Vintage Omega Constellation

Omega's own records mark 13 Constellation references with a “C”, from 1966 to 1978. That is the case collectors call the C-shape. Here they are, with the calibre Omega lists for each.

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Pie-pan is the collectors' name for a dial whose outer ring is faceted and slopes down, like an upturned pie tin. It isn't Omega's word, and Omega's records don't describe dials, so this page doesn't say which references left the factory with one. What you can check is everything around the dial: the reference inside the caseback, the calibre on the movement and the metal, all against the tables above. A pie-pan sold with the wrong calibre for its reference is a put-together watch, however good the dial looks.

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Pie-pan is a collector term: no fact claimed. The dial check is part of the .

Omega's catalogues print each calibre with a short designation. RA is automatic, SC is centre seconds, PC is shock protection, CAL is the date, CALD is day and date, CORR is the corrector, INST is the instant date change, STS is the stop-second and AM is antimagnetic. “Bulletin” or BULL marks the chronometer execution.

The instant date change and the stop-second both arrive with the 1000 calibre in 1969. The 1011 and 1021 run at 28,800 and the 352 to 751 at 19,800; the 1001's beat isn't printed. Measure yours against these in the calibre lookup.

The 564 arrived in 1966. Omega's GF 620-3 supplement prints it as a difference sheet against the 563, and the part numbers show how little of it is its own.

The one 564 number is the train wheel bridge, 564.1003. Everything else is shared, and widely: 109 of the 564's 111 part numbers are also listed for the 565, the Seamaster calibre, 103 for the 751 and 69 for the 551. So hunt 564 parts by the part number, not the calibre. A part sold as “565, Seamaster” is your part if its number is on the 564's list. The parts finder lists every one, and the 565 parts page shows the ones people hunt. Journal No. 10 puts the 564 and the 565 side by side.

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Setting the date on a 561

The 561's designation has no CORR, so there is no date corrector. Omega's Technical Guide No. 16 (1960) says the date changes over about two hours, from soon after 10 pm to midnight. To fit the hands, turn them until the change has just happened and set them at midnight. To set the date, turn the stem anticlockwise to the first change, then four turns clockwise and four anticlockwise per day.

A screw number tells you the thread and the head, not the job. The job is printed in each calibre's own pages. These are the ones Technical Guide No. 16 gives a job for in the 561's date work.

The guide's text gives the double calendar setting wheel the jumper's number, 560.1503. The parts plate on the same page, and GF 620-3, give it as 560.1559: buy that one. Omega's 2013 technical guide lists 19 screws for the 551 and the 564's sheet lists 22: see the 551's and the 564's.

Not every Constellation is a full-size automatic. Omega's records list 43 Constellations from 1962 to 1975 built around smaller movements, many of them now listed for sale as ladies' watches. They fall into two groups:

The chronometer versions are marked in Omega's own designation: the 682 and 685 carry “bulletin” or BULL, and so does the 712. The 681 and 711 are the same movements without the certificate, and the 700 is hand-wound. As with the big Constellations, the reference inside the caseback decides which calibre belongs, and the reference lookup has every one.

By decade, Omega's records list 17 Constellation references first made in the 1950s, 59 in the 1960s and 110 in the 1970s, when the quartz calibres arrived alongside the automatics.

Strip a Constellation 564 on The Bench, free in your browser.

101 of the 242 references are 18k solid gold in Omega's records. The letters in front of the reference tell you which:

An 18k case is stamped 750. On a gold-capped case the metal under the gold is steel; on a plated one it is brass. Either showing at the lug edges means the gold has worn through. Gold or plated? covers every mark.

On a solid gold Constellation the gold sets the floor price, even if the movement doesn't run. Weigh your Omega turns a kitchen-scale weight into a gold value.

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Not every one. Omega's records list 134 mechanical Constellation references, and 101 of them as certified chronometers. The other 33 include the manual-wind 700s, the 711s, KO 14902 with its 561, and some steel 1000-series references: ST 168.0033 and ST 168.0044 with the 1001, ST 168.0055 and ST 168.0056 with the 1011. In the catalogue the chronometer movement is the bulletin one: the word or BULL is printed in the designations of the 551, 561, 564, 1001, 1011 and 1021.

Omega's Technical Guide No. 12 (June 1959) shows the testing. Ten 551 movements fitted with the new screwless balance, Nos. 17000011 to 17000020, were rated on 22 January 1959 at the official watch-control office in Bienne. Their daily rate varied by 0 to 4 seconds in five positions.

Three numbers matter: what the same reference with the right calibre actually sold for, what the parts would bring, and, on a solid gold case, the gold. Use the “What they sold for” links on this page rather than asking prices. Vintage Omega prices gives the bands by model, and What's my Omega worth? explains all three.

The serial is on the movement; the serial number lookup gives the year band. It should land in or after the year the reference appears above. Two fixed points from Omega's own papers: movement Nos. 17000011 to 17000020 were rated in January 1959, and the 564's section is dated 1966, so a 564 is no older than that.

• The reference and its letters, from inside the caseback. The letters tell you the metal.
• The movement, with the calibre number readable. It has to match the reference. On the 551 and 561 it is on the train wheel bridge.
• The dial, square on and in daylight. Even print, nothing smudged or thick.
• The lugs from the side. No brass or steel showing on a gold-plated or gold-capped case.
• The weight, if it is sold as solid gold. Weigh your Omega tells you whether it makes sense.

Need a bracelet, clasp or end link? The Omega bracelet finder gives Omega's own part numbers for every Constellation bracelet on the factory sheets, with eBay searches for each.

From the journal: Is a vintage Omega a good watch? What Omega's own records show, from the chronometer references to the parts shared across calibres.