Omega Seamaster 300 Ref. 165.024 (vintage)

From the 1957 trilogy to a true tool

Omega's diving lineage reaches back to the Omega Marine of 1932, the brand's first real diver's watch. The Seamaster name arrived in 1948, based on designs made for the British Royal Navy at the end of the Second World War, and its key feature was an O-ring gasket developed for submarines. In 1955 diver Gordon McLean took a Seamaster to 62.5 meters off Australia.

In 1957 Omega introduced three professional watches at once: the Speedmaster, the Railmaster and the Seamaster 300. To save cost they shared base components, including cases and hands. The first Seamaster 300, reference CK 2913, measured 39 mm, with straight lugs, a thin 60-minute bezel and broad arrow hands. It was officially rated to 200 meters because that was as deep as testing equipment of the time could verify; collector research notes tests equivalent to 300 meters without water getting in, hence the name.

The model evolved through reference CK 14.755 and ST 165.014 before reaching ST 165.024, which a leading collector study dates to 1963-64 and another account dates from 1963 to 1969. One auction catalog says the reference launched in 1962. The 165.024 kept no date; its sibling 166.024 added one at 3 o'clock.

Lyre lugs, sword hands and a softer bezel

The 165.024 was the first Seamaster 300 with the twisted lyre lugs that still define the line, on a redesigned asymmetric case that replaced the symmetrical case of the 165.014. It also introduced a conventional bezel insert in place of the CK 2913's split-level arrangement. The insert is acrylic resin with a luminous triangle and raised luminous numerals; a bezel that is luminous all over is usually a later service part.

Its dial evolved during production. Early dials have a small triangle at 12. Broad sword hands arrived around 1965-66 by one account and 1966-67 by another, together with the 'big triangle' dial that collectors now prize. The crystal is a triple-layer hesalite with the Omega logo at its center. Early cases used Omega's Naiad crown, sealed with thick gaskets rather than screwed down, and the whole run had moved to screw-down crowns by 1968.

The movement is caliber 552, a 24-jewel automatic that came from Omega's 1955 purchase of the Marc Favre factory and its full-rotor design. Produced from 1958, it beats at 19,800 vibrations per hour and was rated for about 50 hours of reserve. The date-bearing 166.024 used caliber 565, which added a quick-set date.

Cases came first from Huguenin S.A. in Le Locle, the main supplier from 1963 to about 1966-67, and later from Fabrique la Centrale in Bienne. Casebacks are stamped either 'Acier Staybrite' or 'Acier Inoxydable,' reflecting a change of steel supplier. Bracelets such as the 1506 (about 1964-66) and later 1039 and 1035 styles were offered, along with a tropic rubber strap.

Issued by the Ministry of Defence

Between 1967 and 1971 the British Ministry of Defence took delivery of Seamaster 300s for the Royal Navy and the Army. The two batches differed only in the branch code on the back: '0552' for the Navy and 'W10' for the Army. Most known examples went to the Navy. The military watches differ from civilian 165.024s in their fixed bars between the lugs for a strap, an encircled 'T' on the dial for tritium lume, oversized mil-spec hands and a screw-down crown.

The caseback engraving reads like a code. On one Army example sold in Geneva, the first line carries the broad arrow that marks British military property, 'W10' identifies the Army, '6645' a time-measuring instrument, '99' the United Kingdom's NATO code, '923-7697' the diver's watch, 'A/030' the issue number, and '67' the year of issue. That catalog adds that such watches were used most notably by the Special Air Service.

One Navy watch carries a documented service life. On February 26, 1970, Royal Navy diver J.B. Fisher of HMS Hubberston was preparing to dive on an aircraft wreck some 60 feet down near Okinawa. His Seamaster 300 had been delivered to the Navy in 1968, and his personal dive log survives with it; a December 15, 1969 entry records a 'search of a lost watch.' How he kept the watch is unknown. One theory is that he reported it lost around the time the Ministry decided, in 1971, to replace the Seamaster 300 with the Rolex Military Submariner.

Military examples are much rarer than civilian ones, and collectors pay accordingly. An Army 'W10' watch made April 3, 1967, sold at auction in Geneva in May 2021 for CHF 69,300 against an estimate of CHF 30,000 to 50,000. A military-issue 165.024 from about 1966 sold at auction in London on June 19, 2025, for GBP 11,520 including premium.

Saturation divers and the Comex question

The French diving company Comex, founded in 1961 by Henry Delauze, pioneered very deep saturation diving starting with Hydra 1 in 1968. Collector research holds that when Comex began testing watches in 1967, the Seamaster 300 was its watch of choice for early exploration.

That research reproduces an early Comex invoice for 34 watches: 30 Seamaster 300s in reference 166.024 with caliber 565, and four Seamaster 1000s. Its author uses the invoice to dispute the common claim that Omega supplied only eleven watches to Comex. These are the dated 166.024, not the 165.024 profiled here, and this page does not take a side in the wider Comex debate.

From service watch to blue chip

Civilian examples trade far below military ones. In online sales in New York, a circa-1967 165.024 on a bracelet, with an Omega archive extract confirming manufacture on August 7, 1967, for South Africa, brought $6,875 on November 7, 2018. A circa-1967 'big triangle' example on a bracelet sold for $5,250 on March 12, 2019.

Condition and originality drive everything. Bezels, hands and even whole movements were often swapped during service, so collectors check the bezel font against the production year, the hands against the dial style, and the movement number against the case. A 1968 example offered at auction in 2020 carried a catalog note that it was manufactured February 27, 1968, and delivered to what the catalog calls the 'US Marine 6th Fleet Base,' the kind of archive detail that separates one 165.024 from another.

The reference's look lives on. Reviewers comparing a 1966 example with the 2021 'No Time to Die' Seamaster note the same matte black dial, warm-toned lume and broad hands, now achieved on purpose rather than by sixty years of tropical aging.

The numbers

Reference

ST 165.024 (no date); sibling 166.024 with date

Caliber

Omega 552, automatic, 24 jewels, 19,800 vph, about 50-hour power reserve

Case

Stainless steel (Staybrite or Acier Inoxydable), lyre lugs, 20 mm lug width; diameter given as 40, 41 or 42 mm by different sources

Crystal

Triple-layer hesalite with central Omega logo

Water resistance

Rated 200 m

Production years

About 1963/64 to 1969

Military issue

1967 to about 1971, Royal Navy ('0552') and Army ('W10')

Production numbers

Not published

Timeline

1. 1932

   Omega introduces the Omega Marine, its first true diver's watch.

2. 1948

   The Seamaster line is introduced, with an O-ring gasket seal.

3. 1955

   Omega buys the Marc Favre factory and its full-rotor automatic design; diver Gordon McLean takes a Seamaster to 62.5 meters.

4. 1957

   Omega launches the Speedmaster, Railmaster and Seamaster 300 (CK 2913) as a professional trilogy.

5. 1958

   Omega produces the caliber 552 automatic, later used in the 165.024.

6. 1962

   Reference ST 165.014 is in production; one catalog dates the 165.024's launch to this year.

7. 1963

   Reference ST 165.024 enters production, with cases from Huguenin S.A. of Le Locle (collector studies give 1963 or 1963-64).

8. 1965

   Sword hands are introduced during production (around 1965-66 or 1966-67, by different accounts), with the 'big triangle' dial.

9. 1967

   The British Ministry of Defence begins taking delivery of military Seamaster 300s; Comex begins testing watches.

10. Apr 3, 1967

    An Army 'W10' example is produced; it sells in Geneva in 2021 for CHF 69,300.

11. 1968

    All Seamaster 300s now use screw-down crowns; J.B. Fisher's watch is delivered to the Royal Navy.

12. 1969

    Production of the 165.024 ends.

13. Feb 26, 1970

    Royal Navy diver J.B. Fisher prepares to dive on an aircraft wreck near Okinawa.

14. 1971

    The Ministry of Defence decides to replace the Seamaster 300 with the Rolex Military Submariner.

15. May 2017

    Fisher's watch and dive log are offered at public auction for the first time.

16. Nov 7, 2018

    A 1967 example made for South Africa sells online in New York for $6,875.

17. Mar 12, 2019

    A circa-1967 'big triangle' example sells online in New York for $5,250.

18. Jun 19, 2025

    A military example from about 1966 sells at auction in London for GBP 11,520.

The world in 1967

• Jan 27, 1967

  The Apollo 1 fire kills astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee; the same day the U.S., USSR and UK sign the Outer Space Treaty.

• Apr 27, 1967

  Expo 67 opens in Montreal for Canada's centennial.

• May 26, 1967

  The Beatles release Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in the UK.

• Jun 5, 1967

  The Six-Day War begins.

• Jun 25, 1967

  About 400 million viewers watch Our World, the first live international satellite TV broadcast.

• Nov 18, 1967

  The British pound is devalued from $2.80 to $2.40.

• Dec 3, 1967

  Christiaan Barnard performs the first human heart transplant in Cape Town.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Omega Seamaster 300 Ref. 165.024 (vintage) is number 96 of 100 in the watches entries of the FLOAT 100. 54 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (53 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The 'broad arrow' on a military 165.024 is engraved on the caseback as the mark of British government property; broad arrow hands belonged to the earlier CK 2913.
• The Seamaster 300 was named for 300 meters but officially rated to 200, the most that period testing equipment could verify.
• Early Huguenin-made cases sometimes omit the dot between '165' and '024' in the reference stamp.
• Omega's American-market versions of the 552 were cut to 17 jewels to stay under U.S. import tariff thresholds.
• Hesalite crystals like the Seamaster 300's do not shatter into shards, one reason the same material was trusted in the Speedmaster for space.
• Movements were often swapped whole at service, so a 165.024's movement number may not match its true production date.