As some of you will recall, I bought my first new Omega last year and went for the Seamaster 300 Spectre edition which I absolutely love and defo made the right choice. I absolutely love it (the lollipop was enough) and haven't taken it off my wrist since, apart for a forced 3 week absence whilst it went back to Omega!

I think it's important to share positive experiences when they happen and my recent dealings with Berry's Jewelers who are the AD in Leeds have been very positive indeed. To try cut a long story short, I looked at my watch one day only to find it had condensation on the inside of the glass and I can honestly say I have never felt such a sinking feeling ever, my fault, I punched, kicked and beat myself u for being such an idiot, but won't go into detail. To say I was gutted is a massive understatement. I pulled the crown out and left it in a sealed box for 2 days with dried rice and a small dehumidifier to try draw it out and the worry nearly did me in. Things did improve, but there were still signs of some moisture when I did a condensation test. I realised I couldn't actually live with this, so I bit the bullet and decided to call my AD, to hell with the costs and being without my watch for week on end, I needed piece of mind that this was absolutely bang on sorted otherwise I wouldn't have been able to relax and my love for this watch would be forever tainted.

I called and spoke with my contact, he was very kind and gave me a much shorter lecture than I deserved and told me it must have been user error. I pleaded ignorant and he told me to bring it in for a 'look over'. The next day, he 'looked it over', gave me the 'look' and said he would send back to Omega under the warranty and didn't know how long it would take. Only 3 weeks later, I got a call to say all sorted, watch back in store and no charge, come and get it! It had been partially serviced, the great scuff I had put down the full side of the brushed case had gone (cooker handle coming out of an adjacent cupboard) along with all the minor marks on the clasp which I had started to collect and it looked a million dollars.

Now this may be standard service for all I know, but I wasn't expecting it to be such a positive experience from both the AD and Omega and thats why I wanted to share this story. It exceeded all my expectations and I thought I would be without my watch for months, questioned at every turn and a lot lighter in the pocket for it! My love affair is well and truly back on, it makes me smile inwardly every time I look at it and the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach is now a distant memory.

 

Nice to hear that!!! Wear it in good health!

 

Good to hear that you got it resolved and the service was a good experience.
Curious to know how you got water in the watch. Did you get it wet with the crown unscrewed? Even unscrewed I would expect some level of water resistance?
And how did you go about the condensation test, that you mention?
Enjoy your watch!!
Best regards,
Jens

 

I'm pretty sure it was by adjusting the hands shortly after the watch being in water. I dried it off with kitchen towel prior to doing this and thought it was completely dry, but assume there was still a bit of water around the crown.

Condensation test was to wear watch for a while to warm it up again and then put a drip of very cold water or ice on the glass and leave again . This causes any moisture to re-condense. Not sure about water resistance with the crown out, but doubt there would be much. Clues attached.

 

Should be 50m of water resistance with the crown unscrewed I believe...

 

That's incredible and in that case, I'm really baffled as to how this happened. I had in in a shallow bowl with around 1" inch of water, just to cover the watch. As the hands were covering 12, I wanted to change them midway through and carefully dried the whole thing off before changing the hands. I had presumed a tiny amount of water had transferred from the crown somehow, onto the stem when pulled and entered the watch when I pushed it back in. The deepest this watch has been is to the bottom of the washing up bowl and that's not as often as some would like . I assume as part of the service, it would have had all the seals checked and a pressure test. I thought I was super careful before, now I'm just paranoid of even looking at water with my watch on, which is crazy.

 

I always asked myself about the O-ring permeability to water vapour.
NBR/HNBR rubber is not an absolute gas barrier and I guess if the exposure is long enough (humid atmosphere or even immersion), water vapour can migrate into it and provoke a condensation phenomenon when temperature change.
Is this possible or am I completely nuts ??

 

So you were taking pictures or something like that in a bowl of water? Anyway, very good service