How much should I be paying for vintage Omeaga Seamaster?

tea and coffee

Was in a jewellers in Dublin city centre today, looking at vintage Omega Seamasters. At first I thought that they were "excellent" value (i.e. much cheaper than a new one) in comparison to a new one, but then I looked on Ebay and it appears that the one I chose is overpriced.
Now, of course a bricks and mortar shop in Dublin has higher overheads then some lad in his shed/ workshop, but even so- and I do appreciate there are huge variants in quality and age etc.

That aside, what should I be paying? It was about the €900 mark for a 1960s (1966) Seamaster Deville automatic, in lovely condition (too lovely?? reworked??) - generic strap.
On ebay there are some as low as €200 in what look like great condition, and then Omega strap for 30 quid.

I want something in excellent condition so I am not interested in a fixer upper for €50 or whatever, but obviously if the guts of a grand is far too much, even with the reassurance of a shop to return it to, then I would prefer to buy online!

If you had any advice I would be very grateful

Thanks

Bateman

A mate of mine has bought a couple of vintage Seamasters from poshtime.com. Second hand info as I haven't bought from them myself, and it takes a lot of patience as the nature of these things is that they don't come up every week, but you can get decent ones for well south of 4 figures.

Winterlong

It depends on what you are comfortable with to be honest.
Some people want a vintage watch that comes with a guarantee (of sorts), new strap,is all shiny,the movement serviced and the comfort feeling from buying from a reputable dealer. If that is what you want then expect to pay the prices from a dealer.

If you buy on line then you can get some fantastic deals but with risk. Risk that the watch does not quite look the same in real life as in the photos. Risk that the watch has some scratches that you had not noticed in the photos. Risk that the 'excellent timekeeping' is actually losing a couple of minutes a day.
Risk that when you receive the watch you do not get the 'buzz' that you really wanted to get from your new toy.
There is a probability that the movement will need servicing and that you will need to go shopping for a strap.
Personally - I am happy to take this risk. I buy and flip a lot of vintage Omegas. But have yet to lose a cent on one.

CarltonBrowne

Also be aware that, with the recent Swatch squeeze on parts availability, that the cost of getting one sorted is undoubtedly getting higher. I would suggest that the best way to get a good one would be to sign up to a couple of watch fora with active marketplaces and get engaged; you'll get your eye in (but expect to make mistakes - risk again) and this will help you to spot real treasure on Ebay. The two obvious places to start are TZ-UK and the Omega forum. If you're planning to just stop at one I'd say you'll get something to tick the box in a couple of months - but be warned!

http://forum.tz-uk.com/forum.php
https://omegaforums.net/

tea and coffee

Thanks all, I appreciate your advice and taking the time to reply. I am looking for Christmas, so time (boom!) is tight. But then again, if it comes to it, I will wait

CarltonBrowne

I just thought I'd take a look at the two forums I mentioned together with the Austin Kaye website. It surprised me how strong pricing on these seems to have become - I'm sure it wasn't that long ago that I was looking in the window of Austin Kaye in the Strand with these around £3-500.

If you are on TZ-UK I'd recommend a couple of things. Firstly there's an amateur watchie called Walkerwek1958 who has a few of these and occasionally sells one - it might be worth a PM. There's also another chap called Dickstar1977 who is something of an Omega fiend and also sees a fair few watches pass through his hands (he was a real help to me when I was buying a tungsten-carbide cased prototype a couple of years ago).

Bateman

Also follow omega_enthusiast on Instagram

CarltonBrowne

Having just picked up a Seamaster myself this week I've been doing a little amount of digging around. There's some good information here:

http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.php?255905-Vintage-seamaster-advice

I also note a reasonable example sold there 3 years ago for £150 so the market has changed considerably since.