Hi all,

does anybody of you own a cal. 30 t2 Rg (sub-second) chronometer with 16 jewels?

According to the books there should be a 16J variant but I have never seen one.

All the sub-second chronometers I have seen so far had 17J movements.

Any help would be much appreciated.

best

erich

 

Hi Erich,

You are not seeking central-second versions, correct?

Cheers,

Tony

 

No, SC-movements are plentyful... but I never saw a 16J sub-second Rg-movement so far...

 

Never seen one either...

 

it has existed with either 16 or 17 jewels but never saw the 16j one. May be the first version had 16 jewels and they rapidly added one on the minute wheel.

 

Yes, I thought the same.

The reason why I asked for a photo of a 16J version is because I would like to include it in the chronometer book which I am currently working on.
So any assistance would be very much appreciated.

 

very noble reason if ever I grab a pic I'll think of you.

 

thanks, great

 

May be some interesting stuff for you. Look at that. A very early 30 model chronometer. The weird thing is that the extract reads chronometer with the same SN as on the movement. The movement even reads 15 jewels...
As far as I know, the 30 T2 rg was the first gildered movement. The fact that the one on the pics is "silver" may means it's an very early model?
Can the war period explain that?...

 

Of course Steve, you are welcome!

 

This is already in the book - and in my possession

 

fine. Nothing else for the time being.

 

I hope I could read your book soon!

I do not have any data on these 16J movement. But just to chime in, I think 16j for a 3 hands sub sec movement is kind of weird, and should only exist as a transitionnal feature. Indeed, unless there is a particular device, it would imply that only one of the 2nd hand holes is jeweled. Not a very good idea from a watchmaking point of view. Or am I missing something?

 

weird to put no jewel on the back of the minute wheel on a chronometer yes but otherwise many movement don't have one.

 

Sure! But I cannot see any good reason to do so: if you decide that the second wheel holes must have jewels, do it both sides! The only reasons I can think of are not "very Omega": the price (but one jewel does not count that much) and the buzz around visible jewels.

So I guess the 16J version has been a transitional step between the 15 (regular 30) and the 17 (chrono) ones.

But there may have been a technical reason. I have read somewhere that the forces on the wheels and the pivots are much stronger on the movement side than on the dial side. Could that explain that Omega tried a movement with a jewel on the visible side for the second wheel?

By the way, I am guessing the 16th jewel should be there, but I have not seen any of these 16J chronometers.

 

Thank you for chiming in - very thoughtful reply

You may be right about the transitional position of the 16J - perhaps it was not a good idea, not a great success and was upgraded soon to 17J

But there are other pecularities on Omega movements... Think of the 18J 30 T2 SC PC

One would expect that it might have an additional cap stone somewhere but actually it has 2 jewels on the minute (centre) wheel, movement and dial side...
And up to now nobody really knows who ordered these watches with the 18J PC movement - what we know is that most of them were sold to Canada (but there are confirmed deliveries also within Europe)
Though another 18J 30 T2 SC (but without PC) was ordered by the R.C.A.F.

 

Thank you for your answer.

This series has indeed its peculiarities!

By the way, my previous posts were not clear enough. As a matter of fact, in those movements, the hole of 2nd wheel is usually not jeweled dial side. It is a regular feature on this series and, indeed, a pretty common feature.

But I was wondering why Omega added one jewel then another one on their chrono movements. Actually, it is pretty obvious if you think they were trying to improve their movements and released new ones on a regular basis. What is less clear to me is why they did not produce in the first place a chrono version with two jewels for the 2nd wheel.

I am not familiar with the 18J 30 T2. But I guess it is somehow a special cal 30 with an upgraded device.

 

Maybe you have missed that it is a 30 T2 SC which has the 18J, not a sub-sec

 

Maybe I am still not clear enough. I wanted to say that the 30 SC T2 18J seems to me to be an upgraded 30 SC T2, with a jewel on both sides of the 2nd wheel. A regular 30 SC would have 17J (or 16J for the first issues), right?

But I do not understand why Omega only put 17J afterwards in the 280-284 series. Oddly, the sub second series (260-267) had 17J (except the 265, with 15J), with 2 jeweled holes for the 2nd wheel, but the 280 series has only 17J (16J plus one for the second pinion, movement side), with only one jeweled hole for the 2nd wheel (movement side). The only reason I can think of is the fact that, in the SC series, the 2nd wheel is "digged" to let the second pinion go through it. But is that a real reason?

By the way, other exceptions are possible, I am not an expert and am only talking of what I have seen on a regular basis.

Sorry to spoil your post with my poorly worded remarks!