Hello, and please tell me about my watch!

JimInOz

I have also reached the age where I need to look really smart, and although I've also become "patinated", it doesn't really show 😉.
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Nobel Prize

There’s also another pragmatic reason ( to me) to return. You stated a few posts back that you don’t really care that much wether to return it or not. I would return it then and look for something that you care more for.

just me.

V Vizard

I have learned not to fall in love with stuff. Particularly watches.

I had a really lovely watch from a Swiss maker, whose name sounds a bit like the Italian cheese that one grates onto pasta. I bought it new and it was, probably, the only one in the UK. I really was into that watch and everyone who saw it commented how nice it was. I was overly invested in it emotionally, if that makes sense.

The date wheel became out of sync, so it went back to the manufacturer. When it returned, the setting mechanism had a huge amount of backlash. The manufacturer said basically "nah mate, they all do that. Its a characteristic, not a fault", despite it being fine when it was sent off. After much to-and-fro I was getting nowhere, so I rejected it and ended up claiming the money from my card company.

Nowadays, I just like stuff but try not to become overly attached. Possibly a good MO for life too, some might argue.

V Vizard

I am surprised that it is keeping such good time on the wrist, despite looking so grim on the timegrapher.

SkunkPrince

I'm not. I have had (and still do) watches that were awful on the timing machine and fabulous on the wrist. The two situations are very different.

V Vizard

It's become worse, though.

I wonder whether someone regulated it otherwise than with a timegrapher. I.e. just kept an eye on it and advanced or retarded it as necessary, creating an average of some quite large positional errors.

SkunkPrince

That's possible. Tne average rate is generally a fairly good predictor of on-the-wrist performance.

But if the performance is degrading, and multiples of the resident watchmakers tell you to return it... you'd be wise to pay attention and consider well.

Archer

Not really. It’s just luck if the average rate happens to fall close to zero based on your wearing habits. If someone else wears the exact same watch, it may run like crap on them.

Taking the variation out also takes the luck out of good timekeeping.

Archer

Indeed, it happens more than people likely think. But part of this is determined by what “good” means to the individual. I have customers who are after rates very close to zero, but others have handed me watches than they said ran good, but then said it was within a couple of minutes a day...

mac_omega

Hi all,

Yesterday I have come back late from a short journey to Germany (visited a terrific exhibition of Vermeer paintings in Dresden) and so I was too tired to read through all the long thread.
This morning I took the time to do so and I was a bit amused that it took that long that somebody came across these older threads where we already discussed similar watches.
Well to make it short:
There have appeared 4-5 watches (if I recon correctly) after the release of my book which show the same "pattern" - cal. 283 and chronometre on the dial. All of them were found in England and those which were looked up in the microfiche of Omega archive share serials in a small range of numbers but cannot be found in the archives due to damage/loss of a part of the microfiche film. I wanted to research these watches more closely in the Omega Museum but due to the pandemic situation I have to postpone this for some time...

Meanwhile I tend to set up a new category of chronometres the "UK chronometres". All share "late" three line dials and of similar style (not much variation found) and all but one have Dennison cases of the same shape. The movements don´t show special finish like the Rg-chronometres but this is not necessary to make a watch a chronometre as we all know. IMO it is possible that a small batch of movements were chronometre rated and sold to UK to be cased and sold as chronometres. There have been special chronometres for France, Spain and Italy - so why not for the UK?
I hope to find proof for this theory in the Omega archives once I get the chance to go there once again.

OP´s watch could well be one of these UK chronometres but - what a pity - has a restored dial. So we don´t know if it started out with a chronometre labeled dial or if a "regular" 283 Dennison cased watch was pimped up to make it a chronometre.

Canuck

This thread caused me to wonder how well one might expect an Omega calibre 283 that is in good shape and has been thoroughly serviced, might perform. To this end, I dug out my Omega with the calibre 283 movement, and serviced it. I also replaced the mainspring. After minor beat adjustments, and adjustments to the regulator, testing it on my Timegrapher, and here are the results.

-face down. - 2 sec.
-pend right - 6 sec.
-pend down. -15 sec
-pend left - 15 sec
-pend up. - 5 sec
-face up. - 9 sec

Amplitude range a few digits either side of 260° in all positions. Then, for a more graphic representation of its performance, I put the watch on the B200 Vibrograph, and photographed the detail tape in each of 6 positions. This all sort of indicates there was something seriously wrong with the Omega 283 which is the subject of this thread. With a bit more fussing, I would be able to average out the gains and losses for better average performance. But these figure point out that there is only a 13-second delta between the two extremes rates. Not bad for a 65 year old watch!