Don't miss the next drop
Pick up a vintage Omega Constellation 168.004 expecting a dress watch and you have the wrong idea about it. In our opinion this was always a precision instrument that happened to dress well, and the eight stars stamped into its gold caseback medallion are the proof. Each star stands for a precision record Omega set at the Kew-Teddington and Geneva observatories, two for the chronometer trials of 1933 and 1936 and six for the first-place finishes that followed between 1945 and 1952. The Constellation line arrived in 1952 to carry that pedigree onto the wrist, and it has worn it quietly ever since.
What sits behind the medallion is the reason the line earned its name. This 168.004 runs Omega’s caliber 561, the date-equipped, chronometer-grade member of the brand’s 550 family of full-rotor automatics. Twenty-four jewels, a sweep seconds hand, a date at three, and a beat rate of 19,800 vibrations per hour, all regulated tightly enough to pass official chronometer certification before the dial was ever printed. The movement in this example is signed OMEGA WATCH CO SWISS and carries the serial 24463219, which places its birth in the mid-1960s, around 1966. The copper-toned plates have aged gracefully and the rotor still winds with the easy weight these calibers are known for.
The case is gold-capped, a solid 14k gold shell bonded over a stainless steel back rather than plated or solid gold, and it is a construction we genuinely respect: the warmth of gold where it shows, the durability of steel where it counts. It measures 35.5mm across, 41mm lug to lug, with 18mm between the lugs, which gives it real presence for a watch of this era. The inner caseback is stamped Ω OMEGA WATCH CO, FAB. SUISSE, SWISS MADE over an engine-turned finish, with the reference 168.004 at its edge, and the crown is signed with the Omega symbol. There is light honest wear to the gold across the case and bracelet, the kind that says this watch was worn rather than stored.
The dial is the part we keep coming back to. Silver and finished with a soft radial sunburst, it carries applied faceted gold baton markers, the applied Omega logo, the printed line AUTOMATIC CHRONOMETER OFFICIALLY CERTIFIED, and the Constellation script above a single applied star at six. Faceted dauphine hands and a fine sweep seconds track the time, and the date sits behind its window at three. A scatter of light age-speckling has settled across the silver, and to us that is character earned over sixty years, not a flaw to apologize for.
It arrives on its original Omega bracelet, a beads-of-rice design in 14k gold filled with the clasp stamped 14K G.F., STAINLESS STEEL HINGE, and the Omega symbol. The gold tone matches the case, and the whole package reads exactly as it should: a chronometer bought to be lived in.
Serviced in-house at OTTUHR and backed by our 2-year mechanical warranty, this Omega Constellation 168.004 is for the collector who values a genuine certified chronometer with real history over a polished-out example that has lost its years. Compact, characterful, and mechanically sound, it is the kind of watch the Constellation was built to be. Under the stars Omega measured time, and on the wrist this one still keeps it.
