Happy Day: Omega Quartz Journey - It seems 14** electronics are interchangeable!

So some time ago I bought 2 abused Quartz Titane's - one had a GMT 1449 movement, the other had a 1432 movement

The 1432 Titane was luckily in good shape, but it wasn't ticking, the 1449 GMT was a goner, but it funnily ticked despite the water damage

I converted them to decorative but non-working desk pieces:


I received this watch today, another gamble:


I realised it has a 1430 movement, and it was luckily working - I didn't like the watch, so I had the idea of swapping the movement with my 1432 Titane that was supposed to be a desk watch

Looking at the charts, I realised a movement swap isn't necessary, the electronic part that didn't work was so practical and so easy to remove!

(Pardon the work environment, these are junk watches, so I didn't bother with a dust-free setup)

So I moved the 1430 movement's board to the 1432 movement, and it worked! (Quick info, I didn't try hard, but there's a small chance 1432 might not go into 1430 - maybe it got stuck somewhere, or the shape is different a bit - there's an exposed IC on one, but not on the other)

After this, a secondary idea emerged, moving the circuit from the corroded 1449 GMT to the new donor!


Well that worked too, so 1449 goes into 1430 as well!

Now you might've realised, when I got the 1432 and the 1449 initially, I could've just moved the electronics from 1449 to 1432 and made it work, and the new 1430 could've stayed original - I mean, yeah 😁 (at the time, I didn't inspect the designs)

But honestly I value my grey desk clock Titane, so it got the best electronics

I gifted the paperweight GMT and the new gold quartz to my brother, he loves them both, I love my newly working desk clock - it was just such a happy day

I also received a new 15 jewels old small Seiko and a unique ladies Omega, they both keep time well, had usable straps, just couldn't turn out better

I just pay too much to these junk watches tho, that's my concern, paid just $100 tax to the Seiko, Ladies Omega and Quartz Omega that came in today, it's just not worth it - so the lesson is, don't buy cheap watches ... at least not any more

Another tidbit of information, on the new gold Quartz Seiko - there's something like water staining on the top of the dial - when you look closely, it's actually water removing the brownish coating from the dial

My experience with dials etc. are very limited, but one thing is certain, DON'T TOUCH DIALS OR INDICES!

Indices have coating, dials have coating, you can't just touch any part of any dial, it's too risky

I mean it's a common practice to use putty for cleaning, and for example, steel indices appear strong, but there's usually a coating that could get damaged

This is what I really don't like about Omega's, and most models have something icky like this, modern one's seem more so, and it probably reduces the value of all our watches, as it's scary, seeing so so many damaged dials probably scares buyers

I'm more interested in what you did with the gold insets from the cases 😉

Haha, my monstrosity has its limits, I bought them like that with the intention of making use of what's left 😀

If I'm being honest, at the time, I didn't even realise the missing gold, missing crown of the GMT and so on 😁 They are a reminder of how careless I can be and how I should pay a lot more attention 😀