Omega from 1938/1939 - how original?

mac_omega · 2025-11-22T02:34:45-0600

hoipolloi
I have a similar one, too.

besides the dial design I don´t see any similarities - well, ok both have stainless steel cases...

hoipolloi · 2025-11-22T03:08:50-0600

mac_omega
besides the dial design I don´t see any similarities - well, ok both have stainless steel cases...

Both were made by Omega, both have plume hands, black dials, ss cases, gilt dials and both are manual winding.
😜

Dan S · 2025-11-22T06:03:19-0600

mac_omega
IMO these numbers were needed during the production process to pair the caseback with the upper part of the case as these parts were finished seperately. Quality in machining was not as high as in our days with CAD turning etc - hence the casebacks were not interchangeable due to too wide tolerances in production. I have experienced this with the screw down models 2410 and 2254. You hardly can mix casebacks up because they mostly only fit on the correct case with the corresponding number.

This is a plausible explanation that I have not heard previously, and I have not personally tried to swap casebacks on one of these references. It does make sense to keep well-fitted cases and case-backs together, to facilitate assembly.

However, as we all know, one does commonly find watches with mismatched numbers on caseback and lugs, especially military watches, where watchmakers serviced many identical watches simultaneously. So in most case, it is apparently not so terribly difficult to swap them.