Refined Elegance, the 1967 Omega Geneve Automatic reference 166.002

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This is probably not the first time Omega has received incredible praise for their history of making exceptional watches. Since their founding in 1848, Omega produced watches that attracted buyers because of their technical abilities as well as their abilities in design.
Sometimes it can feel overwhelming to look at the history of the brand and keep track of all the lines of watches they released. From the Speedmaster to Railmaster, it can be a challenge, but also extremely exciting to research and learn about, given the depth of watches made. The Geneve line of watches is an important piece of their history and led into some incredibly important pieces from the brand.
The history of the Geneve line of watches dates back to the 1950s. The line was introduced sometime in 1952 or 1953. At the time, the watches were the best hand wound watches Omega produced in volume during this era. They were originally smaller in size, at 30mm in diameter. Interestingly, the name for these models were in reference to the Geneva Observatory Trials that their models partook in and successfully won many awards at.
Omega produced many different versions of the Geneve watches, but sometimes collectors find collecting them less interesting compared to the Seamaster and Constellation line of watches which had many different dial, case, and lug designs. Nevertheless, there are plenty of Geneve’s that can make exploring and collecting them very interesting.
Geneve watches were produced throughout this time period, into the 1960’s when this particular version was manufactured. This watch was manufactured in 1967. The watch has a gold filled case that is in good condition. The case has some oxidation on the right side of the case which is something that many collectors are a fan of. The gold case ends up with a red-ish tone to it which looks attractive on the gold case. There are signs of wear as well as polishing on the case. The lugs are short and angle towards the wrist. The watch has an unsigned crown that is likely a replacement from the original.
Looking at the dial, overall the white, sunburst dial in very attractive. There are some moisture freckles on the dial that give the watch a nice look to it. Additionally, it has applied hour markers, Omega logo, and date window at 3 o’clock. Looking at the sword hour and minutes hands, where one can see black luminescent material applied on them. But, on both hands, the lume has fallen out of the bottom section of the hands. Unattractive to some collectors, others may feel that it makes the ends of the hands more distinct.
Looking at the back of the watch, the watch has a stainless steel caseback that has the Seamaster logo on it. Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is that why would a Geneve watch have a Seamaster caseback? Well there is a documented history of some Geneve watches that came with these casebacks. Removing the caseback and examining the inside, more information can be found out about the watch. The first text is “CARRURE LUNETTE, PLAQUE OR G 40 MICRONS, FOND ACIER INOXYDABLE” which describes the fact that the watch has a base metal of stainless steel, coated with 40 microns of gold.
Underneath the text is the Omega stamp, followed by “Fab Suisse, Swiss Made”. Then the reference number 166.002 is stamped. There are two shield-like stamps on the caseback. The first is a shield with the letter SGR on them. This is referring the a casemaker that Omega contracted with to produce some of their cases. This was a very common practice during this time, even though some watch collectors want to focus on collecting “in-house” produced watches. Next to the SGR stamp is a shield with a shovel on it. It is not perfectly known what this symbol means but there are two theories circulating the collector community. The first is that it is the stamp of a case manufacturer and the second is that is might reference the gold content in gold-filled watches. Because we have the SGR stamp right next to it, it makes one think it relates to the gold content.
The watch runs on the Omega caliber 565 movement. The caliber is 12.5 lignes automatic movement with a 50 hour power reserve. It was first introduced in 1966, produced until 1969, and about 5.8 million units were delivered during this time period.
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[@natsherm828]

Nice

[@johnbrand4551]

Omega doing it the best way

[@grant_watchesblank1340]

The Geneve is way more collectible than people say. There is a lot of nice variety and they are at a good price point too

[@jamest3164]

Cool date changer