I love a good mod, and this is subtle, but *so* much work...

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gaf1958
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I love a good mod, and this is subtle, but *so* much work...

Post by gaf1958 »

I love Omega’s 300M Seamasters - over the last decade or two, I must have had eight or more of them and two of them have been white versions from the nineties. The original white SMPs came with a polished silver bezel, which I hated, polished silver hands and hour markers against a white dial - not an easy watch to read in many a light. The silver bezel was easily fixed by replacing the (entire) bezel with a black one from the early noughties’ sword handed models.

Fixing the hands was not so easy. My first attempt used the sword hands from the GMT Great White SMP, but they didn’t gel with the round dial markers and eventually I sold it. The second attempt had the same black bezel, but I decided to see if I could live with the silver hands on a white dial. I could not... so it too was sold.

I’d been admiring a couple of the new white SMP 300M divers on the forum; the first I think belonged to Patrick, but a couple of others soon followed. Personally, I think the white SMP is the very best of the of the current models, but I hummed and hawed about it and admired it, yet did nothing, hoping a nice one would turn up used. None did.

This however, did come up for sale - in Australia no less - and this time, there was no hesitation on my part. I saw it and wanted it. I really wanted it. A sale was agreed and the nasty business of paying for it and waiting a day or two for it to arrive passed uneventfully.

This was a brand new watch, that started life as the grey ceramic dial model, with blue bezel bezel, blued hands and hour markers. Now I know there’s at least one of the grey model on the forum, but nice as it is, it just wasn’t on my shopping list. It was ordered in for the purpose of pulling it to bits by the watchmaker who has serviced a number of my Omegas - he’s Omega certified, but is basically a sole trader. He has access to all the parts, has the expertise in models both old and new... but ... he’s willing to do a rebuild without case polishing or refinishing (although his refinishing is first rate); he will keep that original dial with years of patina rather than a new one, if that’s what you’d prefer.

He also loves to mod watches.

So anyway, as I mentioned earlier, this started life with the grey dial and he ordered in a new white parts dial - it cost an astonishing AU$1400! (£750!). He then removed the black outlined hour markers from the $1400 white dial (fortunately they’re pin fittings I believe) - a somewhat harrowing task I would think; if it ended badly, that’s a lot of money on the line. Likewise, he removed the blued markers from the original grey dial, then he fitted the blue markers onto the (now bare) white dial. I guess he put the black ones onto the grey dial? Don’t know, didn’t ask...

So now he had a white dial with blued hour markers (and probably a few extra grey hairs from the experience). A white date disc was fitted to the movement in place of the grey one, the original blue hands were refitted and the whole shebang was fitted back into the original case with, of course, the blue bezel. Bit of work, what!

So basically it’s the white SMP, but anywhere the original is black, this one is blue.

Ok, not the dial writing...it’s still black (and red). This is not without precedent; the two most similar Omegas I own are the Goodplanet Aqua Terra and the white and blue Broad Arrow Speedmaster. Both have white dials with blue hands and hour markers; the AT has a matching blue minute track and dial text; the BA however has a black minute track, black subdial markings and black text. So this one stands up by Omega’s own mixed bag of standards. BTW, the aforementioned BA has been modded to have a blue bezel in place of the standard polished steel one. There’s a theme going here isn’t there.... :|

The parts cost for the mod was considerable. The white dial alone is $1400AUD and the additional blue rubber strap and buckle cost $450 (the watch has the original OEM bracelet as well). Throw in the cost of the new date disc and factor in all the work to actually do the conversion and he came to the conclusion that it would not be possible to recreate this watch for a marketable price (he sold this one at basically the cost of the new watch plus OEM rubber strap). So he said that he won't be trying this again, but the end result is something genuinely unique and I think it’s a stunner. Even my somewhat critical wife thinks it’s gorgeous.

I guess if anyone else were to do something like it, the most likely way will be to simply fit a blue bezel to a white SMP. You’d get much of the look for a fraction of the effort (but similar parts cost). If they’re keen they may also include a set of blue hands, but it’ll still have the black hour markers, so is it going to look right? Close enough for most I guess...

The work that went into this is astonishing and for that reason alone it really is unlikely to be duplicated any time soon - unless of course bloody Omega does it themselves down the track...

And now the obligatory photos... they just show the relevant bits and pieces, I mean we’ve all seen an SMP or three.

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Re: I love a good mod, and this is subtle, but *so* much work...

Post by downer »

Wow! That’s an amazing result, from a truly ambitious project.

Nice one, Gary.
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Re: I love a good mod, and this is subtle, but *so* much work...

Post by Amor Vincit Omnia »

Subtle indeed. I’m afraid I’m not very well versed in the world of Seamasters, so I definitely needed your excellent write-up to appreciate it. Otherwise I would not have known it was an original. Very enjoyable read over the early coffee! I love blue on watches generally, and that is a great look. Thanks for sharing, Gary.

PS. All the mods on this forum are good. Two of them were even up at 6 am reading your post! :lol:
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Re: I love a good mod, and this is subtle, but *so* much work...

Post by nbg »

Another interesting write up Gary. Resulting in another unique mod for your collection. :thumbup:

The March of the Mods indeed. :)
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Re: I love a good mod, and this is subtle, but *so* much work...

Post by brash47 »

Interesting that Omega just released an exact copy of this watch earlier today! The writing is in blue on the Omega Tokyo 2020 though. Congrats on your watch!!

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Re: I love a good mod, and this is subtle, but *so* much work...

Post by Thegreyman »

Very interesting to read through that Gary. I saw your photo and blue comment first in NCWOTD and presumed you were just commenting that the light made the black look blue...but no you have actually got a very unique watch.

I’m biased of course but love the white dial on the SMP and it looks superb with the blue/blue edged bezel, hands and indices.

I used to own the white dial/blue bezel Trident mk2 which was a rare combo for CW, I never understood how it didn’t sell more as I thought those colours matched so well.

I hope Omega don’t bring out the same model, but perhaps someone who works for them will see it on a watch forum. It would be a big compliment to you if they did I guess!


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Re: I love a good mod, and this is subtle, but *so* much work...

Post by gannet »

Great read and looks great :thumbsup:
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Re: I love a good mod, and this is subtle, but *so* much work...

Post by missF »

:clap: :clap: :clap:
Bravo!
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Re: I love a good mod, and this is subtle, but *so* much work...

Post by richtel »

Thanks Gary, I enjoyed reading that! You've ended up with a beautiful unique piece. Indeed the resemblence to the new Tokyo special edition is uncanny but the logo and text on the rear sapphire on the SE detract from the pleasure to be had seeing the 8800 inside like yours. It's also some £400 more expensive with a waiting list.
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Re: I love a good mod, and this is subtle, but *so* much work...

Post by strapline »

brash47 wrote: Thu Apr 15, 2021 7:04 am Interesting that Omega just released an exact copy of this watch earlier today! The writing is in blue on the Omega Tokyo 2020 though. Congrats on your watch!!
Having read the OP, it's really hard to believe that this wasn't a variant being offered by Omega. This is just lovely, with such a strong nautical/ocean presence. Think it might be my new Seamaster 300m fav, although I still like the white dial/black bezel variant. Superb!

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Re: I love a good mod, and this is subtle, but *so* much work...

Post by Soporsche »

Great write up and another fine result Gary!👍
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Re: I love a good mod, and this is subtle, but *so* much work...

Post by Thegreyman »

richtel wrote: Thu Apr 15, 2021 7:56 am Thanks Gary, I enjoyed reading that! You've ended up with a beautiful unique piece. Indeed the resemblence to the new Tokyo special edition is uncanny but the logo and text on the rear sapphire on the SE detract from the pleasure to be had seeing the 8800 inside like yours. It's also some £400 more expensive with a waiting list.
Agreed, and at least with the black text and minute markers, Gary's is still one of a kind.
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Re: I love a good mod, and this is subtle, but *so* much work...

Post by H0rati0 »

That Gary, is a straight bullseye. Outstanding.

And given the route to getting there, a blatant bargain.
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Re: I love a good mod, and this is subtle, but *so* much work...

Post by StrappedUp »

Like that a lot G! Superb effort. Give your watchmaker a pat on the back from us :thumbup:

As for the dial text being black, hard to notice and with the hands/markers presumably being heat-blued, they will look black a lot of the time anyway.
Can't find fault with it (size maybe :wink: ).
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Re: I love a good mod, and this is subtle, but *so* much work...

Post by ItsAliveJim »

Now that's what I call a result. It looks superb :clap:
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