WATCH POP

So I picked up this vintage Omega movement (481) and dial/hands on the bay for very short money with the intention of checking it out in person and maybe finding a case for it if the wife liked it. Turns out it's keeping very good time (unlike another I got that was gaining 12 hours every 24) and the wife is a fan (albeit a hesitant one). So now I need to find a case that fits, which I realize may be a near impossibility.
Is there a suggested route for trying to match this up with a case? Is having one made (I have a very capable jeweler) realistic?
There seem to be alot more loose movement out there than there are cases, probably at one time the cases were gold and remelted ( 80's and now) or damaged. Unless there are some sentimental reason to pay for a case made, it 's probably better to try your luck looking for a case online shops and auctions. The shape of your watch may make it easier to find as there are lots of womens watches selling for less. I have a few mens size movements that I am waiting to recase.
Good Luck
Rob T I know it's heresy to some people, but you could always looks for a case from another maker that would fit.
Collecting like a crazy man .. and lovin' every minute of it! I think that it would be hard for a jeweler to create a watch case, especially the back. If you know the size of your movement, you could look for cases made for movements of that size and see whether anything fits your taste. You really want your movement to fit snug in the back and the bezel and crystal to fit ok over the hands. A good watchmaker might be possible to match your watch with a case and might have a good supplier of cases. The one thing that works to your advantage, is that women's caliber sizes were much more standardized across companies than men's. Good luck! Sounds like a fun project Straying from Omega definitely isn't outside my range of possibility.
I actually popped over to the auction site after posting this thread and found a non-working 484 movement with bids starting at a buck, and upon opening the lot it looks like a full case is included. The 484 looks to be about the same size as my 481, and the dial looks to be about the same shape, though I could be wrong on both counts. But for the money, it's worth a shot. Getting a custom case made is likely to be prohibitively expensive unless it's a labor of love for a sentimental piece. Finding a suitable generic case or case from another maker is like looking for that needle in a haystack. There are many dimensions to consider - movement height, width, positioning of the hands/dial relative to the crystal, height/position of the crown, length of the stem... a shade of a mm off and it won't work.
Looking for a 48x-based watch in non-running condition is probably the best, fastest, cheapest & easiest strategy. They are all the same dimensions and should be DIY swappable. Watch for the ones with a faceted crystal if you see them - these are often "Sapphette" models with an unusual-for-the-era sapphire crystal and typically the sellers don't know to describe them as such.
-r
"Mechanical watches are so brilliantly unnecessary. Any Swatch or Casio keeps better time, and high-end contemporary Swiss watches are priced like small cars. But mechanical watches partake of what my friend John Clute calls the Tamagotchi Gesture. They're pointless in a peculiarly needful way; they're comforting precisely because they require tending." - William Gibson
How old is my vintage Omega? - Omega Serial Numbers by Year