Vintage
Simonr's discovery of his grandfather's 1941 Omega 30mm 30T2 Chronometre, rescued from a trash can, offers a compelling narrative about the unexpected finds that enrich watch collecting. His journey to authenticate and understand this rare timepiece, confirmed by Omega archives, underscores the thrill of uncovering horological history. This article delves into the unique characteristics of this pre-Rg chronometer and the community's collective effort to shed light on its significance.
. . . is another man's treasure"? You found treasure ;-) . . . As for replacement cost, I'll leave it to the more experienced Omega collectors to venture their opinions by private message; while it's perfectly alright to ask for opinions, any discussion of price or value regarding a specific watch should be held in private. Thanks for sharing this story and photos, Simon . . . cordially, Art This message has been edited by Dr No on 2011-01-02 19:27:32
Hi Simonr That is the first time I have seen a Pre-Rg chronometer that was not a sweep second model. The few that I have come across were is 35 mm steel screwback with 30T2SC movements... here is my extract , from 2001 from John at Bienne... " Dear Bill, have found the following through the archives ... * OMEGA - GENTS WRIST WATCH * mvt N° 9'245'334 * case N° 10'087'502 * manual winding movement of caliber 30 SC T2 - with special adjustment for chronometer testing 16 jewels (... and this is way
Hi Simon, Hi Bill and all the others who are interested in 30 mm Omega chronometers. This is an interesting find... And there is no doubt about the authenticity as it is well documented by Omega. As we knew already for the EARLY 30 mm chronometers (in simple watch cases which were also used for the non chronometer version): ref. 2254 with " SCREW on" back, CENTER second ref. 2244 with " PRESS on" back, CENTER second we see here: Ref. 2192 with " PRESS on" back, SUB second I think we should be pr
.. between the 2192 and the 2244 might be. Hard to imagine the factory would take the effort to reduce the casing by ~1mm just because the subsec. version is a fraction thinner than the SC movement? During WWII Omega exported a large part of it's production via Portugal - wondering if this was the final country of destination... if only grandfather was alive, maybe he could have some recollections about the watch' story. Anyway, most interesting - curious to see better photo's!
Hi Ben, yes, it is an interesting thought you have there... There are 2 explanations which may be likely: The Ref 2192 case could well have been the predecessor of ref 2244 and the case remained the same size, but was equipped with a center second movement later... and so got a new ref # to make a distinction between the 2 versions. Or the Ref. 2192 was really somewhat more slim than the 2244 case related to the flat sub second movement. Maybe Simon can take a precise measurement with a caliper
"During WWII Omega exported a large part of it's production via Portugal - wondering if this was the final country of destination?" My guess is probably not. I've received some documentation from Omega saying that some of the "U.S. Army" watches (Ref. 2179) were delivered through Portugal. I think the same may have been true for some of the WWW British military watches produced after 1939. Since Switzerland and Portugal were both neutral countries during WWII is it likely that agents in Portugal
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