Seamaster Diver 300M - Frankening and Collecting Guide.

[k4jun]

In past, R2D4 already started this excercise and has decoded 2531. That thread migh have a photobucket impact now, hereby to be continued.

We do not have any good out of the box reps of pre-ceramic models, and gens are not gonna be any cheaper, hope you find this thread usefull for building your SMP's.

I have focused on those seven models, all chronographs and GMTs are out as I am unsure whether we can use any modern rep case.

For all those pre-ceramic builds you can use MKS/MKF case. Yes... the maker is advertising them as SMPc reps, but in fact those MK crownguards and lugs are correct for pre-ceramic. MK mid-case has the same height as gen, and it takes the gen crystal, crown/tube and helium/tube without any epoxy.
Kind of the tricky part is with a bezel assembly. If you install a gen spring-wire - most likely gen bezel will get jammed or it will be very hard to turn it. This is because gen spring is too tight for MK case. Either you can mod the gen spring (re-bend it) or buy a thinner (jeweller's) wire and make your custom bezel assembly.

If you ever disassembly a gen SMPc bezel, you will learn there is a new part. It is an extra gasket, probably Omega decided to use it to minimise any shock damage on ceramic insert. This new gasket is 298ZW6007 (fi37.35 / 0.36 / 0.8mm).

Do not buy gen or rep bracelets for chronographs. Chronographs' bracelets do look almost the same as non-chronograph bracelet, but they are not the same. SELs are different and chronograph's SEL will give you a bad fit.


How to read Omega crystals:
SN - no AR coating
SA - AR multilayer coating on one side (inner coating)
SB - AR multilayer coating on both sides
At some point in the time, Omega did a transition and all SN crystals have been discontinued and replaced by SA.


Cannon pinions are skipped, as I couldn't find any logic here. I've seen 2351's with H0 and H2... and seen 2254's with H1 and H3..
So calibre 1120 itself had at least 4 variations here.
2500 calibre looks the same - many cannon pinions are available. As per my eye I THINK that all watches with applied indexes have used H3, or taller.
If anyone can chime in something more valuable here, please do so.

The hand height code

Casebacks.

I did not enlist any caseback part numbers, mostly because usually they are not visible, and while you will finally find one on the market - they are bloody expensive.
However, there are 3 layouts of the caseback, but in fact you can find 5 variations of the caseback.
This is because so called "Omega Globe".
Omega tells us they introduced that globe as a new anti-counterfeit security, but true is they used it to combat greymarket, mainly - to sue Costco.
Omega never announced when they started engraving this globe, but Costco lawsuit was in 2007, so all post-2007 watches should have this globe.
First watch with the globe which I have seen was 2003, so 2003-2007 is a somewhat of a grey area - those casebacks can have it, but it is not a must (see Period Correct section in below).


Parts for Automatic/quartz/full-size/mid-size.
Thing is the world is full of mid-size quartz for sale and parts for automatic full-size watches are like unicorns.
Especially the dials can be an expensive mistake, so here is a chart how to tell the correct dial without knowing its part number.

I did a gfx for 3 models only. but you should be able to see the pattern.

Also mind that hands for quartz movement won't fit your Asian ETA as quartz hands and automatic hands are not interchangeable.



Being Period Correct:

Late 2011 2220.80's were fitted with updated calibre - 2500D so it is possible to build such watch but I do not know a part's reference number for this date wheel.
That btw is very good example of the transitional watch.

Be carefull when you buy the parts for Big triangle/Sword hands models.
Omega has offered those watches in both - in steel and in titanium. Titanium came out first (circa 1998) so on the market there may be more parts for titanium watches.
Both, steel and titanium watches have Superluminova but it has a different colours. Luminosity on titanium dials/hands is more whiter and lume on parts from steel watches is more greenish. Avoid mixing them or during a daylight you will see a mismatch in the colour of the lume.



Tritium.
Tritium was used on the regular dive watches and chronograph watches, but only models with skelotonized hands have had it.
"Tritium sword hands watch" simply does not exist.
As you can see here we have only one SMP with tritium. It was 2531.50.00 produced between 1993 - late 1996/1997.
While there were never any 'T's used on this dial - here is how to tell the difference between tritium and superluminova.

Pretty fresh service dials - the difference in matte vs glossy lume application is a pretty obvious tell.

Also, the writting has changed slightly.
- 3 in "300" and 1 in "1000" do have small serifs on tritium dial,
- "ft" symbol is flat on a tritium dial and it is tall on superluminova dial.

If you ask me.. tritium 2531 is a sweet project worth bothering. It is the sleeper, a future collectibles.



Early production SMP.
If you are very much into this model, you know that the first batch of this watch was somehow different than all later 2531's.
I am referring to 1993 - mid.1994 watches powered by 1109 calibres.
Those models had more aesthetical differences, like:
> dial without the "Chronometer" writting (but it is neither the Quartz dial layout),
> case number 168.1503/196.1503,
> helium valve with a bold cap (no logo),
> bracelet was still 1503/825, but SEL were not stamped. Also; SEL, clasp-links and clasp have a different shapes than what we know from the later 1503/825 bracelets.

Over the watch fora there is a story that first batch was delivered to the Italian ADs only. Omega never confirmed that. While this is a cool story it is not really true as those watches have been seen sold with the papers issued by the ADs from various countries.
I have skipped this early production model as parts are not dime a dozen and quite frankly this watch itself in general is considered as fugly and not really collectible, yet.
It may have change down the road in next 10-20 years, who knows.

Here are some pics of the early automatic "no-cosc" watch.

This watch is also reffered as 2531.86.00, though Omega's watchfinder does not have any record for such reference number.
Anyway, try to avoid purchasing 090ST1231 case tube. This is early production part and it is a push-in tube, all other (later) tubes are threaded tubes.



Helium valves.
We do have two valves, of course the caps are the obvious but not the only difference.
Some parts like a screw and gaskets are the same but in general do not assume that all smaller parts are interchangeable.
I think the easiert way is to buy a complete valve, in case you ever need to assembly one from the small parts - here is the spec.

Happy frankening.

 

[offpink]

Thank you for the amazing post!

 

[mclarendude]

Seamaster Diver 300M - Frankening Reference Guide.

Double post

 

[mclarendude]

This amazing. Now I can’t even make if my gen is a original tritium or a service dial.

The lume’s matte.

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[k4jun]

This amazing. Now I can’t even make if my gen is a original tritium or a service dial.

The lume’s matte.

Yours looks like a correct full SL watch (superlumonova dial, hands and pearl).
Sorry if that was not clear. My point in OP was about a brand new service dial. Fresh superluminova will be glossy. such gloss on +10 years dial is almost non-existing.

Rumors say in early nineteen-nineties Omega was a mess, so some strange things could have happen that time.
For example;
1.) some 1108 and 1111 calibres could have been cased in 2531's..,
2.) early SL dials had a SL layout but tritium was applied..

I never came across anything which prooves 1 or 2, but those things are being mentioned occasionally.

 

[C Master]

Fantastic write up M. I am going to sticky it unless Mr. Pap has any objections

 

[Mr. Pap]

Amazing post and great info! I was not aware of some technical details.

Sticky pin!

 

[mclarendude]

Yours looks like a correct full SL watch (superlumonova dial, hands and pearl).
Sorry if that was not clear. My point in OP was about a brand new service dial. Fresh superluminova will be glossy. such gloss on +10 years dial is almost non-existing.

Rumors say in early nineteen-nineties Omega was a mess, so some strange things could have happen that time.
For example;
1.) some 1108 and 1111 calibres could have been cased in 2531's..,
2.) early SL dials had a SL layout but tritium was applied..

I never came across anything which prooves 1 or 2, but those things are being mentioned occasionally.

Thank you for that. Anyhow, it is an amazing write up. I wish I had had it when I did my franken some years back.


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[tripdog]

Excellent post - thank you !

 

[exelonman]

Great write up!

 

[k4jun]

Thank you guys. Glad to hear you are enjoying it.


I had a second look at "Period correct" chart and realized how close we are from covering everything. Not only the frankening but also covering the aspects important if you are buying gen. A production has started 27 year ago, so plenty of time when things could have changed. Corvir-19 gave me some extra free time so here comes the update.

Part 2 is somehow different than OP. Part 2 is intended to help you in finding a correct gen, and also is addressing a few open topics from the Omega world.

Dials.
It is easy. Omega is different than Rolex. Rolex would produce one submariner reference for 10-15 years, but during that time they would have installed something around 10 different dials (10 MKs let's say).
Omega would rather produce one referrence for the shorter period, and this referrence has/had only one dial (one MK).
2531.50 is somehow different here as it had tritium and SL dials. All other SMP/SMPc - they had only one dial which you can easily check at the official Omega website.



"Red dot" and "Blue dot".
This is more like a fun fact and is applicable for other Omega models too, not Diver 300M series only.

Sometimes you can see a small dot of a paint at the bottom of the caseback (6 o'clock area). That is not a random act of the modern art.
Opening the caseback destroys that little dot, so this thing kinda works like a seal to show that caseback hasn't been removed yet.
There is urban ledend that your warranty was voided if the "dot" was no longer present on the watch, but that's just a legend.
Those dots do come off fairly easily, even during a regular wearing or cleaning. Funny thing is I have read about people who deliberately removed the paint, as they have thought it was post-production contamination. lol.
A red dot was placed on new watches leaving the Omega production. I do not know when this process has started but I've seen it on watches from nineteen-eighties.

Blue dots were also placed by Omega, but those meant that watch was serviced by Omega and then "re-sealed" with a blue paint.
The blue dot on watches with screw-in case backs is intended to guarantee that the water resistance of a repaired watch has been carefully tested in accordance with Omega instructions.

Omega eventually has quitted this process and both, red and blue dots were discontinued June 1, 2015.



Boxes.
First was a small box made of a grey leather, including a grey wallet (card holder).
Finding this box in a decent condition is really hard today, so let's have a look how it should look like.

Grey leather was replaced by a bigger red leather box, and next that was replaced by a quality brown wooden box.
The last two's are the most popular boxes which you can find on the market.

Those grey and red boxes are probably made of a faux leather, or made of the pure embarrasement, as both boxes had the same peeling/flaking issues over the time.
People were complaining that Omega needs to step up their boxes, so it's great eventually company decided to move to the wooden boxes. They tend to age in a much luxorius way.

I am not digging into gen vs rep boxes. Mostly, because I trust that box should be the last factor to take into account in gen or rep game. I am not aware of any reps of grey leather, red leather were faked, some poorly some not bad, and there are really convincing fakes of the modern wooden boxes.

This is just a Service case and you do not have to sent your watch for the service to get one like that.
Chances are if you walk into Omega Boutique and will ask for one they will give it to you free of charge.

A ribbon means this is ladie's watch box, so you don't need it.

And here is a nice wooden red lacquered box.

It should be paired with older higher-end or more luxorious (gold) watches, so again, if you care about the correct set - it is not for you and not for your steel dive watch.
Highly polished wooden surface can crack over the time but still this is a quality box. Personally, I'd have picked this box over the any red leather box every day of the week and twice on Sunday.


All Special/Limited editions can have a bespoke box, thus are ingnored as we are focusing on the regular models.
That said, it is hard to deny some special boxes were really cool.

There are two features in the red leather and wooden boxes, which probably not everyone knows about.

First, under the pillow&lining you have a beige Traveller's pouch with a tongue.

Second thing is for those who are nuts about "The Full Set".
If you check on your outer paper box, you should see a small number printed on its side.
This number indicated a version of your box - it's destination - which watch models it should be paired with.

Same number is printed on a plastic transportation case (you should never receive this plastic container, Omega is using them while sending watches from a factory to AD venue, and AD staff is repacking watches to a correct presentation box).

Cross-check ends at your Pictograms card, as it indicates which box your watch should come with.

Pictograms card.
Speaking of. This plastic card appeared around 2000. It has no watch' serial number, so does not look like a great help in a veryfication of the authenticity.
It is not completely rubbish tho, if you check the Picts you can learn about the AR coating and materials used on your watch.

Imho, especially "Si14" is worth checking if you are buying a watch with the early 8500 calibre.

Picts also can be found on the reverse of your Omega tag.

Here is the latest table of the Picts.

COSC card.
Nowadays, one of the Picts is saying you that watch has the Chronometer certification.
COSC is stamped on the Pictogram card, but it is like that only since summer 2013.
Omega does not offer the COSC card any more, but in past, your COSC was a separate "item".

There were two generation of this card: firstly it was a paper version, being replaced by a red plastic card somewhere around 2000.
Paper booklets sometimes was called "Certificate" and sometimes "Warranty" but I do not know the date of transition.
My guess is "Warranty" came first and later was succedded by the proper certification.

This card(s) was pretty useless, as it didn't have any COSC results. If you want to know what was a snapshot of the accuracy during COSC tests you can order the detailed certificate (extra fee).
Here is how it looks like.

METAS
COSC should not be confused with METAS. In Diver 300M line METAS is present since cal.8800/year 2018 so here it is somehow outside of the scope of our interests.
METAS is the extra Omega in-house certification, and it is very well explained on the official Omega website.




Warranty card.

There are 4 layouts in total, including 2 layouts of the red cards.
1st - "white"

2nd - "creamy"

3rd - red layout 2000-2015

4th - red layout since 2015

The last layout is still the current card.

There was a time when omega was keen on issuing a replecemet card if you have lost your originanal, but that times are gone now.
if you lose your warranty card, you will not be able to get a replacement for your watch under any circumstances.

I do not have camera setup to take the good photos to show gen vs rep cards, but those red plastics have really good securities.


US/International warranty card.
Have a quick look at those two Speedies.

One has a reference number and serial number printed, whilst other one has them handwritten. It does not necessary mean that second watch is dodgy.
Thing is, for some markets, Omega makes those numbers pre-printed and for US market they send those boxes blank and AD/Shop staff is supposed to write in reference and watch serial numbers when they make a sale to a customer.
Don't know when it started like that, but it is pretty long time ago, post 2000 for sure. That seems to be a rule at least tiil 2015, but I've seen legit post-2015 cards which makes me think this rule is no longer valid.


Hang tags.
Last to mention is a red COSC tag being replaced by a silver Co-Axial tag.

2000 was also the time when small the booklets (like user's manual, service centres list) have been replaced by one thick Operating Instructions book.
That Operating Instructions book also had a few versions, hard back, soft back, various covers but this is probably too anal to care.



Omega Country codes.
Those are visible on the warranty cards but yea, it is not easy to tell a correct country becasue this data has never leaked out. And Omega made a few changes already.
In past, those codes were 4-digits and were bonded 1:1 to a specific country, e.g.;

1011 Spain
1032 France
1061 UK
1062 UK - Channel Islands
112* Italy
121* Germany
2011 USA
2025 Canada
52** Singapore and Hong Kong (various Asian countries in general)
53** Japan
6011 Australia

That system ended in nineteen-nineties (probably), and then Omega has moved to a 5-digits system.
Problem is that 5-digits coding at first sight looks like we have just an extra "zero" at the end, but it's not that simple.
The numerals for some countries probably has changed, US has two ocodes, and Europe region was merged into one big code.

20110 USA
20150 USA
20250 Canada
60110 Austrtralia
90270 is a mash-up covering European dealers, or at least it was as I recently starded to seeing the separate codes (1:1) for EU countries.
Logic of the Country codes is beyond me.



Serial numbers.
Again, this thing never leaked, but all over the web you can find the tables with "Omega serial number dates". Especially dealers of the pre-owned watches like to have a table.
Those people for sure had good intensions when they had prepared the tables, but be warned that data is all estimated.
If you cross-check those tables you will realize a data there is conflicting.
Mid nineteen-eighties Omega has stopped a public announcements about their production values. Charts are probably true for a trully vintage watch, but in case of post-1990 watch, I would take those tables with great grain of salt.


I think that's all. If you see any error or you know anythnig more please feel free to share.

 

[Nikosaldente]

Awesome thread!

Thanks for sharing M!

 

[DreadPirateRobert]

k4jun

what a great write up! I'm putting together a 2541 and this is super useful. Great job!

 

[k4jun]

k4jun

what a great write up! I'm putting together a 2541 and this is super useful. Great job!

That is cool project. I do not know quartz's, are you going with ETA or there is some cheaper replacement?

 

[DreadPirateRobert]

That is cool project. I do not know quartz's, are you going with ETA or there is some cheaper replacement?

see, you know the right question to ask. A gen quartz 1538 is around $130, an ETA is $100 (maybe $80 used) and the cheapest version that is probably the best for hands that fit is the ISA 1198/103 at around $17. It fits 2824 hands (not the second hand though). Finding the hands is the tough part.

 

[pippo]

Excellent write-up. Thanks k4jun

 

[GeneralG]

Thank you for your post. I definitely learned a lot and can't wait for my seamaster to arrive soon.

 

[Ecender]

this is gold, thank you so much. well deserved the sticky status

 

[k4jun]

Cheers Guys, this write-up wouldn't be possible without the RWI.

In a few days I will add part numbers for quartz watches.

 

[Kernow]

Fantastic write up. Lots I didn’t know.