Vintage, Military, and Omega Watch Blog
"NOS" Watchco Omega Seamaster 300 construction. Photo: Watchco
What do you think of WATCHCO in Australia? Is there really any chance he has so many surplus parts for the Seamaster 300 – that he can produce all those watches? He claims that Omega is still making parts for this watch!
Chuck A., Chicago
Hi Chuck,
Posted in Omega Watches, Vintage Watches.
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– 14 November 2009
Omega military pilot X-33 Speedmaster Professional
I was recently able to confirm that the Omega Military Purchase Program for the Speedmaster X-33 remains active. After months of wondering if the program had perhaps been canceled, thanks to a helpful contributor I finally managed to get some updated info about Omega’s military purchase program and was able to personally confirm the details. The program was apparently briefly suspended while it was reviewed and overhauled, and production is expected to resume in as little as two weeks.
Omega asked me not to publish pricing data as it still hadn’t been finalized, but it seems that the prices will rise substantially over figures that were previously published on the web. Although unfortunate for potential buyers, pricing under the program had not changed since the X-33 was introduced in 1998 and an increase was perhaps overdue. The pricing remains a substantial discount over the former retail price, and is still less than that of comparable military purchase programs from Breitling etc.
Some notes: Continued…
Posted in Military Watches, Omega Watches, X-33.
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– 13 November 2009
Bernie Madoff’s collection of rare and vintage watches will be auctioned Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009 by Gaston & Sheehan Auctioneers on behalf of the US Marshals Service to raise money to help compensate victims of his massive Ponzi scheme. As I commented earlier this year Bernie Madoff was known to be a collector of vintage watches, many of which were seized by federal authorities. Additionally, Madoff had attempted to mail several them to friends and relatives following his arrest in violation of a court order.
I confess I really hadn’t been following the story much in recent months and had all but forgotten about it, but I’d always been wondering more about the details of the watches as details have been scarce. A perusal of the catalog reveals a few semi-interesting watches, and Kyle at Perpetuelle.com has done a pretty decent job of summarizing and hitting the high notes on some of the ones that seem more interesting. Continued…
Posted in Military Watches, Vintage Watches.
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– 12 November 2009
M855 Design T-shirt with stenciled print inspired by ammo can markings. Genius.
M855 Design T-shirt with printing like that on the Small Arms Protective Insert (SAPI) plate of US military body armor systems.
SAPI plate t-shirt mockup. Lots more comfortable than the original.
Posted in General.
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– 09 November 2009
We’ve being doing some maintenance and modifications to the site over the weekend that might lead to some weirdness and outages. I’ll do my best to keep it from happening again, but problems may still occur from time to time.
Please bear with me, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy us in our new digs. :)
Posted in Uncategorized.
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– 07 November 2009
Vintage and military watches have been growing in popularity in Hollywood circles in recent years. Some celebrities like John Mayer are known the be enthusiastic collectors.
Here’s a sighting of Bruce Sprinsteen wearing what appears to be a vintage 1930’s pilot watch.
Bruce Springsteen wearing what looks like a vintage 1930's military pilot watch on a gray G10 strap.
And here’s a closer view of the watch itself, though it’s still a little tough to positively identify: Continued…
Posted in Military Watches, Omega Watches, Vintage Watches.
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– 07 November 2009
Yes, it really works. At least it sort of does. It’s not going to turn you into an expert surveyor or celestial navigator like the polar explorers who took sun spottings to navigate to the poles when magnetic compasses become increasingly useless, but it’s better than nothing at least.
This is an old trick of sorts which allows essentially any analog dial watch to be used as an expedient compass to roughly determine a north/south line, even those not actually equipped with a dedicated compass function.
There are several versions of the technique with minor variations but the general method is mostly the same. Below an excerpt from the US Army Ranger Handbook that details the method I’m most familiar with.
(2) Watch Method. You can also determine direction using a watch (Figure 11-2). The steps you take will depend on whether you are in the northern Temperate Zone or in the southern Temperate Zone. The northern temperate zone is located between 23.4 north and 66.6 north. The southern Temperate Zone is located between 23.4 south and 66.6 south.
Posted in Uncategorized.
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– 03 November 2009
Vietnam Style Quartz Field Watch
For an unpretentious and unassuming “beater” watch that still has some elements of vintage-inspired military design, these “Vietnam Style” quartz watches are probably the best deal on the market right now at $32.99 (with free shipping in the US even). Especially when other efforts at these sort of mil vintage homages like the Hamilton “Khaki” line cost hundreds and even the J. Crew Timex “Military” watch comes in at around $150.
This inexpensive and unassuming “homage” watch is quite comparable in terms of performance, quality and faithfulness to vintage aesthete and at a fraction of the price. What’s not to like?
Hamilton MIL-W-46374 US military watch, circa 1978. Photo: Hyunsuk.
Posted in Military Watches.
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– 27 October 2009
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