Hi
I'm new to this forum and you guys have probably covered this a hundred thousand times, but when Omegas are produced in Switzerland, are the final parts of assembly, inserting the dial and glass etc done by hand?
Or does some magic dust-proof watch making machine spit them out?
I ask because I may have to send my watch in to Omega (in Australia) to have something done to the dial (under warranty). Omega's service is fantastic and they've offered to address the issue for me, but I'm nervous about cracking the swiss seal of perfection and compromising the watch dial/crystal with dust etc.
However, if the watch was assembled by Swiss hands to begin with, then I suppose it's no different a second time as long as the person opening the watch is a trained professional, in which case I wouldn't feel too concerned that I'm compromising the watch by sending it in to have the dial and crystal exposed.
Any thoughts or opinions would be appreciated. Thanks

 

So the dial, hands and crystal on a brand new Omega are usually assembled by human hands to begin with?

 

"as long as the person opening the watch is a trained professional, in which case I wouldn't feel too concerned". You have nothing to worry about. They're not going to get a high-school work experience kid to work on your watch.

They use professionals.

 

It is common that service centers use people other than watchmakers to do a portion of the service work. These people are "trained" because they have been hired off the street and trained to do a specific task, and "professional" because they get paid for their work, but they are not watchmakers.

In a typical service center (there are likely exceptions) the person who is the watchmaker would usually only work on the movement itself. Anything to do with the case, dial, hands is not done by the watchmaker usually.

Note that this is usually the same in a factory setting as well, so not much different then when the watch was originally produced. However hands are often installed my a machine, not a person.

Cheers, Al

 

@cicindela I noticed in the clip that the watchmakers do not wear covers on the fingers the way the Japanese GS do in their workshop, and that surprised me since i wonder how can they prevent their finger print or smudges from being on the parts they are handling?
Is the clip any different in a factory vs service center?

 

You only need finger cots if you are handling the movement with your fingers after it's had the final cleaning before final assembly. During the actual manufacture of the parts, the parts are cleaned many times as they proceed through the factory. Finger cots are optional if you keep your fingers off the movement. I know my instructor never used them - he had trained himself to only use his tweezers to manipulate the movement and parts.

Cheers, Al

 

If that says any thing it shows how much control you guys have over fine hand movements to keep things steady and in place, surgeons trained to do just that and steadiness with patience is essential in successful operations.
Thanks Al for input.