Omega Louis Brandt II Perpetual Calendar BA175.0302 Watch Review

Hi, this is Tim of the 1916 Company. Welcome and thanks for logging on. If you love this watch, email me. Tim also at the1916company.com for purchase pricing and availability questions concerning this watch. And this watch is a fascinating piece from the 1990s in a very different era of Omega as a watch company. You were looking at the Omega Louis Brandt II Deluxe Perpetual Calendar, part of the second series of watches named after the founder of the company that would become Omega. This model was launched in 1991 and built through 1997. You're looking at reference 1750302. A handsome watch and a watch that features a complication rarely associated with the parent brand. The Louis Brandt series back in the early 1980s was designed to restate Omega's commitment to fine mechanical watchmaking and its defiance of misfortune it had experienced during the quartz crisis and didn't fully overcome until the 90s. The second Louis Brandt series launched in 1991 and ran through the late 90s, restating Omega's commitment to high-end watchmaking. And for the most part, these were precious metal dress watches incorporating either chronometer certifications or complications. And of course here, the Perpetual Calendar. Not a big watch, though it has big personality in yellow gold, 34 millimeters in diameter, 11 millimeters thick, 42.8 lug to lug with an 18 millimeter spacing between the lugs. It's funny, these watches were designed to reference the vintage era of the 40s and 50s. Great era for Omega watch production, though released in the early 90s, these now feel vintage to us from our standpoint of 2026. So let's call it Neo Vintage or New Vintage. On my wrist, you could see that it's not that big. It's got very strong lugs, but they're not all that broad at under 43 lug to lug. This watch will fit on a wrist as small as 13.5 centimeters circumference and my wrist is 16 to give you a sense of scale. I'm pulling the strap tight because it is a substantial strap, but you could see right there the reference of the watch between the lugs. It's self-emblematic of a very different era of Omega watch construction when reference numbers were between the lugs, Rolex style. You can see it's not thick and it will easily slide under a dress cuff. The strap, considerably newer than the watch. As you can see, calfskin on the bottom, no crimping, no gouging, brand new Omega factory strap, black semi-gloss. We've got a monotone stitch, sheer cut and lacquered for refinement, a fastening sort of counterweight buckle. You could see that it is made of gold, just like the watch, although not super easy to show. See, there you go. You can see that the buckle was made by Clasp & Buckle Specialist Bucellador. What I haven't quite figured out is who made this case, so let's see if we can crowdsource this one right here. Remove some of the adhesive. We had some sort of a sticker on the back of this and I've done my best to remove that for you, but who made this case GVE? It's Swiss hallmarked because the watch was made in Switzerland, so it would have had to have been Swiss hallmarked. Here's your pre-August 1st, 1995 Helvetica head hallmark right there, but a lot of times if this was made in Switzerland and it was not made by Omega or a Swatch company, you would have some sort of a guild stamp with a number in it. So GVE crowdsource this. Who do we think made that? I often know, but this one's got me puzzled. The case is quite strong. As you can see, the lugs are massive for a relatively small watch and squared off on their ends. We have pusher adjusters on both sides for the calendar system and you could see if you look carefully, it is a modular calendar. The center lines of pushers are above the center line of the crown and the watch would have been water resistant to 30 meters in its day. I would not try that today. I try to keep it absolutely dry. As you can see, we've got a sort of knife edge profile to the otherwise conical bezel giving way to a dial that includes a perpetual calendar and the signature of Louis Brandt. The founder of Omega created the General Watch Co. in the 1840s. It wasn't until 1894 that the Omega name became used routinely. So if, for example, people refer to 1994 as the centennial of Omega, you hear that a lot, especially in connection with the Tourbillon from that period. They're talking about the name, not the company. The company is quite a bit older. The dial is beautiful and it has a polished inner bezel that reflects light back onto it. We have faceted and beautifully elongated narrow dauphine style hands. You can see that the faceting makes them contrast better against the silver white dial base. And although that dial doesn't have a whole lot of texture, we do have these lovely gold indices and stylized Roman numerals, including the watchmakers four, and then azurage or concentric patterning inside the sub registers. It is a true perpetual calendar. Although Omega has toyed around with annual calendars in the 21st century, this does not need to be adjusted until the year 2100. It is a true perpetual with a 122-year moon phase. We have a little concentric indicator of two systems here. One gives you the month, and then the other, the leap year phase. And BS is Comptième B-6-Tille, the leap year, en francais. And we'll turn it over, and here you can see an ETA 2890. So the predecessor to the 2892. The movement is mostly identical. It does have one distinction. If you pull the crown out, notice that there is no seconds hand here. So there is no hacking mechanism. Bi-directional winding, four hertz. It's got a high-grade balance that's either top or chronometer. I could tell before I started up, I examined the quality of the hairspring and the balance. The 42-hour power reserve, it's known as caliber 1118, although again, it is a module on top of the 2890. And as you can see, it uses Edikron for fine adjustment and for ultra fine adjustments, an eccentric screw micrometric regulator. It's nicely decorated, gold gilded with stripes applied on the bridges, as well as the rotor. We have solarization on the center of the ball bearing. You can also see solarization on the barrel cover and both blued and polished screws. This is mechanically applied. It is handsomely executed. It's a good looking watch and a very, very hard one to find. I've been doing this for 12 years and this is the second time one of these has crossed my desk. So if you want something very special that occupies a towering spot in Omega's history, this is a great example of an Omega watch your friends will not have and probably cannot have. Also important, because we talked a little bit about Euro, these were made from 91 to 97. But as I mentioned, when we moved around back and talked about case marks, this is the hallmark that was used on Swiss gold before August 1st, 1995. So this properly would have been built between 1991 and the summer, at least the case would have been built between 91 and the summer of 1995. So you get a good sense of when this was made. Reach out to Tim also at the1916company.com for purchase and pricing details.