I have always admired Omega watches since I was a kid. My grandfather had a Geneve Century and, although he departed, that watch reminds me of him. Since its affective and market value (bracelet and case are of gold), I decided, during the last year of university, to buy another Geneve and have it always with me, as a daily wearer.

Being a student means, obviously, that you are always on a budget and, consequently, I could not afford many Omegas out there. After some months of research, I found this 166.0163 on sale in Sweden for circa 250$. The price was perfect for me, and, although some original parts where missing (the crown and the buckle), I felt in love with it and bought it.

When I received it I discovered it was in great shape, although I wanted to service it before it became my daily wearer in the office. I waited some months to save some additional money and to find out where to service it.

I ended up in going to an authorized Omega center in Poland, where, for 250$ I had a full service.
Although some of you might not agree with my choice, I also made a polishing and install a new original crown. Although collection-wise it might not add value, to me it represented a milestone in my life: completing university and getting a first real job. And this combination of the old parts of the watch and the new ones (the crown especially), represent this transition and a melting pot of it.

I will never sell this Omega as it is the very first one I could afford with my money, and I am proud to wear it in the office everyday.

 

Congratulations on achieving several milestones in your life! The watch will be a constant reminder of it. Enjoy it in good health.

 

Pretty Cool! I love to have watches that means something, this adds sentimental value big time!
Wear it in the good health!

 

May it be with you on many journeys in good health.

 

Interesting timing slip - did they give you any other timing information?

 

Thanks to all of you for the messages

@Archer unfortunately not, I have only that (plus pressure test results, invoice and old parts changed). I was wondering what you had in mind regarding the timing slip...

Let me know

 

Nice one, congrats.

I wish I'd kept the first Omega I bought so make sure you stick to your plan, don't cave in and sell it as so many of us do - usually to part fund an upgrade

 

Normally you would get a printout that gave you information about how the watch runs in various positions. This is just for one position, and quite honestly, that doesn't tell you a whole lot. Like the photos I see posted showing the screen of a timing machine with the watch in one position, that tells you almost nothing about how the watch will perform on the wrist - you need data from different positions to see what the variation is between different positions. Minimizing this positional variation is the basis of good timekeeping, and what often requires the most effort during service.

In addition, the movement in this watch is a Cal. 1010, and the lift angle for that one is 52 degrees, and they have the machine set for 51. Even if you add a little to the amplitude numbers, if that is taken full wind in a horizontal position (yes some guessing here since we don't really know, but that would make the most sense from a watchmaker's point of view), the amplitude is a bit low for a freshly serviced watch.

The part that would bother me the most though is the variation in that one position over a short period of time. The average rate is +1 second per day over the measuring period, which the slip says was 1 minute 13 seconds. But in that time, the watch rate has varied from -6 seconds to +9 seconds. That is a big swing over such a short period of time if the watch was allowed to stabilize for a bit before this reading was taken. If it wasn't allowed to stabilize, then the reading is even more useless. It's not normal for a watch to jump around that much while sitting in one position.

Just to put this into perspective, the last one of these I serviced 2 months ago, the balance amplitudes were in the 290's full wind horizontal positions, and the variation over all 6 positions (the Delta) was 9 seconds. Yours has 15 seconds variation with the watch just sitting in one position. As much as this series of movements has their problems (mostly on the dial side parts) they do tend to be decent timekeepers.

Not trying to upset you if you are happy with the work, but I'm surprised an Omega Service center would not give you the proper timing format as Omega procedures call for.

Cheers, Al

 

Thanks Al for your deep analysis and knowledge sharing!

Although I'm not so familiar with this time report, I understood that it was not done the work that an authorized omega dealer is supposed to do. And I'm quite disappointed.

I also heard that the cal 1012 ( the one which equips this watch) was not the very best. Can the result provided be influenced by this caliber or, anyways, it should have looked much better?

Thanks!

Alberto

 

So you initially mentioned this was taken to an official Omega center - I assumed this was a service center. But now you refer to an Omega dealer. So was this serviced using a dealer who also sells watches on the premises, or was this sent to an Omega service center that only does repairs? Honestly although I'm not familiar with pricing in Poland, $250 for a full service from an Omega service center seems very cheap.

As noted, although this series of movements are their problems with setting parts on the dial side, they usually keep better time than this does.

Cheers, Al

 

Sorry about the confusion.

Who did the service is listed as authorized by Omega on the webpage under service, Poland.

https://www.omegawatches.com/customer-service/map/country/poland/