The Real Omega Seamaster 145.024 "Jedi" Please Stand Up!

It doesn't happen very often that I really get excited by a watch lately. I think I just bought too many watches for that the last 12 months. It happened to me again last week when another Belgian collector showed me some of his watches that were up for sale. The guy had 10 or 12 watches spread out on a table and I immediately noticed this sublime Omega Seamaster reference 145.024. I say "sublime" though I am not sure every collector would agree on this. It's true the lume dots on the dial that were once bright orange have faded to a pale yellow, the case has plenty of little hair scratches and the bracelet is not the original 1116 with 148 ends.

But, and this is very important, the watch is "first owner", 100% original and never touched/messed with. It still has that great original case grinding with the edges razor sharp. Please notice that the case has been milled around the plexi to create a "sunken glass" effect. The plexi sits into the case instead of being on the case. Almost every 145.024 I have seen has been polished to a degree that the milled-in edge is gone. 

The bracelet might not be the original but the one that came with the watch is really not bad at all; it's a Novavit NSA bracelet with the NSA log on the clasp. Novavit ( went bankrupt in 1999 ) also made this bracelets for Heuer and can been seen on the Monaco and Silverstone models ( of course with the Heuer logo on the claps instead of the NSA logo ). In my opinion Novavit SA made the best bracelets it that period of time with a briljant mechanism in the clasp making the bracelet to adjust to the size of your wrist.

Jedi master Belth Allusis

But let's talk about this reference 145.024 and that "Jedi" story. Featuring the hand-wind calibre 861, the "jedi" received its nickname as a result of the late Chuck Maddox's passion for the star wars movies and his naming the black-cased Omega Seamaster ref. 145.0023 the "Dart Vader". While it is not known if Chuck continued with this theme and invented the terms "Jedi" and "Anakin Skywalker" for the other calibre 861 Seamasters, what is known is that he embraced and used the terms at least as a very early adaptor. Confusion about the "jedi"-name arose in 2007 when those who compiled the Omegamania catalogue reffered to the 176.005 as the so-called "Jedi". Consequently some dealers saw money in this mistake, especially since the 176.005 is much more easy to find. But let there be no mistake, the reference 145.024 is the true "Jedi".