Hello all,

My girlfriend was just given this Omega from her father. Her father acquired the watch in the 1990s but we don't know much else. It would be great to know the age, model, and value.

Also, any recommendations on where to service the watch? Omega boutique in NYC wants $650+ which seems way too high.

Thanks.

 

Based on your photos I would say it is a De Ville Prestige Chronometer in 18K gold.

 

Serial number: 61001821
Article ref: 46203102

As Norm stated, it's a De Ville Prestige Chronometer in 18K gold, 34.4 mm case, with a Cal. 651/652 inside. Manual wind only.

Cheers, Al

 

Since you don't know where to take the watch for a service, I'm going to assume you're not experienced with watches and you don't have an Omega-qualified independent watchmaker that you use regularly. In that case, I think that having it serviced by Omega might be a reasonable choice, even if it's slightly more than an independent watchmaker might charge. It is the easiest choice and you will have a two-year warranty. You also have the certainty of the $650 price, regardless of what might be wrong with the watch.

 

As someone fairly inexperienced with vintage watches and watch repairs myself, I agree that "$650+ seems way too high" HOWEVER.....

it doesn't seem out of line with what people report here on OF as a standard cost of service for a vintage watch. The cost of ownership and maintenance of one of these gadgets is.... a thing that seems expensive when you're not familiar with it. But if you want to wear one in good health and good cheer, it's what you've gotta do. I'm not sure what the watch is worth, but it is not unusual for service costs to end up considerably more than the purchase or resale price. I suppose it must be frustrating when a family member offers something like this as a gift, not being aware of what responsibilities that gift might entail.

You possibly could save (some) money getting service from a reputable independent watchmaker instead of Omega. As @Dan S says— you'd have to find one first. There are definitely OF members in the greater NYC area who should be able to make a recommendation. I'm not, so can't.

Good luck!

 

I'd personally go for an independent repairer of good reputation; regardless of the cost comparison. Even on the less commonly encountered older models (vs say, a 69 Speedy), Omega tends to overwork aesthetic features when you might not want them to. Just my 2 cents.

 

Hey there. I recently went through the rigamarole of trying to get a two vintage (60s) Seamasters serviced in NYC. I took the two watches to three different places and, for what it's worth, the following has been my experience so far (one is ongoing).

1) Manhattan Time Service (W. 46th street). They are a certified omega repair shop. I took the first Seamaster (cal 562) there to have the movement serviced. The charged me $500 for a "complete overhaul," new main spring, and new reversing wheel. They also gave me a one year warranty. I do not have watchmaker tools so I could not take it apart to inspect it after getting it back but it seemed to function well. I did notice, however, that they put the hands back on the watch out of alignment so that when the hour hand was right on an index marker, the minute hand was right around the 47 minute marker instead of at midnight. I took it back in so they could fix this and they did. I wore it for a few days and it kept the time well. I put it away for about a week and when I went to wear it again, I found that it would not manually wind. The crown would turn, but I could feel that it was just spinning and not winding the spring. I took it back again and they said they would fix it. That was the middle of last week, so I'll update you when I get it back. I have very little experience with dealing with vintage watch repair so maybe this is just the kind of thing that happens sometimes? If they finally do get it working correctly, I'll be fine with the experience. In the middle of all this, I brought them a second Seamaster (cal 552). I will talk about this a little further down... I'm still trying to decide if I am fine with the second watch experience.

2) Swiss watch Repair (E. 45th street). I believe he is also a certified omega repair shop. This place is much smaller - seems like its just one guy there and his name is Harri. This is the first place it brought the cal 552. It needed a full service and I could feel the rotor pivoting towards and away from the case back (not just spinning), so I asked him if he could fix that. He told me that the full service cost would be $279 and that he could not fix the rotor issue because he could not get the part he needed (new post or bushing?) from Omega. He said that the rotor pivoting was really not a problem, from a functional standpoint. He was quick with his communication and very nice, but I really wanted to get that rotor working like new, so I took it to the third place on my list to see what they would say.

3) Swiss Precision Watchmaking (Nassau Street). Also a certified Omega repair shop. I took the cal 552 there and explained what I was hoping they could fix. I can not remember the guy's name, but he told me that they couldn't get the replacement parts for that movement from Omega either, but could sometimes source genuine omega parts from other places. It would cost $585 for a service and to fix the rotor. At this point in time, Manhattan Time Service had only had my first watch for a couple weeks and they were still in the middle of the original "complete overhaul." I decided that I would take the cal 552 to them to see if they could get the parts from Omega and (I hoped) charge less than $585.

I brought the cal 552 to Manhattan Time Service and they quoted me $550. Not a whole lot better, but they seemed to be able to get the parts from Omega, so I told them to go for it. After a few weeks, I picked it up and, sadly, I could still feel the rotor pivoting (not rotating, but pivoting closer and further from the case back). I asked them about it and he said he replaced the (?) on the rotor but that pivoting that I was feeling was normal and that if he tightened it up then the rotor would not wind the watch correctly. I am not a watchmaker so I had no grounds to disagree... I just wish they would have told me that from the beginning.

I kind of wish that I would have just stuck with Harri at Swiss Watch Repair for the cal 552 because I would have saved $250 and it seems that I would have gotten about the same result.

*** Side question - do any of you forum watchmakers know anything about this rotor pivoting business on cal 552???? ****


I have one more old Seamaster, cal 562. I will take it to Harri in the next couple of months and will update you, if you are interested.

I love the way these vintage watches look so much... but it is quite a bit of work to deal with the ins and outs of it all. Guess that is one thing that makes them special though.

Anyway... not sure how helpful that is, but thought I would chime in.

Good luck with yours!!

 

Since the OP isn't that knowledgeable about older watches I think it is asking a lot for him to source out a qualified Omega repairer to work on the watch. Yes, a $650 Omega overhaul is not chump change but it is worth getting fixed and then you'll have a nice 18k gold watch with a proper warranty. Put on a nicer strap and that will be a sharp looking watch.

 

Before I answer the question below, if anyone tells you they are "Omega certified" they should have no issues getting these parts. My feeling is that the shops who said they could not get parts were either never certified to begin with, or may have been certified in some manner in the past, but no longer are. All the parts needed for the 55X and 56X series movements can be ordered from Omega.

The rotors (oscillating weights) on these calibers use a plain bearing, not a rolling element bearing like a ball bearing. So in this case there is a hardened steel axle running in a softer bushing that has a gear attached to it - this is called the pinion. When the pinion gets worn, it allows the rotor to flop around, and if it's bad enough it will scrape on the plates of the movement and possibly on the inside of the case back. Here is a video showing the play in one of these with a worn pinion:

Fixing this is essential, because if you don't the rotor scraping on the plates or case back will cause damage, and also spread particles through the movement. Here is one that was scraping on the case back, and you can see a small section of wear at the high spot at the red arrow:



And here you can see where is was scraping the inside of the case back:



This happens with ball bearing as well, so here worn spots on the high points of the rotor finish:



Closer look:



And wear on the inside of the inner anti-magnetic cover in this case, rather than the case back:


New pinions are available from Omega, and changing them takes only a couple of minutes. Here is the process - start by pressing the old pinion out using the Horia tool:



You can see the teeth on the pinion on the underside of the rotor:



Pressing it out:



Old pinion removed:



New pinion:



New pinion is pressed into the rotor:



Not quite done yet - the inside diameter of the pinion is left intentionally undersized, so it must be reamed to fit the axle:



I do this very often, so I have a reamer set-up in a staking set base all the time specifically for this job. The reamer is oiled, and then brought down through the pinion:



After reaming the pinion is tested with the axle - if needed there is a second larger reamer that can be used to enlarge the hole another .001 mm:



The parts are then cleaned:



And the automatic module can be fully assembled:



So this illustrates the repair - again it only takes a few minutes in real time.

Cheers, Al

 

I know a pretty good guy in NYC who can help you with the service. I've been taking my watches to him for over 4 years already (Rolex and Omega) Vintage ones. Let me know if you need his info, happy to share it with you. Beautiful watch also .

 

Thanks for your thorough and informative response, @Archer. Your posts are always super helpful and the pictures, fantastic. My oscillating weight is definitely moving like the one in your video, although not quite to that degree... just now realizing that I should have checked to see if I could send it to you for a repair instead of wandering all over NYC. Side note: as a former machinist, it is really fun for me to see these parts in their various stages of disassembly, as well as the tiny versions of the kinds of tools I used to use in the shop, so thanks again for the pictures of repairs in action.

 

every time I am impressed not only by the knowledge but the willingness to share and the time you take on this forum. Bravo!

 

62 min response at 1am. Impressive.

 

Archer is in Toronto, I believe, so sending the watch to him would require international shipment. Expense, and the need to pass customs. Watches to be repaired and then returned are not supposed to need to pay duty, but customs doesn't always realize that (or maybe it's a matter of not believing the declarations).

There's something to be said for getting to know a good watchmaker near you, too, and there must be some in NYC.

Yes, Archer is amazingly helpful and educational, especially considering it's for people who probably won't be sending him watches to fix.

 

Oh, and for the original poster, I would try to stay away from the Omega Boutique. Not because they charge $650, because that's not a wildly out of line, but because they will probably send it to the assembly line repair operation elsewhere. The assembly line means most of the operations can be done by people with relatively little training, but I don't think doing only the same small operation on a watch all day every day leads to good job satisfaction or caring about the watch or the customer. Also they may polish it, and the way to get a valuable 50-year-old unpolished watch is to make sure it doesn't get polished when it's 30 years old...

 

To clear up a couple of misconceptions...

Nope, not in Toronto. I have not lived there since the mid-80's...

Certainly there is an expense with shipping the watch, but customs duties and taxes are not a problem if the right paperwork is used. I've done this thousands of times, and not had the sort of problems you are referring to.

The value for customs purposes with any item being returned from another country after being repaired, is the value of the repairs, not the value of the item. Specific declarations forms are used for returning items that have been repaired. It's a non-issue.

Cheers, Al

 

Norman is an impressive guy.

 

i apologize for my misunderstandings, and thank you for letting me know that sending outside the country doesn't have to be as big a deal as I thought.