Omega

flawless51
49

• Show profile
• Show other posts

Another Geneve Dynamic

I purchased my Geneve Dynamic the other day, and just noticed the beautiful variation in Hagen's post, so I figure I'll share my own story.

My uncle has a Geneve Dynamic purchased in 1973 at an airport in Switzerland, and he had been wearing it every day up until around 2007 when he switched to a quartz watch. The Omega was put into retirement. I was a little saddened when he stopped wearing it, as it was part of some of my earliest memories, and triggered my interest in watches. As a child I would always shake it to listen to it winding, as he explained how it worked. 

His Omega always struck me as particularly elegant. It was a later model with a polished case, and had a silver and burgundy dial with roman numerals, date-only. It was worn on the original bracelet. It's on his wrist in every photo in each decade. I have a photo of the watch somewhere.

He was always very hard on the watch, once even dropping it into the washing machine. Despite it holding up to the abuse quite well, he did end up sending it to Omega quite a few times (which inevitably resulted in it having its non-original hands). When he stopped wearing it, he explained to me that this was the reason why; he didn't want to have to keep sending it for repair.

We did a little research on the forums, and this is when I first delved into Omega's history and started learning about their movements. At the time I concluded that perhaps the watch was a bit troublesome because it was using an "unreliable" 10xx series movement, as opposed to a cal. 5xx. I now realize that the real problem was most likely the watch's strenuous life, and that there are plenty of 10xx movements still ticking today.

I started looking at Geneve Dynamics at the time, and was impressed by the variety. I was dead-set on getting one with a 5xx movement, especially after reading their rave reviews. But I couldn't find one that looked as elegant as my uncle's, so I put the idea to rest.

A couple of years ago I discovered a series of Geneve Dynamics that were exactly what I wanted. They had matte dials, raised hour markers, and raised logo. I wanted one that was automatic like my uncle's, and also date-only. On the bracelet of course. These seemed particularly rare. They seemed to come in 2 dial colours: black (with an red second hand), and dark blue (with a sky blue second hand). They each were each available with 2 types of hour markers: long and thin, or wider ones that were partially textured (crosshatched and indented).

I knew the perfect one would would be the navy blue version with the textured hour markers. This was my ultimate Geneve Dynamic. However, it was nearly impossible to find! I scoured eBay every day for 2 years, along with all of the major forums, and shops. A couple weeks ago I finally found it, and immediately bought it. It looks in great condition, and even has the little Omega logo in the middle of the hesalite crystal. It needs servicing, since it's behaving strangely. It was running extraordinarily fast on the first day I had it, and on the second day it was keeping perfect time. Now once again it is running fast. 

So I just need to find a reliable watchmaker here in Spain, but at least the elusive blue Geneve Dynamic is in my hands.

Excuse my poor photography. The markers are actually very polished and reflective.