Well, 321 Parts listed on eBay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Omega-Chronograph-Lot-of-2-Movement-Cal-321-Cal-911-For-Parts-or-Project/

What's this? Serial bridge is a different colour than the rest?

maybe it's just the light...

 

Seems to be gone already...

 

Hmmm. Why? Soon Ω321 parts will be in plentiful supply directly from Omega. If not to the general public, I assume at least to qualified watchmakers with an Omega parts account.

 

That is an assumption I certainly would not make...

 

Big question is will the make it really 1:1 or (very) close. If the latter there may be acces via the right people but you still can't use them on old movements

 

It is a big question, and people have said the answer is "yes" but I don't believe those people really understand that there is no universal "321" and there are variations in what was made over the life of the movement. So even if it is a 1:1 copy, and parts are made available to watchmakers, they won't be replacements that will work on all of the older 321's.

There's more to this than most realize, but you don't know how much you don't know. I'll reserve judgement (and won't be counting any chickens) until I can click on the Extranet and order a part...

 

Hi Al - are the various changes to Ω321 calibers clearly differentiated via a form of configuration/data management on the Omega drawings? For example, was there a -dash number (suffix) appended to the top assembly drawing number, that incremented each time a subordinate subassembly or piece part in the calibre assembly was updated such that if you were working on a Ω321 in the 2400xxxx serial number range, you'd know to order (or look for) a certain variant of piece parts, while if working on a 1900xxxx serial number range you'd know to order a different variant of piece parts?

 

Unfortunately the system used at the watchmaker level doesn't follow this kind of traditional engineering revision system. It may be that those sort of records are available, but that information is not available to watchmakers at that level of detail.

All we have to go by are parts lists. In some cases the parts have different part numbers, but not always. There's nothing to tell you what version you have, like a serial number range. You would have to know how to physically spot the differences when looking at the movement in front of you to know what version of specific parts you would need.

 

Hi Al, this is very interesting and perhaps hopeful. So right now, we know that Omega will be producing a new calibre 321, so we know that at the very least there will be parts for that new, current-production calibre 321.

If this current-product calibre 321 was derived either from prints or scans of a classic 321 movement, or new engineering (e.g., new CAD created from prints or scans of a classic 321), then we may also have backward compatibility or interchangeability for at least that one variant of classic 321 movement from which the engineering, drawings, and/or CAD for the new-production variant was derived. I agree this remains to be seen.

If the backwards compatibility does hold true though, then perhaps Omega would be amenable to creating the remaining handful of piece part variants to support servicing of all original calibre 321 variants.

In the meantime, every journey starts with a single step, and I’m grateful that we’re getting started here with Omega on this one!!

 

They could do that right now if they wanted to, along with parts for dozens of other calibers that they currently don’t have parts for. The bottom line is that we won’t know what they will do until they do it. I would be happy if they started making parts again, but there’s no guarantee that even if they do, they will be made available to watchmakers outside this small shop that will be assembling the new 321’s.

I admire the optimism that people are displaying about parts being available, and only wish I could share it. I won’t be selling off the hard to get 321 parts I have in stock any time soon...

 

Please don't!!! Keep those 321 parts on hand!!