[Omega] De Ville 011.077 with rare Dragon dial cal 620
![[Omega] De Ville 011.077 with rare Dragon dial cal 620](https://i.redd.it/izd6k8yf4x621.jpg)
Posted Dec 28, 2018, 1:04 AM UTC
11828
Xmas present, my sign in Chinese according to birth year is dragon. The movement and case are authentic Omega, however their is a big question mark? over the dial, is it original to the watch or is it a re-dial at some point in its history? What makes this watch dial interesting is the fact that a Cartier Pasha watch with the same dial design was sold in Hong Kong for approximately $375,000HKD in 2014,that watch featured diamonds on the bezel, https://imgur.com/a/B6dczau So is the Cartier a copy of this design or has someone gone to the trouble of making an exquisitely detailed homage?
Edit: date
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I can't really imagine the dial being original to the watch - but vintage is out of my knowledge comfort zone so don't take that as gospel.
I think the cartier was made in 2000, not necessarily sold at auction then. My guess is that this omega is a fantasy redial modeled after the Cartier in question.
6
The serial number on the movement dates it to around 1964, to my designer eyes the dial font and numbering, screams 1964. The Cartier would have been produced for the year of the Dragon 2,000, specifically for the Asian market place(did anyone say BLING,BLING). The Omega would have been produced for the year of the Dragon 1964.
3
The fact that they look exactly the same is way too strong evidence that this is a custom piece (and arguably a Franken-watch if they customized a dial from a different Omega). What is more likely — that Cartier (freaking Cartier) plagiarized an Omega design, or that a local artisan copied Cartier?
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There's a third possibility - that both watches were inspired by a famous artwork.
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Could be as late as 2000 if they copied the Cartier, if so they were good at their job, the colour scheme for this watch(palette) is correct for sixties.
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No way did this leave the factory painted like this. One, the index marker at 12 is only present on the electric (tuning fork) calibres. Two, the text is not as well done as you'd see from a factory print
5
You can’t see in the photo(potato cam), the dial is guilloche in the cream part. The dial is enamel, not painted, that’s why the colours are so bright and vivid, it has a 3D aspect to it, almost cloisonné.
Double edit: description
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Can you crosspost this piece to the omega forums and link it here please? im quite curious
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Will try later, longtime lurker, never posted before, not sure I could handle being roasted alive, but I sure respect their knowledge base and opinions.
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Omega factory cloisonné: https://www.phillips.com/detail/OMEGA/NY080118/62 (the seller actually came to Reddit first asking what he had inherited from his watchmaker grandfather).
Your dial is good, but Omega worked in much finer detail and with more gradient in the color panels. They also only produced cloisonné dials immediately after WWII to celebrate the end of the war.
Your watch was clearly put together by someone with an eye towards Chinese culture and tradition, but it wasn't Omega who tocuhed it last.
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That is a beautiful watch, sold for $56,250, this one worth maybe tree fiddy.
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Omega factory cloisonné: https://www.phillips.com/detail/OMEGA/NY080118/62 (the seller actually came to Reddit first asking what he had inherited from his watchmaker grandfather).
Your dial is good, but Omega worked in much finer detail and with more gradient in the color panels. They also only produced cloisonné dials immediately after WWII to celebrate the end of the war.
Your watch was clearly put together by someone with an eye towards Chinese culture and tradition, but it wasn't Omega who touched it last.
1
The design is of the East Sea Dragon King who is almost always depicted with a crown, that is the reason for the index marker at 12 o’clock. The design(dragon) is Japanese but depicts a Chinese legend, I think it’s so cute, that someone had a shiny brand new Omega in 1960 something and then employed a skilled watchmaker to personalise the watch to their own horological sign, but wanted everyone to know that the watch was “Omega”, the design is playful(the Dragon breathes the brand name) and almost cartoonish with the Omega symbol used as the crown, even though it is upside down.
Edit: depiction
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Fine, but there is zero evidence of Omega using this marker on anything but electronic calibres. The first time that kind of marker was used was in watches issued in 1970 with the first f300 watches. The dial is very well done, but I think it was probably a custom job put together later, perhaps as someone's birthyear (1964) watch but done later (1976, 1988, 2000, or most likely 2012 when Mad Men was starting to drive the vintage Omega bubble we're now in the middle of)
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Totally agree, it’s looking franken as all hell, but still like it, if the dial is fake, someone went to a lot of trouble and that’s kind of interesting. Will get an extract from the archives just to try and figure out what it is?
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Sucks this isn't original. I quite like it.
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Will get an extract and appraisal of dial in due course, there’s an expert on trapezoid emblazons on Omega forums, will get his opinion.
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Fake, or at least franken.
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Probable franken taken for granted, but let’s think about the dial logically, on the Cartier the cloud on the right doesn’t fit the dial, the design is cutoff.
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Seems like this watch was sold on eBay in September and then had some restoration, including the dial and hands. I can’t say whether it’s original or not. I agree the trapezoid thing is generally associated with electronic Omegas, but it doesn’t mean this dial is impossible.
Even if it is some kind of custom, non-factory dial, it’s quite lovely.
Thank you for your thoughts, it was indeed purchased on eBay, however no-work has been carried out so far, damaged crystal(chipped), hands worn and in need of a desperate clean of movement. Will proceed with caution, my wife doesn’t want me to do anything to the watch, but it doesn’t have an Omega band, so that’s first cab off the rank.
Hmm, the hands and Omega logo on the dial look much cleaner in your photo than they do in the eBay listing.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F323455410851
It’s just the light, watch is exactly same as eBay listing, although in hand it is more apparent that it is probably original, you roll the dice, sometimes you win and sometimes you loose, price and authenticity were never considerations with this purchase, as my wife was buying the design for me.
Edit: spelling
Gotcha. It’s crazy how much different light can make the same watch look so different. I noticed a lot of corrosion under the case back (I never knew the back actually lifted off on these Omega front-loaders), that must happen a lot, given the design.
The dial certainly isn’t my cup of tea, but I think it’s quite nice. Good luck!