"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Any expert would know that those screws hold the giggling pin to the laffin shaft... and without them the tickle valve won’t open and close properly
I'd have no idea what the OP would stand to gain here. Posting for advice seems completely reasonable.
If it were me, I'd not return my watch to that repairer, even to return it given the treatment it received would not be something I'd want to do.
I would find another approved repairer, plenty from here, and ask for their attention and opinion on what exactly might have gone on in this case. Then you could bring that to the forum (if you could be bothered to) to decide what next steps to take.
If someone finds a fault with a watch you've worked on, the only reasonable response is to pay to get it back and prioritize it so that the customer is inconvenienced the least amount. In my opinion, he's not dealing particularly well with you and you should bear that in mind.
Did you send the Watchmaker this picture? If he hasn't seen the pictures, what if he thinks (for example) it's one of the three screws around the rotor bearing that has come out? He would have had no reason to touch those and as you only paid him for a partial job, he could hardly be expected to have gone around and checked the torque on every screw he could see. Then his comment (although not necessarily his attitude) makes sense.
This is the reason that no-one likes taking on partial jobs and I will only do it for someone I know well because whatever is wrong afterwards, it's always the fault of the last person who opened the case. I don't know many Watchmakers who will take on partial jobs for people they don't know.
You'd expect him to take the movement out of the case and remove enough to be able to support the movement behind the hands as it's poor practice to just press the hands on with the movement supported around its edge (for example, if you could go in through the front). As has been mentioned, they could be case clamp screws and he didn't tighten them well. They look about 3 mm long if the case is about 40 mm diameter.
It's surprising how screws loosen over time. The worst seem to be the old "bumper" movements as the regular impacts of the rotor on the springs causes a little shock that will loosen anything not fully tight. I had a '50s Bumper Omega in before Christmas with a blocked train. It was one dial screw that had worked out and got into the train but this had clearly not been looked at for years. That screw goes in at 90 degrees to the circumference and is not short so, just unlucky that it could find a way out.
Good luck, Chris
This is why Rolex won't touch the internals of a watch without a full service - something people frequently cry about.
Given the op is using his real name (or rather its easy to work out his real name) - whatever else is going on, I doubt it's trolling.
I’ll certainly echo Chris’s comments, I’m wary about doing partial repair jobs for the same reason. It’s what I call ‘pass the parcel syndrome’, last person to touch it gets the hassle. People seem to assume a repairer is always looking to make work for himself by reporting the need for additional work whan a watch comes in, but tgat’s usually not the case. Often, one problem with a watch is the tip of the iceberg and there are other issues.
As for 1950s Omega bumper automatics, I’ve worked on several recently and after reading Chris’s comment I sincerely hope I tightened every screw carefully!
Paul
One thing I definitely wouldn’t do is post the watch anywhere and risk those screws bumping around in the movement. If I couldn’t take the back off myself and tip them out I’d gingerly carry it to the nearest watchmaker I trusted to do that. I’d then want a full Service carried out by someone qualified, as any metal chipped off by the screws rattling around would need cleaning out and any damage to delicate parts checked along with timing etc. - imagine one of those screws bouncing off the hairspring.
Not a nice thing to see, however it happened.
Hi op
Any reply/update from the watch maker?
Humans make errors it's life. I had a watch serviced by a well respected guy many people use on here and it was 15 min out and the dial had several bits of fluff on it lol.
Take it to a dealer to confirm what you are saying simple as that!!! Provide a name and contact number to the guy who serviced it. Simple:)