145.023 Anakin separating outer case from mid?

Coworker saw me browsing the forum and asked me for advise.

Watch was inherited from his father and first day wearing it he dropped it. He underestimated the weigh and it slipped as he undid the clasp. The outer case chipped badly in several places. He took the Omega boutique and was told no replacement cases are available. It's been sitting and he's been mad at himself ever since.

I let him know his best option was to keep and eye out on ebay and forums for watch with a bad dial or movement but a good case. Either another Omega or those Lemania movement ones that use the same case. Even though this might take a long while to find.

He brought the watch to show me and it's showing the early signs of the gasket melting. He want to keep it as original as possible. The tachymeter and hands have a nice matching color fade to them. Therefor he should have it serviced soon.

The question is what's the process and how hard is it to separating and swap the out outer case? Is it something someone who is good with their hands could do(coworker is big on DIY and builds motorcycle engines out of his garage)? Can any good watchmaker handle it or is it something that should only be trusted to the likes of Swiss Time Services?

The fear is needing to send it to someone who will only swap parts as part of a full service and paying for a second full service. On the other hand waiting till he finds the replacement and the melted gasket getting worse. Needing to replace more parts like the tachymeter ring would make it feel less like his dad's watch.

Maybe I can trouble @Archer for his expertise on this model?

I think photos would be helpful

But laser welding restoration is a thing as well, even if you buy a case / big bezel off eBay, it could've been professionally restored too

I think STS does restoration work all around?

Understood Archer. It was more a question of understanding how the outer and mid case are held together for this reference?

Is it something any competent watchmaker can handle or does the unique design require some special tool that only an Omega certified watchmaker is likely to have?

I only mentioned the DIY route on the off chance it was some simple process. For example I used to own a Seiko 7016 which had tabs you pushed in to remove the outer case. Something that didn't require any special tools or much skill to do.

I unfortunately didn't take any pictures the day he showed me the watch. The outer case on these is made of tungsten and from everything I've read they are not repairable.

I do believe it, but I also wonder what the technical reason is, Tungsten wire seems to be widely available, when a laser is shot at it, I guess it doesn't bind to the base Tungsten?

I think it's theoretically doable as this paper was written on it, but admittedly it could be a different type of laser welding https://link.springer.com/article/1...xt=Therefore, laser welding has become,6,7,8].

It’s not tungsten but tungsten cardibe, no welding process is feasible on this

Great idea. This is a good solution to the dilemma.

The chipping is really bad. About half the material on the top edge is gone. I'll asking him about getting some pictures to share.