Omega

. . . and universally admired by vintage Omega aficionados, they're really not difficult to find.  Omega produced ten thousand for the US military starting in '45, not to mention those made for other markets prior to the American contract.

The American issues are identified by a slash after 2179 and a single digit production run number, from /2 to /6.  Yours, for example, is 2179/5.  I've never seen a 2179/1; my presumption is the original issues were all marked 2179, sans slash.

There's a marked difference in market value for 2179s with 'US Army' stamping on the back and those without.  The only 'US Army' stamps I've seen are on /2 and /3 references.  (Can't remember seeing a /2 or /3 without 'US Army', but can't say that configuration doesn't exist, either.)  Examples like yours and mine . . .

. . . generally trade for ~ half the price of their marked older siblings.  The absence of 'US Army' marking, though, shouldn't really have much of an impact on market value.  It's hard to believe later production runs (mine is a /4) weren't delivered to the American military, as Omega has indicated on their website that the contract was for ten thousand deliveries.  That's a lot, to put it mildly, and likely accounts for their relative availability to this day.  They may have been delivered after the war (indeed, some /6 models have copper-finished 30T2SC movements) and distributed by Post Exchanges, or even offloaded as war surplus, but they still would've been in American military inventory initially. 

The notion these later production models aren't proper military watches isn't a fair one in my humble opinion. 

Glad to see you're enjoying yours, Nicolas!

Best,

Art

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