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  1. andrew mcdonagh Jul 23, 2014

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    Hi all

    I have just bought my first vintage Omega, a 1952 Seamaster "bumper" (original listingPurchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network). I gave it 40 winds and have worn it all day but over the last 48 hours it's been erratic in how it's kept time. So overnight - from 10pm to 6am - it kept perfect time and for most of the day today it was accurate. But every now and again it seems to lose 4 or 5 minutes. There doesn't seem to be a pattern to it and it looks like it's lost in a short space rather than a cumulative few seconds an hour.

    Any my ideas what it could be? Would a service help or is just something that I need to live with owning a 60 year old watch?

    thanks
     
  2. dsio Ash @ ΩF Staff Member Jul 23, 2014

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    A 354 shouldn't lose time like that if its been serviced, I think that watch has had a hard life prior to your ownership
     
  3. John R Smith Jul 23, 2014

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    Hello Andrew and welcome to the Forum. These Omega "bumper" movements are still very rugged old beasts, even though they are all coming up to sixty years of age and more. The 354 such as yours should never lose time like that, intermittently and in large chunks. I have once had trouble where a previous watchmaker (?) had got a drop of oil on the balance hairspring, causing two of the coils to stick together which caused similar erratic timekeeping.

    A service will cost you about $200 USD and should certainly sort things out.
     
  4. bieb1 Jul 23, 2014

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    I don't know whether it would explain your problem, but I have had similar issues with a vintage Omega chronograph. After many visits back to the shop, they found that the problem was caused by the hands not fitting properly on their axles. Specifically, by putting back the original hands after the service, it turned out that that they no longer had the proper fit on their axles and as a consequence would slip every now and then, causing a couple of minutes miss every now and then. Problem was solved by fitting new service hands.

    But you have to be aware that for collectors it is important that the original hands are kept with the watch, so if you do decide to get them replaced, make sure they give you back the original ones. The alternative is to get a good watch maker to re-fit the hands properly. There are many experienced collectors and watch makers on the forum who can give you more info and/or help to fix the problem. Best get as much input as you can before taking action. Good luck!
     
  5. MSNWatch Vintage Omega Aficionado Staff Member Jul 23, 2014

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    FYI: The dial in the watch is refinished and the caseback 2576 did not originally come with the cal. 354 movement. It's not a good example so you might want to take that into consideration before sinking more money into it.
     
  6. John R Smith Jul 24, 2014

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    Well, yes, I was trying to be kind to a new member but Mike is of course correct to point this out before more money gets spent. Specifically, the dial and movement do not belong to this case, which should have a cal 34x sub-second movement. The case reference 2576 is the sub-second version of the ref 2577, which your movement probably came from. And as Mike also points out, the dial has been refinished and is no longer original or collectible. Sorry to be the bearer of unwelcome tidings . . .
     
  7. andrew mcdonagh Jul 24, 2014

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    Thanks for the inputs, much appreciated. The watch seems to be improving - the "slips" happened 3-4 times in the first day and it's only happened once today so it could just be temporary contamination or a bedding in after a long time idle. I'll monitor and then make a call on if it's worth a service.

    As for the quality I was under no illusions. I had already worked out that either the caseback or case were non-original through the Omega serial numbers database and the glow from the hour markers made it pretty obvious that the dial had been refinished! While I'm new to vintage watches I have gone through a lot of vintage cars and I've adopted the same approach here - I'd rather have a presentable but flawed piece that I am comfortable using every day than a museum piece (trailer queen in car speak) that I am terrified to wear in case I scratch the crystal or something. I figured that this was a comparatively cheap first toe in the water that I could flip for roughly the same money after a year of wear. Is that a valid assumption?

    Thanks again for the advice, much appreciated and some food for thought/
     
  8. MSNWatch Vintage Omega Aficionado Staff Member Jul 24, 2014

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    Value wise the watch is probably worth significantly less than what you had paid for it. It's a fairly common watch and it's not too difficult to find an all original example in nice shape for the price you paid for this one. Here is a photo of how a nice example would look like:

    [​IMG]
     
  9. andrew mcdonagh Jul 26, 2014

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    Well the the good news is that the watch has now fully settled down and is keeping perfect time with no slips for a couple of days. Must have just been a bedding in thing with it starting up again after sitting dormant for a while. So yay :)

    I hate to be the "new guy" arguing with the "old guy" but... I'm going to do it anyway

    You're wrong here and I think you are confusing "worth" to a hobbyist with "market value". By definition the watch is worth whatever I paid for it by simple virtue of the fact I paid it! Had I bought it in a shop or from a classified ad you might have a point but it was an open auction with multiple bidders and even if I hadn't paid what I did the final price would have been within a few percentage points - there were 36 bids after all. eBay has many flaws but one thing is is exceptional at is determining true market value because it puts an almost unlimited number of customers in front of your goods and allows them to bid freely. If your item sells for £3 that's market value. If it sells for £3,000 then that's what it's worth. While it's not static on that day in that market that watch was worth the £300 or whatever that I paid. And looking at Chrono24 and the closed auctions on eBay I'm not sure that many watches go for "significantly less"

    Now that's a very different thing to what a hobbyist might think its "worth". No doubt with the right detective work, mooching on the right online ad boards, making contacts with others and working those contacts I'm sure I could have got a watch that had a serial number inside the case that matched and a dial that hadn't been refinished and saved myself a hundred quid or whatever. And I'm sure for a lot of people that's a lot of fun. Me? I just wanted a nice watch below a certain price point and this one ticked the boxes. And I reckon in a year or so I'll be able to sell it at roughly the same price to someone else who just wants a nice watch. I get the originality argument but it's not important to everyone.
     
  10. Stewart H Honorary NJ Resident Jul 26, 2014

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    Andrew. I think the thing here is perception.

    Firstly, in the UK, we pay a lot more for vintage watches than they do in the States - fact.

    The main thing, though, is that you have posted this on a forum populated by (and intended for) collectors of vintage watches. We will argue, for hours, about half a millimetre on the length of a second hand and would buy a watch that has dents and scratches rather than something that has been polished and lost the correct angle of the edges on the case.

    If the watch gives you pleasure, then fair play to you - enjoy it. If you intend to become a collector. stick around, there is so much knowledge here, that is offered freely to those who have the humility to accept it. I had never owned an Omega before I joined this forum, 20 months ago and now I own 12 of them. Just remember that, unlike certain other fora, people here are allowed to speak their mind.
     
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  11. MSNWatch Vintage Omega Aficionado Staff Member Jul 26, 2014

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    Hi Andrew,

    I gave my 2 cents on value since you had commented that you feel you can go ahead and recoup your money when you sell the watch - I respectfully disagreed and of course you or anyone else can come to your own conclusion. I do have quite a bit of experience with vintage omegas but don't feel at all that as the "old guy" my opinion counts more than another member new or old. I enjoy this forum precisely because members are free to speak their mind.

    Also eBay bidding (and many other auctions as well) have a good amount of price manipulation through shill bidding - a very commonplace practice so many items actually end up with a final price that may be 2-10x their value had the auction been free of manipulation.
     
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