# Equivalent Cost Of Early Omega Quartz Watches In Todayâ€™s Money!



## dickstar1977 (Feb 4, 2008)

Hi guys

Not even been born in the mid 1970â€™s I thought I would do a bit of research in to comparative cost of some of my watches in todayâ€™s money!

I have been carrying out some geeky research today and using information from my own hard copy brochures, the â€œold-omegaâ€ website and the â€œmeasuring worthâ€ website to calculate the equivalent value of some of the early quartz Omega watches in todayâ€™s money. The results as you can see below are pretty staggering:

The result are based on the original brochure price (in Â£) against the comparative prices for 2006 (late as the website goes). They are worked out on the average wages (in Â£) which it is indicated is the best comparative measure:

Omega Time Computer 2 (1975) Â£3313 today

Omega Megaquartz 32Khz on leather (1974) Â£3555 today

Omega Megaquartz F2.4 in SS (1975) Â£5529 today

Omega Marine Chronometer in SS (1975) Â£6966 today

Omega Electroquartz SS (1973) Â£4500 today

Omega Electroquartz 18K Gold (1973) Â£15683 today

Omega Albatros (chrono â€" quartz) (1976) Â£2971 today

Omega Speedmaster Moon watch (1975) Â£1135 today

Omega SM1000 (1976) Â£1980 today

Not 100% accurate I am sure but a pretty fun exercise to carry out! Either way these puppies were not cheap!!! In fact if you compare them to the equivalent mechanical versions the electronics where incomprehensively more expensive!! Odd taking in to account what they are worth now and what an SM1000 is worth now!!!

Example: 1975 and 1976 Omega UK catalogue lists:

TC2 (1975): Â£362

MQ2.4 SS (1975): Â£604

MC (1975): Â£761

Moon Watch Speedmaster (1975): Â£124

SM1000 (1976): Â£250

If I had bought the electronic Omega watches I own now back then I would have needed to spend the equivalent of Â£15500 worth of todayâ€™s money!

I wish my dad had bough half a dozen SM1000â€™s back then! Jesus I would have made a killing with todayâ€™s values! You could have bought 8 SM1000â€™s for the cost of 1 18K gold Electroquartz!!! Just think about that for a moment.

Have fun Cheers Tom


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## mrteatime (Oct 25, 2006)

what was the average earning then tho? is it a relative then as it is today?


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## dickstar1977 (Feb 4, 2008)

I understand it is the comparative of then and today taking to account things like inflation so the prices are pretty accurate in that they would cost if you went in to a shop now and bought them with todays money in 2006


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## dickstar1977 (Feb 4, 2008)

So basically it is the cost then translated in to the equivalent cost now! So what a Â£ was worth/ would buy/ you earned then in comparison to what it is worth! Numbers never was my strong suit! not good when I handle a multi million pound budget lol


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## KEITHT (Dec 2, 2007)

I'm rich, i'm rich...haahhhhaaaah..well retrospectively speaking that is!

I am sure i can use this info to persuade the 710 that more electronic watches are required....

Nice one Tom...i will try to add some info as i find it, perhaps we could start a pinned list to encompass all watches...for instance i i just picked up a Heuer Carrera 45 Dato...cost in 1963 $30+ todays value, not really sure but a lot more than that!!!

Keith


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## dickstar1977 (Feb 4, 2008)

Hey mate, sounds like a plan









God I love that website!

According to the website I found the dollar to dollar converstion indicates:

The equivilant cost of your Heuer in todays money would be:

$241 or approximately Â£120.50!!!

Bet it's worth a touch more than that now!!!! lol I don't remember seeing any Heuer Carerra's in Ernest Jones that are that reasonably priced! unless you add a zero that is! lol

Tom


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## dickstar1977 (Feb 4, 2008)

Here's a good one!

In 1973 a Ploprof would set you back Â£145 or

Â£1977 in todays money!!

Could have bought three or four for the price of a marine Chronometer! Cheap tat lol

Only kidding


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## Toshi (Aug 31, 2007)

Interesting Tom.

Where did you get the brochure prices from - and were the prices in GBP already?

I thought about trying to work out the equivilent cost of the Electroquartz when I got it, but the only "original price" I could find was CHF2050 in 1972. Problem was I couldn't find the exchange rate in 1972 to see what that was in GBP.

The lack of exchange rates in 1972 hindered my plan, but based on the fact that in 1973 a Ploprof was CHF690 I came the conclusion they were bloody expensive









Rich


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## dickstar1977 (Feb 4, 2008)

Lol

Rich, I am very envious of your electroquatz, definately gonna get me one!

There is a certain irony that the electroquartz was five times more expensive than the ploprof new, now you can pick them up for Â£250 - Â£500 and the ploprofs cost ten times that! It's a funny old world!

Cheers Tom


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## adrian (May 23, 2004)

1983 Submariner 490Â£


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## dickstar1977 (Feb 4, 2008)

Â£1689 according to the magic machine!!!


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## adrian (May 23, 2004)

dickstar1977 said:


> Â£1689 according to the magic machine!!!


Â£2900 now at the dealer







(US price and xe.com currency converter)


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## dickstar1977 (Feb 4, 2008)

Times change! lol!


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## JonW (Mar 23, 2005)

Good work Tom. It always amuses me that people paid those prices, but maybe there were a few discounts involved 

The one that strikes me is the moon watch was so little money. You'd think Omega has made millions of em now that the manufacturing assets are all sweated and they could sell for just the profit percentage... hmm, just shows what Omega makes on sales of those now... LOL

Whilst Im a huge fan of the innovation the Swiss put into these early quartz I do feel that considering the prices, you gotta admit that the Swiss rode the quartz wave well for a while and maybe took the pee a little. No wonder it made total sense for the Asian manufacturers to sweep in with cut price quartz, the market was ripe for a fall.


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## dickstar1977 (Feb 4, 2008)

Hey Jon

Thanks for the comments, was a fun thing to do! I agree completely with what you are saying! I just couldn't get my head around the cost of an SM1000 against that of a TC2 (with a very cheap looking solid state module). That said some of the quartz stuff especially from Omega like Beta21's early 32Khz and MQ2.4's must have had enormous manufacturing costs! The official answer I got about Bienne no longer serviced 2.4's is that the circuits and parts are too expensive to manufacture! and this is 40 years later!!!

Interesting stuff though!


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## chris l (Aug 5, 2005)

_"Moon Watch Speedmaster (1975): Â£124 "_

Oh, God, I could have afforded that, if I'd known then that they existed. I was 19 and earning very good money; Â£54.14 a week! Then I wouldn't have had to buy all these others.....

So how is it that 33 years on I can't afford one?


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## artistmike (May 13, 2006)

This cost Â£195 back in 1976 ! I worked out what that was worth then relatively and it was very scary!


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## Flashharry (Feb 20, 2007)

Toshi said:


> Interesting Tom.
> 
> Where did you get the brochure prices from - and were the prices in GBP already?
> 
> ...


Â£/CHF in 1972 was approx 9.43 so the Electroquartz ws Â£ 217.40

Â£/CHF in 1973 was approx 8.25 so the ploprof was Â£83.63 !!

GBP/CHF was at 9.99 at the end of 1971, then 8.88 at the end of 1972, then 7.54 end 1973, 5.99 end 1974, 5.32 end 1975, 4.19 end 1976, 3.82 end 1977....FYI


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## JonW (Mar 23, 2005)

Ahh happy days.... still if you bought any of em in the late 80s they were peanuts, we were all too interested in AniDigis '....


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## Flashharry (Feb 20, 2007)

These are the correct end of year GBP/CHF FX rates

07-Dec	2.2503

06-Dec	2.3878

05-Dec	2.2636

04-Dec	2.1876

03-Dec	2.2127

02-Dec	2.2272

01-Dec	2.4161

Dec-00	2.4057

Dec-99	2.5704

Dec-98	2.2799

Dec-97	2.4173

Dec-96	2.2993

Dec-95	1.7894

Dec-94	2.0491

Dec-93	2.1967

Dec-92	2.2167

Dec-91	2.5355

Dec-90	2.4646

Dec-89	2.4849

Dec-88	2.7201

Dec-87	2.398

Dec-86	2.3928

Dec-85	2.9767

Dec-84	3.012

Dec-83	3.1628

Dec-82	3.2481

Dec-81	3.424

Dec-80	4.2703

Dec-79	3.5385

Dec-78	3.3072

Dec-77	3.821

Dec-76	4.163

Dec-75	5.304

Dec-74	5.9719

Dec-73	7.5504

Dec-72	8.8536

Dec-71	9.9903


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## KEITHT (Dec 2, 2007)

Been doing a bit of additional research, mainly concerning Omega electronics around the early to mid 70's.

It comes as no surprise, that with each leap foward in accuracy and reliabilty comes a leap up in price.

So ignoring the short lived/limited production movemnents ( apologies but it just confuses things more)

First up the *f300* initally 50-75% dearer than a comparable mechcanical, next several years later the *Megasonic* prices up 30-40% on the *f300's* and then as the 70's progresses the *Megaquartz 32 *increasing again at around 40% of Megasonic prices

This making them nearly twice as dear as say a *Ploprof* or a *Speedsonic*, and thats just a basic SS date only on a strap.

The gap between the different movement types tends to stay roughly the same over the production years, although *f300* prices do seem to slip slightly. The extra premium you would have paid for goldplated models is quite surprising.

The point to this little exercise is this question

Whats the cheapest to buy now ( in most cases) and most accurate of all these watches..... ?

Yes of course..the very expensive when new *Megaquartz 32*, get em soon boys if you want em!! The secret won't last forever.

Keith


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## Agent orange (Feb 11, 2006)

KEITHT said:


> Whats the cheapest to buy now ( in most cases) and most accurate of all these watches..... ?
> 
> Yes of course..the very expensive when new *Megaquartz 32*, get em soon boys if you want em!! The secret won't last forever.
> 
> Keith


Phew, glad I bagged these two before the word gets out










Strangely enough a got this just before Omegamania sent prices crazy










And this just before JonW blew our little secret 


















Probably my only examples of preceding the market though, I usually **** up royally














.

Cheers,

Gary


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## KEITHT (Dec 2, 2007)

Agent orange said:


> Probably my only examples of preceding the market though, I usually **** up royally
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Rubbish Gary, i've seen your box of fuckups....not bad for doing it all wrong.

Trends change so does fashion, there will always be something around the corner. I'd given up looking for 2 of my wants...due to prices and fierce competition......then in the last 2 days both have fallen in my lap for very reasonable







prices.

Keep that chin up Gary, your Gucci Quartz grail will turn up one day









Keith


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## JonW (Mar 23, 2005)

PMSL!

I agree Keith... the MQ 32s are stupidly cheap these days... In fact any of the similar aged early quartz's represent execellent value for money... sigh... we should delete this post really... we'll never be able to buy em from now on


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## DaveE (Feb 24, 2003)

Very interesting.







I suppose emerging technology tends to be expensive with the R&D costs recouped in the long term.


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## mach 0.0013137 (Jan 10, 2005)

It amazed me how much this would have cost today if sold at the same relative price, somewhere in the region of Â£2K









* Omega Megaquartz 32 Khz, cal.1310 8 Jewels circa mid 1970s*










Mind you I thought it was rather special even before I discovered how much it originally cost and often find it making it`s way onto my wrist


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## Toshi (Aug 31, 2007)

mach 0.0013137 said:


> It amazed me how much this would have cost today if sold at the same relative price, somewhere in the region of Â£2K
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I really must get myself a gold watch - that looks good









Rich


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## Agent orange (Feb 11, 2006)

Toshi said:


> I really must get myself a gold watch - that looks good
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I think the same every time I see Mike's Seamaster at the top of the page. Even though I'm not a fan of gold I just love that watch







.

Cheers,

Gary


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## KEITHT (Dec 2, 2007)

Agent orange said:


> Toshi said:
> 
> 
> > I really must get myself a gold watch - that looks good
> ...


PM me guys, i have several GP f300's, Megaquartz's about to join my cull!









Keith


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## mach 0.0013137 (Jan 10, 2005)

Toshi said:


> mach 0.0013137 said:
> 
> 
> > It amazed me how much this would have cost today if sold at the same relative price, somewhere in the region of Â£2K
> ...


Thanks Rich, it definitely has wrist presence


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## dickstar1977 (Feb 4, 2008)

Hey

It's staggering what these watches cost new but then don't foget they were cutting edge technology in a time when LED was an utter revolution and microchips only existed in the space programme. We all take for granted quartz technology now but in the early 70's it was the hieght of technology!

I love all of those 70's Omega's, all design classics IMHO! Mark my words chaps, ploprof's and the likes have become un-attainable for most (and I still feel are over priced lol), the 70's and 80's are having a major revival in fashion and these lovely watches will soon start to be recognised! Look how much SMF300's are now compared to last year! MQ32Khz are a fab piece of technology, were massively expensive new, are build like a tank, they genuinely are undervalued!!!!!

People harp on about how rare speedmaster 125's (2000 made) and pre moons are, about how sought after plo profs are, but in their day they were the chaeper watches. By that account the MQ's were made in small numbers and bought as treasured pieces! IF you keep your eye's peeled you can still but NOS MQ's, how many other NOS vintage Omega's do you see?










All I will say is 1000 MQ2.4's 1510's made! The defense rests!!!


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## diponline (Feb 5, 2010)

Hi Tom,

Still have the Omega Time Computer for sale?

I'm interested.

You can mail me at [email protected]

Regards, Rob


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## gaz64 (May 5, 2009)

Prices in Swiss francs

cal 865 geneve chronostop 195-200 depending on dial

Cal 771 constellation 555.- (on leather)

Also available in 18K solid gold (yellow = BA, pink = BB, white = BC) and 14K goldcap with SS case back (yellow = CD, pink = CE) . Respective prices : CHF 1'450.-, 1'450.-, 1'990.-, 655.-, 655.-.

Cal 1250 f300 geneve chronometer SS 515 14k gold plate 530 Â


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