zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

Features of a Seamaster Automatic Date Posted By: Lou Date: 3/15/08 20:15:52 GMT

I have had the great fortune to purchase a c '1975 Omega Seamaster Automatic Calendar, 1040, that, completely unbeknownst to me, formerly belonged to my deceased son.

Hello Lou,

My condolences on the loss of your son. I am a "Third", and I lost my father, Chuck Jr. about five and a half years before I lost my grandfather, Senior. While I don't have a son of my own, I know that losing a child is probably the toughest thing most folks will likely ever go through.

No one in the family remembers it, but it came to light recently and I now have it. Has his name and SS on the back.

An amazing story. Where did you ever find it?

I hope some day his young son might be interested in having it.

That sounds like a wonderful plan!

Of course, I don't have any papers or instructions at all, and there's no one here who can assist me.

Well, I wouldn't go that far... I can help you, I believe...

The c.1040 was not only used on the Seamaster Automatic Date chronographs in the 1970's it was also used in the Speedmaster Mark III, Mark III Professional, Mark IV Professional and the Speedmaster 125. I just so happen to have scans of an Instruction sheet for "Omega Automatic Chronographs" on my website... For your convience I have included both sides of the scans here:

Clicking on the picture will open a new window with a 1280 x 800 pixel version of the picture

Clicking on the picture will open a new window with a 1280 x 800 pixel version of the picture

What I would recommend doing is clicking on each of those pictures and then printing out the resulting scans in landscape mode on a quality printer. That way you'll have a copy of the instructions.

At 9:00 on the dial, there is a sub-dial with two indicators, a continuously operating white one, the second hand, I'm sure, and a small orange pointer on another function dial below the white hand, with markings of 6, 12, 18, and 24 and other 2 hour interval marks. The upper half of this sub-dial is light blue, somewhat lighter in color than the main dial darkish blue color; the bottom half is grey. I think that represents the two halves of a day - day and night.

Something like this?:

Or something like this?:

But with a blue dial?

or possibly something like this:

But with a blue dial?

The pie plate tachmetre ring is white. It's a lovely watch, one of the very, very few chronographs I've ever seen that appeals esthetically to me. To think that this one, that appeals so much, was actually my son's, is mind-boggling.

Within the Omega collecting community the Cushion Case Seamaster c.1040 has become known as the "Ericmaster" because the moderator of our Omega Forum counterpart over at Watch-U-Seek.com has popularized this model... Here are a couple of pictures of his...

In fact, here is a thread where this model is discussed heavily and you'll see a wide variety of bracelet and strap options for the model which I suspect you own, whoops! are in custody of...

There is also a small orange pointer in the 9 position subdial that is functioning. By pulling the stem out to the second stop, and resetting, I've been able to bring the orange pointer into sync with the main hour hand.

I've never been able to change the setting of the dial pointer in the 9 o'clock subdial on my c.1040's. Either there is a feature I don't know about [and is undocumented], there is something amiss in what you're seeing or describing or there may be something wrong with your example.

Is the orange pointer simply a 24 hour clock, or could this be a second time zone indicator?

The Orange pointer is simply a 24-Hour indication.

If so, how does one set it to function so it indicates an actual time, say, in the US while the main hour hand shows an international time?

In my experience and in the printed literature I've seen, the 9 o'clock subdial indication is simply a 24-hour indicator slaved to the main timekeeping hands.

Thanks for anyone's assistance.

Hopefully I have been of some assistance!

-- Chuck

Chuck Maddox

Chronographs, like most finer things in life, only improve with time...

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