Omega

aroma
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An Old Master

I have to confess to being a naughty boy but what's a boy supposed to do when confronted by temptation!!

I've been drooling over Flightmasters and have done some research.  I'm sure most of you know that there were two 'generations' of Flightmasters - the cal 910 (145.013) which was made from 1969 to 1971 and the cal 911 which was made in two versions - 145.026 (1971 to 1972) and 145.036 (1973 to 1978).  They were in fact offspring of the famous Speedmaster but designed specifically for Aviators. 

Anyway, I managed to find a really early version of the 1st generation 145.013 - how do I know it's early?  Well, apart from the movement serial number being 29.131 million (1969) it still has the original red pushers next to the crown and has no luminous 'dots' surrounding the 12 o'clock marker.  I'm told (and correct me if I'm wrong please) that right at the very start of production of the 1st generation Flightmaster, the crown-side pushers were colour coded to the chronograph hand - i.e. red pushers for a red hand and yellow pushers for a yellow hand (yellow hands were a special option and were cadmium plated to show up in the cockpit lighting).  Shortly after the initial watches were produced, Omega changed the pusher design so that all watches had two split 'half red/half yellow' pushers and this carried on throughout the production run.

As for the dial - the official instruction manual issued with the watch shows no dots surrounding the 12 o'clock marker but very soon after production started, dots were introduced.  I have seen a 'dotted' dial on a 29.133 million movement (i.e. only about 1700 away from mine).  So, I'm a bit chuffed and here it is:

and with my other Old Masters

So how many other Masters are there - I can think of 'Globemaster', 'Railmaster'...............  that's the trouble with collecting you have to get the set - Oh dear!!