comparison, so they don’t really bother me.
Of course you will never get forged or CNC’ed precision by hand, but the results were very satisfactory. It looks quite good, and I dare say that I would be fooled if I saw this on someone else’s wrist. A correct HEV case would bring this watch to near perfection, but I’m not going to keep my fingers crossed. Still, this is a great rep and with a little work you can get it amazingly close to gen. I hope this inspires some fellow SMP lovers!
Parting Shot:
