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Thread: Recent arrival...serious vintage Omega content!

  1. #1
    Grand Master
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    Recent arrival...serious vintage Omega content!

    Even though much of my contact with the watch world involves repair work I`m still predominantly a collector/enthusiast at heart, I`d give up working on them tomorrow but I`d never stop owning/collecting. Here's a C-cased Constellation one I bought recently from SC for my own collection, I owned the slightly later version several years ago and regretted selling, so I was pleased to end up with this watch, dating from 1972, original dial, correct brick-link bracelet and the bonus of the original papers which turned out to be quite useful. An excellent example at a price I was v. pleased with, this watch has had some good work done in the past....more of that later.

    After a dose of light refinishing, repolishing the crystal, fitting a new crown and caseback seal, and polishing a light engraving out of the clasp, here's how it now looks. It's a 35mm watch but it suits my 6.75" wrist nicely, I don`t do big watches!

    upload foto

    The picture doesn`t capture the dial well, it has a faint starburst grain that creates a mellow look as the light hits it. All surfaces are correctly finished and the edges are still nice and sharp, it was in good condition when it arrived but now it's just 'sharper' and the scratches have gone. Apart from the odd nick here and there which couldn't sensibly be removed the case and bracelet are like new. This is what the owner saw on his wrist in 1972 and that's what I`m seeing now. Light refinishing is an understatement, the whole case has been stripped down, including removal of the bezel, it's the only way to do them correctly. The clasp had a very light engraving which didn`t take much effort to remove, it needed refinishing anyway. When these are poorly refinished the Omega stamping gets worn down, but with care it can retain the original look.


    When doing a full job on a watch I usually do the movement first, thus allowing it to run and settle on the bench whilst the laborious work on the case and bracelet takes place. I did this the other way around, having stripped the movement it seemed OK and I didn`t expect problems, I do refinishing work in bite-sized chunks because I don`t enjoy it so I spent around 1 week working on this in and amongst other activities.

    Generally, an Omega 550/560 will give problems with the rotor bush, reverser, and mainspring barrel. This one's had the rotor bush replaced at some point and the reverser felt smooth. The spring barrel was heavily worn and needed replacement, as did the mainspring. The watch would run and soldier on with the worn parts but they were definitely ripe for replacement. Should've been straightforward, but it wasn`t. Turns out the mainplate was very heavily worn in the area where the stem runs. I`d missed this when dismantling the movement, they're always a little worn but this was bad. It's not obvious when the movement's in the watch because the crown running on the pendant tube supports the stem and disguises the wear.



    My finger's pulling the stem in one direction to highlight the wear, I`ve never seen one as bad as this! Thankfully, I have a couple of parts movements so I stripped one down and cleaned the mainplate, which turned out to be OK with minimal wear.

    upload pictures


    I`ve highlighted the area that wears, the design of the stem doesn`t help because the contact area is small and concentrated in one spot. The quickset date, operated by pulling the crown to click the date forward, will contribute, but the main culprit is excessive hand-winding over a long period of time and possible misalignment of the movement in the case. A poorly fitted pendant tube or a bent stem would also cause this....... the watch can`t talk I can only speculate.

    Unfortunately, restoring this movement has highlighted a common issue with old Omegas, that's the mismatch of the plating on the movement parts. If a movement has all its original parts it's a fair bet that the plating will be a consistent colour, they vary from a deep copper to a lighter gold, don`t know why but they do. Different cleaning solutions can alter the colour slightly, but all the bridges and plates should be a similar hue. However, mismatched colours doesn`t necessarily mean a bad watch, or something cobbled up from parts, it can mean that parts have needed replacement and the available items simply aren`t a good match. It's always nice to see a clean movement with all matching parts, but these watches are 50+ years old and it's inevitable that work will have been carried out. In the past Omega used to offer the whole auto-winding bridge and parts (including rotor) on an exchange basis and that was the easiest way forward, so parts did get swapped,

    Here's the finished movement, minus the auto-winding bridge
    free photo uploading

    Here's the auto-winding.....note the mismatch between rotor and bridge, but the rotor's a good one so there's no way I`m swapping it!

    upload photos in fb

    Here's what you see when opening up the back


    Here's the collector's conundrum: the watch is a great example, running well, thoroughly sorted out, but the mismatch of colours is plain to see. The train wheel bridge is original because it's got the serial number (which matches the papers!) but the auto-winding bridge has probably been replaced (even though it's correct for a 564 chronometer movement) and we know the mainplate's definitely been swapped. Despite what the sages say, I would never dismiss a vintage Omega on the appearance of the movement if the only issues were mismatch of parts colour. In this case the original papers are helpful, basically the movement is original to the watch although there's an obvious 'Triggers Broom' element with parts being replaced. Sometimes replacement parts match up correctly and the owner would never suspect anything's been changed, but not in this case. This also highlights the futility of the birth-year thing, swapping the train wheel bridge can changes the year of the watch to whatever the buyer wishes to see.

    I'm v. pleased with this watch, it ticks all the boxes for me, the back's screwed on and it's staying there. This is the view I prefer.


  2. #2
    Craftsman
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    A nice summary of the dilemmas of watch repair. Thanks Paul.

  3. #3
    Nice! Something to watch out for as regards the crown/stem when examining any future purchases.

    Sent from my E6653 using TZ-UK mobile app

  4. #4
    Master alfat33's Avatar
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    Lovely watch and thanks for the detailed write up Paul, very enjoyable.

  5. #5
    Grand Master snowman's Avatar
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    Indeed. As others have said, great write up.

    I think it wears well on you because it's fairly tall from top lug to bottom lug, I presume 35mm is across at the crown, but it looks a fair bit more the other way.

    Either way, it's a great watch and an excellent write up and photos.

    Thanks.

    M

  6. #6
    Grand Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by amcneill View Post
    Something to watch out for as regards the crown/stem when examining any future purchases.

    TZ-UK mobile app
    Unfortunately this problem is only obvious with the movement out of the watch. In this case, everything functioned OK and nothing alerted me to it.

    This degree of wear in other movements, such as the ETA 2824, would cause the hand-winding to stop working, so it would be obvious that all’s not well.

    I’m amazed this movement can still function OK with such severe wear, I couldn’t believe how bad it was and I’m still puzzled as to how it ended up this way.

    5 years ago I could pick up scrap movements for £80, usually fitted in a sad and sorry gold- plated case.......those days are long gone.

  7. #7
    Master
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    Thanks Paul - always good to read your posts - very informative

  8. #8
    Apprentice
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    Lovely work and photos. Thanks for the write up

  9. #9
    👍. Enjoyable read. Thanks.

  10. #10
    Craftsman Robbo12's Avatar
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    Fantastic job love that satin brush look to the case and clasp , you may not enjoy it but your bloody good at it 😀
    I have read that these do wear a bit bigger than there actual size , probably due to thickness with the auto wind keeping the caseback slightly higher on your wrist

  11. #11
    Grand Master
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    It's a shame the parts situation is getting worse for vintage Omegas, Swatch group stopped supplying wholesalers from Dec 2014. Prices of new parts in original packaging are increasing, every time I use a part I try to source a replacement using ebay or Cousins. Cousins are charging silly money for some items thesedays, that's to prevent folks buying parts and selling them on. I've spent most of this afternoon sorting out my Omega parts, I really should set up a spreadsheet to keep track.

    Just spent more money today buying new parts off ebay, it pays to get parts when they're available. If they're in original packaging they can always be sold on if I decide to call it a day.

    In many cases, parts need replacing on old watches because they haven`t been serviced, rotor post bushes and reversers are a good example on the 550/560 Omegas. The watches have usually been worn to death and it's the auto-winding parts that suffer. Spring barrels eventually wear out on the barrel wall and need replacing otherwise the watch won't make good amplitude and can suffer from poor power reserve.

    Just checked the timing on the Constellation, it's running around -4 secs/day on the wrist. Timegrapher shows around +3 dial up, I`ll see what it's really doing when I leave it overnight. Sometimes it takes a few days for the rate to really settle, no point in regulating this for a while yet. Positional agreement was pretty good, just within COSC, so the watch should be a good timekeeper if regulated carefully. The chronometer grade movements generally have the balance poised to a better standard, judging from the figures this one's probably got the original balance.

  12. #12
    Grand Master oldoakknives's Avatar
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    Nice watch, must admit to liking the Constellation series.
    Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.

  13. #13
    Master
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    Nice write up and not a bad job on the watch either.

    Regarding the colour mismatch on the movement parts, I'm pretty sure it's the copper plating that's flaked off leaving exposed brass. I've seen old Omega's in the past where a dab of Rodico would be enough to remove the plating and as you've mentioned above, it's not uncommon for copper plated movement parts to go in the cleaner and come out a golden shade.

  14. #14
    Grand Master learningtofly's Avatar
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    Great post, Paul, and a lovely watch.

  15. #15
    That’s a great read and the watch looks great. I’m impressed how the clasp came out after removing the engraving. It’s a shame that some of these older watches are just a tad too small for the larger wristed amongst us. It looks just right on you. Great work.

  16. #16
    Master Kirk280's Avatar
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    Lovely watch that mate. I look forward to seeing it at the next GTG!

  17. #17
    Master
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    Enjoyed that, nice write-up and a nice end result.

  18. #18
    Grand Master
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    Having spent so much time getting ‘up close’ with a watch I almost need to put it down and step away from it, then have another look and see it from a different perspective.

    I’ve taken this one out for a road test, it’s been out on Thursday night beer-drinking (me, the watch is T total ) and I’m pleased to say it still ticks the boxes, this one’s far nicer than the one I regret selling several years ago so I can lay that ghost to rest.

    Nice to see it on the wrist rather than on the bench in pieces, I was getting sick of seeing it! I’ll never understand the fixation for glass display case backs, once I’ve finished work on a watch I don’t want to see the bloody movement again ..........screw the caseback on and wear it!

  19. #19
    Grand Master
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    Thing of beauty! Still loving my 68 day date version you fettled up for me chap, now tempted to find a bracelet too.

  20. #20
    Master
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    great write up Paul,thanks for sharing,cracking watch

  21. #21
    Master
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    Fascinating stuff. Thanks.

    Sent from my CLT-L09 using Tapatalk

  22. #22
    Grand Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by ktmog6uk View Post
    Thing of beauty! Still loving my 68 day date version you fettled up for me chap, now tempted to find a bracelet too.
    Hi John. fixing yours earlier in the year rekindled my interest in finding another! Bracelet's a 1040 with 518 end pieces. Omega still sell some of the old bracelets, but the quality isn`t the same as the originals. This one was still available a few years back, Ofrei had it listed in the States, but their stock has long since ben sold.

  23. #23
    Master wildheart's Avatar
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    Great post Paul the reason I've have stayed away from vintage watches, they look nice on the outside ...but inside? I'll leave them to WIS like yourself.

  24. #24
    Master Tazmo61's Avatar
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    A very interesting post . And a very nice vintage Omega .

  25. #25
    That watch has turned out beautifully Paul.

    Thank you for the wonderfully informative write-up.

    It is posts like these that I find really inspiring in terms of showing how vintage watches can be restored to become not just usable but truly wearable.

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