Hello Fellow Omega Enthusiasts,

I just recently had a 1955 Certified Chronometre-grade 354 caliber movement overhauled by a repair shop and he spent a few extra days to get it adjusted to no worse than +10 seconds per day. I could have paid a good bit more to have him spend two weeks to get it a bit better, but I was more interested in having it back to everyday wear condition than having it adjusted to peak accuracy.

I am curious - does anyone have thoughts on what should be considered decent accuracy for a vintage movement? Obviously the bumpers are limited by their relatively arcane impact motion, but I feel as though +10 seconds per day for a 65 year old concoction of metal and springs is pretty impressive.

Also, I’m giving a shout-out to Zaf Basha at ClassicWatch.com, LLC in Washington, D.C. for timeliness, reasonable pricing, and absolutely stellar communication throughout the service.

 

Well, Omega says that the 354 should have an average daily rate from -1 to +16 seconds per day.

But the real question is, how does the watch perform over a 6y positions test?

 

I’m not sure about how to do a 6y positions test, but I wore it throughout the day for 7 days straight without adjusting the crown and compared it to my phone’s atomic clock signal time each day at 10 a.m. exactly and got the following results.

No more than +8 in any one 24 hour period, and because I live on a farm and workout throughout the day, I randomly take it off my wrist for varied periods throughout the day to avoid damage, put on an exercise watch, etc., so I imagine that had something to do with the varied results over different 24 hour periods.

I took the watch off around 2 p.m. on Wednesday and set it down for the count to check power reserve and noticed a slowing of the movement by the next morning (-13 seconds) and it was dead by this morning. I think that is probably to be expected in an older movement like this - in that the watch will start to slow the deeper into the power reserve it goes.

Watch Accuracy Notes - 10 a.m. phone time

• date of read: time on watch face • +/- difference between phone time (+/- difference over previous 24 hours)

• 05/20/20: 10:00:09 • +9 (day zero)
• 05/21/20: 10:00:14 • + 14 (+5)
• 05/22/20: 10:00:14 • +14 (+0)
• 05/23/20: 10:00:22 • + 22 (+8)
• 05/24/20: 10:00:21 • + 21 (-1)
• 05/24/20: 10:00:28 • + 28 (+7)
• 05/25/20: 10:00:28 • + 28 (+0)
• 05/26/20: 10:00:32 • + 32 (+4)

Power Reserve test (took off at 2 p.m. 05/26/20)

• 05/27/20: 10:00:19 • + 19 (-13)
• 05/28/20: stopped