A Quick Guide: The Omega Seamaster 300 including Military models.
Case refs: 165.024 and 166.024 - 1962-1969.
I owned the 'Italian' SM300 illustrated in Pic 18 for a short while and whilst carrying out some research on this watch came across an interesting posting on a French website.
For this 'Quick Guide' I started with the French posting as a base and adapted it with some very extensive additions, editing and rewriting plus changing and/or adding pics and it is designed to assist the collector in search of a Seamaster 300.
As there are many sites that cover all aspects of a SM300 such as new builds, fakes and bracelet adjustment etc. in some depth I have not included these topics.
I am certainly not an expert so am unable to verify that all the information contained is 100% correct. Given that some of the these watches are almost 50 years old it is very difficult for any guide of his type to be totally accurate.
I welcome your views and comments especially if you have further information or believe there are inaccuracies. But please don't shoot the messenger!
Wherever possible the copyright for the pics has been acknowledged.
PIC.1 - Courtesy of gemini4 (Omega Forums)
Although the Omega Vintage website states the SM300 was in their International Collection from 1962 - 1969 it probably did not reach the dealers until 1964. It was available either with a metal bracelet or leather strap.
Initially the SM300 was available as non date watch with a centre sweep second hand. The majority of non US watches used an Omega cal.552 movement with 24 jewels created in 1958. The Omega cal.550 movement with 17 jewels created in 1960 was chosen specifically for the American market, as watches that exceeded 17 jewels were subject to more tax in the US. The compromise was made in the automatic assembly, where brass bushes were used instead of jewels. The brass bushes were prone to wear, and it is not uncommon to see cal.550 movements that have had both the upper and lower automatic bridges changed to the jewelled version.
The date version was introduced in 1967 as case ref.166.024 and used an Omega cal.565 movement with 24 jewels created in 1965.
The SM300 name suggests it to be waterproof to 300 metres but the Omega Vintage website and period catalogues list it as waterproof to 660 feet or 200 metres.
Ω Cases.
The bezel is 40mm in diameter on a 42mm case excluding the crown.
The case 13mm thick including the height of the domed crystal.
Lug to lug it is 47.5mm with a strap width of 20mm between the lugs.
PIC.2 - Cross section of the case.
Although the vintage cases have the same thickness as the current service replacement cases they appear thinner due to the shape of the lug ends.
After studying the logos inside SM300 cases it appears that Huguenin Frères Pic 6 produced the early cases and then Centrale Boîtes S.A., Pic 7 produced most of the rest. The earliest Huguenin Frères case I have seen was dated 1963. Some of the later cases were produced by other companies including Piquerez whose logo is illustrated in Pic 3 inside a 145.024 case back.
PIC.3 - Copyright: chronomaddox.com
With the exception of the crown which changed late '67 early '68 the case shape and dimensions did not change during production. However there are sometimes slight differences in the profiles especially between the different manufactures. A variation in the rehault which surrounds the outer dial has also been noted. The majority of the rehaults are highly polished steel as seen in Pic 1 but some SM300s have a dark coloured rehault with a matt finish as seen is Pic 4.
PIC.4 - Copyright: virro (Omega Forums)
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Originally Posted by drhexagon
