I have my father's old Omega, apparently a US-market-only version of the 354 movement that was shipped "unadjusted" to the US market, in contrast to the more expensive chronometer certified versions with the same movement, like the Seamaster and Constellation. It had been water damaged and the dial replaced some time ago by some clever jeweler who didn't quite get it right. The replacement dial looks perfectly good except, the cardinal numbers are just luminous markers, and the original hands aren't luminous at all, making it an odd combination.

Since the watch has an 18K gold case and is keeping time very nicely, I was wondering where and how to get a "correct" replacement dial face for it? Omega doesn't show any picture of the watch, but at least they acknowledge its existence. A few years ago, they said they had never heard of it. Or the 354 movement. (sigh)

--Red

 

Pics, yes, but of course this is after the not-quite-right face was put on it so they are kind of meaningless. JPG attached (I hope) of the front. If the cardinal numbers were simply gold metal numbers (12/3/6/9) and the rest of the dial was not right, it would at least be better, more logical, than having luminous markers without (duh?) any lume on the hands. And I have no real urge to replace the hands with wrong hands, to match the wrong dial.

Although a source for "not crap, not Hermes either" 17mm lizard skin bands would help too.<G> This one is a nice "Vera Pelle" but the skin unbonded from the base leather pretty quickly, and the plating rubbed off the buckle in record time.

 

Can't help on the dial, but Hirsch and Hadley-roma both do decent lizard straps.

 

Thanks, guys. I don't know if the watch ever had a gold trim ring on the (original) crystal, and aside from the incongruity, agree that the dial looks well done whatever it is. I'll try those band sources over the weekend.

Gator, when you mention a US-made case, did Omega ship the movements "raw" to the US?? To let what, an Omega-US division make cases over here?? I would have thought that even though Omega calls this a US-market model, they would still have made and shipped the whole watch as a unit, no?

I'm not so worried about the hands, I realize replacing them might be cheaper, but if I just wanted "cheaper" I've got a $10 Timex.<G> Or my own "good" watch, that lights up like a battleship at night.<G>

 

Punitive import taxes in various parts of the world have often made it impossible to bring in complete watches. The unease movements shipped en masse went straight into local cases....

<edit> gator beat me to it by seconds....

 

Interesting, but if the movements were from Omega, unless the US firm made up custom dials to match any "odd" case sies, it would have been easier for them to just stick the standard Omega sizes on both dials, cases, and crowns, no? In either case, one would expect that here in the US, old Omega watches would still create some "yeah we've done that before" market for those parts.

Won't hurt too much to make a few calls.<G>

 

Good points, Gator. Thanks.

 

Gator, another US/EU question you might have some insight on. The 354 "US market" nameless Omega is the "same" 354 movement that was used in the Swiss-cased chronometer-certified watches. I know that with same "machines" they are actually all the same, just that some get pulled and calibrated and others not, i.e. to make "certified" versus "unadjusted". Is there any reason to believe that this was the case with Omega? All movements the same? Or did part of the chronometer process involve first seeing IF a particular movement was precise enough to be certified, with sorting and fitting and hand-tuning, not simply adjusting the timing, involved?

Just curious, as this one is running quite reliably.

 

"then gave them a little extra work"
Ah, but that's like saying the H3 Hummer was "just" a Chevy Colorado pickup truck (I'm told it was) with just a few suspension modifications.<G> A shame we have no ex-employees left around to ask, whether that included fine balancing or polishing or other work on parts, as opposed to simply tweaking the existing screws.
I see a number of those Connies with lumed hands that still look very much like mine. Didn't realize they'd look that good, so I may go that way after all.
Thanks again!

 

What?! No spit?! No glue?!

No, I was thinking of the electronics industry, among others. For instance, 3M used to make the finest magnetic recording tape. They'd pull reels from a batch and test them for dropouts. Any batch with more than 5 dropouts per reel, got dumped and sold as "white box" instead of 3M. As opposed to the RAM industry, where "all" 64-bit RAM chips might come off the same line, same batch. If they had contracts for 100,000 pieces of 150ns, they'd test parts until they had 100,000 that passed that speed, and the rest of the batch was sold as 250ns (slower) simply because they all would pass that lower spec, no sorting or testing needed. Seagate did the same thing with hard drives, an OEM like Digital Research could specify 10MB drives with "no more than 2" bad sectors. So they tested, and pulled enough drives to meet the order. The rest of the drives from the same production run? Could have up to 40 bad sectors, and that was all they were guaranteed for. Even if many were in fact better.

So, many industries for many years have quietly pulled and sorted different grades from the same production run. It would make sense for a watchmaker to do similarly, the same way that Remington sold their "one in a thousand" rifles for a premium when one of the batch simply happened to be dead on the spec in every way, instead of just within tolerances.

 

"Seconds" is a bit harsh, that's not what I said. But in every manufacturing process, there is some tolerance, so some of the finished pieces will always be closer to optimum spec than others. Which is part of why a chronometer may have to be adjusted in some positions, as opposed to merely passing/failing a test.

Your watch my keep time within +/- 2 seconds per day, mine may keep 3. Doesn't mean mine is a second, just that yours is closer to a perfect spec, or was adjusted more carefully. Or, that you swing your arm differently.(G)