A friend of mine acquired some watches one of which was a manual wind Omega caliber 611 with an Omega case and serial number around 22 million but had the last 4 digits of the serial number machine off. I'm guess that this may have been a discontinued model or movement and that the watch may have been sold through someone other than one their normal distribution channel. Anyone got ideas or answers??

Altered or removed serial numbers are bad news. As a collector, I'd never touch anything like that.

Altered or removed serial numbers = Stolen goods!

William,
I agree with the above posts. My guess, it could have been stolen. Removing the serial number is illegal, I don't think a dealer would do such a thing.

Thanks. I kind of suspected that. Looks like a consensus.

Often in the recent past, and especially with Omega watches, grey market dealers would have the serial numbers removed from both the case and movement so that the watch can't be traced back to the distributor who would obviously be in hot water for selling over stock Omega watches to any retailers outside of their officially authorized network. Thankfully, this type of damage is seen less often today as it does essentially destroy the originality of an otherwise fine timepiece as well as seriously degrading its future resale potential. So these watches were not necessarily stolen, but instead made "anonymous" and put on the gray (online) market by middle men who would rather not get caught. This was the usual scenario for new watches that would turn up this way.

I will also add that companies like Omega, Tag Heuer, and many others enjoy good sales and a good portion of those sales can be attributed to non authorized online dealers. Perfectly fine watches can currently be purchased from grey market dealers for 25 - 40% discount off retail and since the serial numbers are usually intact these days, I am led to believe that the factories tend to look the other way. ....But BEWARE! If you ever need warranty service for the fine Swiss watch you just bought from the outfit in Florida or New York, you'll be at the mercy of their questionable repair departments. Always spend the extra $$$ and go through an authorized dealer.

William

Thanks William for your contribution here-this scenario is where my original thoughts were. Today Seiko (Hattoti Co. LTD) has gray market channels where case numbers have the letter "X" in two or three places and are not listed in their databases, (yet case parts can sometimes be ordered from then anyway). Example VX32-X243 etc. Normal number would look like V332-0243. Probably for discounter, etc.