Omega

Hello everyone,

This is my first post on this forum however I have been a member of MWR (the 'Military Watch Resource') for close to seven years. Bill has asked me to re-post a contribution I made to MWR the other day and I hope you find it to be of some interest....

I knew the 'HA-60' RCAF Omega existed… Bill Sohne has an excellent example of this watch, in fact Bill Sohne is the only person I know of who has one. Yes, there are other examples of RCAF Omega which have been documented on this site but these have all been the 'HA-62' variant. What's the difference between the two? Well, the 'HA-60' is what I believe to either be a 1960 issue or (what I believe more) a 1960 contract RCAF Omega and the HA-62 is likely the 1962 issue or contract. The 1960 version is about 36mm wide with an 18mm lug width, while the 1962 version is roughly 38mm wide with a 20mm lug width.

So when Stephen out in Alberta, Canada came on to the forum and announced that he'd had stashed away an RCAF Omega in his basement for the past twenty years, my ears pricked up but only slightly. As it turns out, the watch had been returned with other military items to the military stores in Edmonton in the 1980s and this Omega chronograph was left to be trashed or sold for junk. The only thing which kept this watch from becoming landfill was that a friend of Stephen's at the stores, knowing that Stephen's dad was a watchmaker, gave Stephen this Omega chrono thingamabob which Stephen never got around to actually giving to his dad. Fast forward twenty years and you have Stephen developing an interest in old watches, stumbling upon MWR, and inquiring about any info about this old RCAF chronograph wristwatch of his. Why was I not so terribly excited about this watch? It had the fugliest redial you could ever come across on a vintage chrono, see for yourself:

At the same time, our own Martin (who I consider both friend and enemy to my chequing account) points out an Ebay Canada auction with an outlandish BIN price for… an RCAF Omega dial. An almost perfect example, see for yourself:

I don't think I need to tell anyone here that the chances of finding a mint and original RCAF Omega dial are about as high as coming across Rudolph and the eight other reindeer and also that coming across a 1960 RCAF Omega, even one with a tremendously awful redial, is almost as preposterous. But there the twain was, was I to make it meet or not. "Make Stephen an offer on his watch," Martin, the enemy to my chequing account, said. Make Stephen an offer…. and all the while, the Ebay listing was floating on the interweb, ready for anyone in the world to take it at its BIN price.

I don't like to gamble, I hate it really, nor do I see much point in playing the lottery and horse betting just leaves me cold. Despite any of this I followed through with the BIN on the dial, and got in touch with Stephen and let the chips (or watch parts) fall where they may. I would either fall flat on my face with a watch dial that would collect dust until another RCAF Omega watch came along or maybe I'd acquire Stephen's watch… who knew.

As it turned out Stephen's a nice guy, a family guy, looking to earn a little money for a snowblower and with no interest to keep or wear the RCAF Omega watch. I made him an offer which he felt guilty accepting; but I made it clear to him that this was his "Antiques Roadshow" moment. Two days later, Stephen contacted me and one bank transfer later – the watch was enroute to me.

Out of pure luck, both watch and dial are received by me on the same day. It will now be up to my watchmaker to overhaul the movement, give a light and very sympathetic case refinishing and try to keep that cracked dried up luminous paint from falling out of the hands.

That fugly redial could actually be an RCAF sanctioned (or endorsed) redial. Although the configuration and the art deco numerals exhibit a whole lot of artistic licence on the part of the redialer, it has that tell-tale texture of an RCAF redial – the white surface is slightly bumpy with miniature lumps, just like an egg shell.

Despite my admiration for RCAF chronograph wristwatches, my pet peeve is a sweep second hand which is painted red. I believe that these RCAF Omega watches, unlike the Rodania version, did not necessarily leave the factory with red sweep seconds hands but had this done by the RCAF. Therefore either a black or darkened blue steel sweep second hand is just as 'correct' as a red hand in my opinion. As such, the red sweep second hand is now in a plastic bag along with the sub-register hands which were of a size that was in accordance to the art deco redial… but were not long enough to reach the indices of the original Omega dial's sub-dials… the gone but preserved casualties of the restoration:

The movement of the watch was in great shape and what's important to note about the Omega calibre 2221, and this watch in general, is that it is actually a Lemania wristwatch which has been signed Omega. The movement serial number is Lemania as is the case reference and the dial is virtually identical to the asymmetrical British issue Lemania chronograph wristwatches. The Omega calibre 2221 was only used in these RCAF Omega watches and the only difference between it and the Lemania calibre 2220 is that the 2221 has a hacking mechanism; quite an ingenious mechanism actually. Rather than being a strip of metal that goes onto the edge of the balance wheel to make it stop and thus 'hack', like the Smiths W10 for example, this mechanism hooks on to the roller (underneath the balance wheel) when the crown is pulled… and the 'hooking/hacking' lever is shaped in such a way that when it is released, it gives a push to the roller. This means that the balance can immediately swing at almost full amplitude as soon as the hacking mechanism is disengaged. Unfortunately, this is very difficult to photograph and thus document.

So here is the Omega calibre 2221 which, despite it being signed Omega, has a Lemania serial number in the 1,300,000 range which would date production to roughly 1960.

And here we have the inner caseback which is signed Omega, but don't be fooled '33' is a Lemania case reference number:

And here we have the RCAF caseback engravings:

And now, the watch head:

In order to ensure that the luminous paint would remain intact in the hands, my watchmaker applied a thin layer of glue to the back of these (I'm sure the bonding agent has a fancier name than 'glue' but that's what he referred to it being). According to anecdote, these RCAF chronograph wristwatches were – it's believed – issued on black one-piece nylon straps, similar or perhaps identical to those used on US issue wristwatches. Of course, RCAF members could certainly have put on any strap they pleased and, judging by the markings on the back of the lugs, they most certainly did in the case of this watch.

And finally, the joy of a restoration project is to wear the watch. The case shape is hard to describe or even show in image form – but this watch probably has one of the more aesthetically pleasing case shapes of any chronograph wrist watch I've yet come across: Speedmaster and British issue Lemania be damned.

I hope you've enjoyed the ride, I certainly did and I'm even happier to add this watch to my collection and to have documented this project and shared this with everyone here.

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For Don Aldo's original post in Omega forum, please CLICK HERE