Single Family-Owned 165.024 Omega Seamaster 300

When you’ve stared at near endless examples of the same reference, some watches jump off the screen as utterly honest. They make your heart melt, to the extent that an inanimate object can have a soul, they do. The longer a watch has lived on the wrist of its owner, just going about day-to-day life, the more deep this charisma grows. And when the provenance is so clear that the watch comes with a letter from the son of the original purchaser in 1967 (for $100 I might add) and it’s been only been two wrists from one family, passed down, it glows brighter than Alicia Vikander with a tan.

This 165.024 (the second iteration ever of the no-date Seamaster 300, sans big triangle) was purchased by a second lieutenant of the US Army at a base in South Korea in 1967. The $100 sticker price was about a third of the man’s monthly salary, but he loved watches. From that day on, he is said to have worn it regularly for twenty years though military and civilian life. He then gave it to his son when he was a teenager. When the father saw his son treated it with less-than-due respect (finding it under the seat of the teenager’s car when cleaning), he took it back and wore it another twenty years. Then, once this teenager had matured to the ripe age of 50, it was re-gifted. It’s now being moved on to help pay for the next generation’s college education. Quite the life of service this Seamaster has endured in its 56 years. And it’s so much better for it.

The result is honest, even, and beautiful wear. Near-pumpkin tritium. Light marks across the crystal. A dial faded from black to dark grey. Miraculously, its bakelite bezel is uncracked with a brilliant matching golden lume. This particular Seamaster reference has endured an onslaught of replacement parts from WatchCo, which proliferated through many examples. Despite not being a particularly uncommon watch, finding one that hasn’t been messed about with is a tall order. It’s every bit the watch a 5513 or vintage Fifty Fathoms is, only slightly less collected for the length and quantity of production.

Last time a great one came up, I quoted AA Gill, my favorite food critic. It seems particularly appropriate here. He once said that the quality of the food in a restaurant is inversely proportional to the splendor of the view. The structure of this dichotomy applies very well to hype watches equally, where the intrigue of the watchmaking or beauty of the example is, often, inversely proportional to the amount of hype surrounding the reference. The 165.024 is almost hypeless. And it’s also utterly perfect. Particularly this one; just the sort of watch we all adore.

The HF case is unpolished, full and worn, on its original 1039 bracelet. The dial is equally exceptional, one of the best hard worn and lovely tritium dials you’ll find anywhere. Even that giant sword hand has retained all its lume. It comes recently serviced from a well-regarded Omega specialist US retailer and collector, with an Extract of Archive.