Hi, what parts are in the two plastic bags next to your watch.....to me how can those parts ever go bad???? Not sure what they are but would like to know.....

 

As expected, no one is interested in assessing the quality of tuning of the precision.
Once again, the actual OMEGA standard in Bienne will remain a mystery

 

Hi tom. Looks like it took a lot of personal intervention (phone calls, etc) to get it done. Do you think that is the norm.? Bill

 

If you were to send it through an AD like the average guy would do, I think it would be a very different result. I would treat this result as the exception, not the norm.

In cases where I have sent watches to Bienne on behalf of my customers, it was the typical "all or nothing" proposition made by Omega, so do what we tell you needs doing, or we send it back. I sent one in for a specific case problem and had already serviced the movement...they insisted on servicing it again at great cost, and it ran worse when they finished with it. Trying to get answers about the case issue I sent it for was like pulling teeth, and they basically said "why don't you trust us?"

I had Omega Canada working on my behalf to get the answers I needed, and even they said it was getting rough with Bienne and they would no longer pose more questions because they guys in Switzerland were getting pissed at me. They certainly don't like to be questioned based on the emails from them that I was sent by the guys here in Canada. They seemed to take great offense that I would just not hand this family watch over to them and let them do what they wanted - I was simply trying to look after the interests of my client. In the end they did fix the problem...but only after initially telling me "nothing" was wrong, then they ended up making modifications to the case to make it work...

It was not a confidence building experience.

Cheers, Al

 

I must admit chaps that I would suspect mine was a special case, I originally kicked off with Omega about my Marine Chronometers (from a previous post) and the Speedy was an aside as I said I had a bad experience at Bienne in the past. Mine was all handled by Swatch UK and I was very specific about what I wanted doing on the watch, although I had very little involvement I know that Swatch UK did a lot of foot work for me with Bienne to ensure it was to my standard.

A lot of the exercise here was improving UK customer relations and UK collectors having their faith restored in how their vintage pieces are accommodated in the UK, I must admit I have received an excellent service from Swatch UK and am please with the work Bienne have done.

In 24 hours it has kept time within 1 second of my recently serviced (previous post) Constellation Pie Pan (which is between 2 and 3 seconds per day constantly against my Marine Chronometer since service)

 

From what I can see there is a case back gasket, inner cover, enlargement ring (movement spacer), crown, stem, set bridge (setting lever spring), hour wheel, minute wheel...and a few others I can't make out. Maybe Tom can post a closer photo showing all the parts.

So for many here replacing the crown would be a no-no, and with all the Speedmasters I've serviced, I can only remember replacing maybe 1 inner cover for one that was damaged (replaced many that were missing), so not sure why that would need replacing. The enlargement ring, I'm sure I've never replaced one before, and honestly I can't imagine why that would need replacing.

As I've said, the brands seem to replace parts that really don't need it sometimes....

Cheers, Al

 

Beautiful watch, Tom Dick!

FYI my caliber 321 (105.012) returned from Bienne earlier this year and it is running at the following rates:
Dial up: +25 s/d
Dial down: +20 s/d
Crown up: +17 s/d
Crown down: +5 s/d
Upright: +25 s/d
Upside down: +1 s/d

Quite a bit of variance between positions, but oh well; my 321 has lived a harsh life and clearly endured subpar watchmakers in the past so maybe Omega did all they could.

 

Thank you very much!
The maximum variation you measured between positions (24 secs) is perfectly normal for a well kept 321. It might be brought down poising the balance wheel and with a bit of fine tuning, but, evidently, this is not the current Bienne standard.
The graph is quite regular, even if there might be a small problem with the escapement wheel (not sure).
Please notice that the lift angle of caliber 321 is 40 deg and not 52.
This means that the actual amplitude is 250 deg in the horizontal position and 266 in the vertical one (strange).
Overall, from the movement overhauling perspective, the job done appears a good, but not an exceptional one.
Thank you very much again for your contribution.

Cheers,

Maurice

 

Thanks for the info! Good to know 24 seconds isn't bad for a 321.

 

biel or not biel..............that is the question. if you can not find somebody outside the swatch group, to help you, then you have to take pre cautions; like: movement service with existing, valuable old dial and hands and crown etc....... take these off. put cheap replacements on and send . case problems: take all out. they have movements to fit and try in biel.
if there is anything, you want to keep and if you have nobody known to you in the factory ( so you can relay your specific requests to a person in biel ) : take it off.
but, in comparison, Omega is pretty good in this respect; rolex is worse.
so far there is seldom a need, to send to the factory, unless you have a very rare example and nobody has parts..... kind regards. achim..........try to find solutions here on this forum !

 

whoa... impressed. especially that they actually listened to customer request!

 

So, the watch has been on wrist test since the weekend, today is Wednesday and since Sunday it has deviated by 9 seconds, which is pretty impressive!

 

I am afraid this is not necessarily the case: a watch may lose some seconds a day on the wrist and gain the same quantity at night thus resulting only apparently on time.
This is the reason for which the precision of a watch can be assessed only by means of a machine.

 

Goo to hear, I am going to STS in a week or two to collect some watches so I will ask them to test it on the timing machine and let me know, I am not sure if Omega have a test record but I will ask

Best wishes Tom

 

Hi Tom,
thank you, it would be very interesting to have it tested by STS.
And you are right: given the money they charge, Omega should provide a test record. However, I am not that surprised they did not.
Cheers,
Maurice

 

Typically THIS is what happens to a vintage Omega Speedmaster 105.003 that gets sent to Omega for service:

http://www.chrono24.com/en/omega/gents-speedmaster-cal-321-pre-moon-steel-manual-chronograph-on-strap--id2951290.htm?dosearch=true&picnum=0&query=omega 105.003&resultview=list&searchexplain=1&suchen=Search&tab=pics&urlSubpath=/search/index.htm

Don't let this happen to yours!!!!!!

CAUTION: BE SEATED AND CALM PRIOR TO CLICKING THE LINK ABOVE OR SCROLLING DOWN FURTHER BELOW.

 

oh god no

 

AGHHHHHH! MY EYES ARE BURNING!

 

Yeah I talked with these guys. Don't think they get it or care, sadly