A Scary Story from my beloved Omega Calibre 321

Hello good people of Omega Forums

This is my Omega Calibre 321 and I absolutely love it. But yesterday, something happened that genuinely alarmed me, and I’m hoping to get some insight from the community.

I'd previously documented an issue with the chronograph, which I just simply ignore because it rarely happen at all anymore.

I’ve been wearing the watch throughout the whole week, leaving it at 9H (crown down) every night, which I know to be a time-losing position. With this setup the watch averaged an amazing +3.5 spd.

I wore it the whole Sunday and, before switching to another watch in my rotation (the Speedy ’57) the next day, I gave the 321 a brief rinse-and-dry and put it on the timegrapher for a quick measurement. At this point it was about 10 hours after a full wind.
At CH (dial up), it was measuring the usual +10 spd before suddenly jumping to a crazy +500 spd at its peak. My heart fibrillated for a moment…
(I forgot to take a photo of the timegrapher, but it would look something like this, with a lot of frantic dot around the main line as well.)


Naturally, my first thought was magnetization, so I promptly put it on a demagnetizer. NO LUCK.
The next few minutes were a blur. I think I tried different positions, flipped the watch over to inspect the movement, and probably looked mildly deranged in the process.

Then, still in a state of panic, I wound the crown a dozen or so turns - and bam! The timegrapher stabilized again at +11 spd.
I kept it on the machine for another hour before going to bed, and measured again the next morning. Everything looked normal. No more crazy speeds.

Upon careful measurement, I noticed these positional differences:
Before -> After
CH: +10spd -> +11spd
9H: -4spd -> +3spd
6H: +9spd -> +9spd
CB: +14spd -> +14spd
3H: +7spd -> +8spd
12H: -5spd -> +2spd

Most positions remained the same, but the 9H (crown down) and 12H (crown right) positions are no longer negative. I’m 100% sure they were losing time before. I left the watch in these positions for a week each and check the timing differences.

This post has two purposes: one, to share what was honestly a very alarming experience, and two, to get a bit of group therapy and see if anyone knows what on earth happened here.

At this point, I 'm pretty sure I should send it in for service. The issue is that I’m from a Little Red Dot of a country, and the boutique told me the only option is to send the watch to Bienne, with a turnaround time of around 6–9 months…

Thanks for sticking through my ramble. I truly love this watch, so I’m hoping this was just one of those vintage-movement hiccups rather than something serious. Any insight from the community would mean a lot.

My first suspicion with such a crazy short-term reading is a problem in the timegrapher and not the watch. Especially since you can’t reproduce it.

That's what I fervently hoped for. But I did put my other watch on and it show perfect result. Put the 321 back on and it's crazy again.

Although this you’re not concerned about?😁

It's a state of mind I've yet to reach for this particular watch 😀

For a start, I would abandon the "rinse and dry" as a proper manner in which to clean the watch.

It's quite hot and humid here so after a week the watch would accumulate some grime. Do you have any suggestion for cleaning the watch ? Despite all the different opinions on WR I think a bit of running water shouldn't be an issue.

As mentioned, don't let the watch wear you. I just wear a watch, I have a general idea how any of my watches run but I don't time them on a Timegrapher.

As far as cleaning, unless it's a clear dive watch it doesn't see running water. Yeah, a Speedmaster should be able to be dunked in water, but I don't, after a couple years I don't know the state of the seals. I can clean a bracelet by using running water, being careful to keep the head dry. The head is wiped down with a damp, alcohol tissue and wiped dry. Use a damp Q-Tip to get under the bezel if needed. A quick wipe with a clean microfiber cloth, that's it.

OP, all 321s go back to Bienne for service, that's policy right now with Omega. Doesn't matter where you live, they all go back to Bienne for service. There is no need to send it in for service, just wear it and enjoy it, you'll know when it needs service.

Evitzee said it for me regarding cleaning suggestions.

If any of my watches, including divers purchased new, are exposed to water to any extent it's "wince and dry" for me.

Evitzee is correct. A tissue or Q-Tip merely dampened with alcohol rather than soppy with alcohol is preferred. Heavy application of alcohol could migrate past a seal just like water and contaminate oils in some manner.

Your graph appears to me the watch is knocking due to the balance wheel having too much amplitude. This typically occurs in dial up (or dial down) position and after being fully wound.

When you move a watch around, you impart forces to the balance. This can add to the balance amplitude, and cause rebanking - this is also called knocking, galloping (as it sounds a bit like a galloping horse). It happens when the balance turns too far and the roller jewel impacts the outside of the pallet fork horn (where it should never contact) and the balance bounces back faster than the balance spring would normally return it. This leads to a very fast rate.

This can happen momentarily after the watch is disturbed, or it can happen for very long periods if there is another issue, such as the mainspring being too strong, pallet fork jewels not set properly, etc. Based on what you are seeing, this was just a momentary disturbance, so absolutely nothing to worry about.

People often think that the rate of a watch, stationary and in a particular position, is going to be stable. Although it can be, there are plenty of watches where the rates are not stable and vary over time. This can be caused by things like a wheel that is slightly out of round for example.

I have no idea what timing machine you are using, how susceptible it is to noises in the room, or how it is sampling the rates and displaying them. I have no idea which set of measurements are more reflective of the actual timekeeping.

So I have a suggestions - fully wind the watch, compare it to a known to be good time source (plenty on line), note the difference between that time and your watch, and then let it sit dial up for 24 hours (chronograph turned off). Then the next day check the gain or loss in the dial up position. Then repeat this test for the 5 other positions, and this will give you a really good baseline of how the watch runs in each position over a longer period of time, which will smoothy out any momentary changes in the rate.

It won't help explain this particular "change" that you saw, but if you have another similar experience, you can repeat these tests and see if there is actually a real change in rate, or if it is just how the machine is being used.

It's a Weishi 1000
Hi Archer 😀 indeed it may seems so. I forgot to mentioned but usually the amplitude I see at dial up is always on the high side around 325~335 (even 340) though this is the first time I saw it translate to this insane rate.
Hehe I do read your stuff about isochronism and realize that the timegrapher result is only the instantaneous rate. I've been doing the long terms measurement as well when the watch is not being worn. I'm putting the watch in Crown Down now.

E.g. this is one of my previous result, and even this 24hrs rate can differ as well.
24h measurement, after fullwind.
CH (Dial up): +9.8spd
9H (Crown down): -7.5spd
6H (Crown left): +7.1spd
CB (Dial down): +14.8spd
3H (Crown up): +7.3spd
12H (Crown right): -3.1spd

I'll take this advice to heart.
Indeed it is 😀

Allow me to explain myself, I really enjoy doing all these measurement as part of the watch owning experience.
If I may, It's a bit like having a Significant Other 😄 I admire the external beauty first, but the rate performance reveal the personality inside. And of course, watchmakers are basically the anatomy experts 😜

I may be a bit overboard with the wording. It would sound better than the usual "My heart literally stopped" right. I did feel a bit of panic when I saw the crazy rate though. That was real. Didnt detract from the overall enjoyable experience at all.