Hi - I'm very new to this forum, so please bear with me. My current problem is a 1980's de Ville ladies watch. We've had it since new, and it works well. However, I (probably wrongly!) volunteered to clean the watch glass - and found when I opened the case a working movement (cal 625) with, at the rear of the movement a thickish ring of black, sticky goo, most of which I managed to remove safely. My question is - should I get the watch re-gasketed professionally - which I suspect would cost more than the watch is worth - or clean up a little more and then re-assemble the case and hope for the best? I guess that the gaskets were originally fitted to ensure waterproofing. Another question - is this type of rubber failure normal? - I also work on cameras of around this era, and most of these suffer from similar problems (something to do with 1980's sealing materials?) - David

 

Gooey Gasket syndrome is relatively common on vintage watches. Given that it is gooey, I would suggest that it's a long time since the watch was opened and serviced, if ever. Ideally the watch should be serviced which would include a new gasket, but if you are not prepared to go to this length and expenditure, you may as well fit a new gasket yourself, remembering to lubricate it with silicone before fitting. I would also add, if you do not have it serviced, I would certainly not recommend that it is used as a daily wearer.

 

Gasket goo goes back long before the 80's.

 

My watchmaker has put my watch at the back of his working list due to gooey gasket. Cleaning that crap off seems off putting.

 

It takes time to clean it up, and it's a messy job. I use 99% alcohol to do the final cleaning of the case grooves after scraping out as much as I can. That seems to be the only thing that removes the goop completely and in a fairly quick fashion. I could put a case in my ultrasonic tank and run it for days and there would still be goop there...

 

I agree with Al. I use neat Isopropyl alcohol. The same stuff I use after using the random orbital polisher on the car but without watering it down.

 

I have one in progress, the gasket had turned to tar.

I soaked the case and caseback in L&R Extra Fine cleaning fluid overnight to see what would happen. It seemed to turn the tar into a more solid consistency which made it easier to dig out with some peg wood. Once the bulk was done I used methylated spirits to get rid of the remainder.

 

One thing i wonder is? When i put a new gasket in .Are this gasket better then the old gasket . Will they also be gooey after some years . Or are the new o-rings better then the old . Are original Omega gasket better then a generic ?

 

The gooey gaskets in my experience were mainly from the 50s to the 80s.

New gaskets nowdays are usually very stable and made from compounds like Viton etc. Most generic gaskets will be of the same quality as Omega OEM, and a bit cheaper I think.

It reminds me of a story I heard about a guy in the USA who would buy bags of O-rings by the kilo (or pound), and then sit in his shed and put each one into a plastic bag with a label "O-ring - NSN - Part No - MSXXXXX" and sell each to the UASF etc for fifty or a hundred times what it cost him.

 

The black O-rings are made of Buna-N or sometimes called nitrile. The black O-rings made currently are no different than those made decades ago. A few brands do use different materials like Viton, but they are by far the exception rather than the rule, and you can be pretty certain that if the ring is black its nitrile.

The only brand I can think of off the top of my head that uses Viton across its product range is Sinn, and their gaskets are bright green.

The O-ring turning to goop is not really a fault of the material, but a failure to replace it at an appropriate interval. Long before it turned to goop it should have been replaced, and typically in a properly maintained watch, you won't see the gasket go like this. It is often a watch that has been worn for years and years and then stuck in a drawer that has the gasket like this.

I replace the gaskets at every service. As long as you can get the correct size, it really does not matter if it's a generic gasket or a branded one. But what you will find is that brands will have these made in custom sizes that are not the nice even sizes that you see in generic assortments. This is of course deliberate to make sure you have to go back to them for the service or parts (if they sell parts). Brands do the same thing with crystals as well, making them between sizes that generic crystals are made at.

For me I do buy Omega gaskets at a much inflated price, partly because of the size issues and partly because it's just easier to order them from Omega along with all the other parts I order every week, than it is to order gaskets (if they are available in the size I need, which is not common) from a different supplier. Time and paperwork saved is worth the extra costs.

If I put a generic gasket side by side with a branded one, you could not tell the difference. Even if I checked things like hardness with a durometer I'm sure they would be identical.

Hope this helps.

Cheers, Al

 

Good info Al.

 

For those of your like me who suffer from gooey gaskets I have discovered the ultimate way of cleaning them. Buy baking soda wipes, they are made by duzzit and they sell them in 'the range' etc in the UK, they are absolutely amazing and the only thing I have ever found that removes gasket gunk from everything (including dials) without damaging or spreading the gunk around.

Trust me all these things are miracle workers