A little bit of a scare for me. Two days ago, I was winding my UG Tri-Compax when I felt it tighten and stop. I thought it was just fully wound and paid no mind to it and I actually ended up putting on a different watch. The next day I go to see that my watch wasn’t running. I try and wind it but it is just too tight. Won’t even allow for one rotation, so I didn’t force it. Today, same thing crown tension is all the way. I’m fearing for the worst... I’ve been wanting to take it for a service since I received it, but I have had trouble finding a watchmaker in New York to service any of my vintage watches. They all quote me at around 1K for just the standard served, and I really haven’t wanted to deal with shipping back and forth. I took a picture of the movement as it is right now. I would appreciate if any of our experts here have any thing to share on what they think could have gone wrong.
if you don’t trust your local shops .. send this to RGM for an overhaul. Budget a grand. It’s worth it.
Sounds like the mainspring is fully wound and that the movement is jammed. From the image, i can see the chronograph is not enagaged so it is nothing to do with Chrono mechanism. It is very hard to tell. Does the balance wheel swing if you gently rotate watch clockwise and anti? If it does for very little time, then it could be dirt on a wheel, a broken pinion or tooth on a wheel or any number of issues related to movement. Try pulling out crown and setting time to between 4 and 8 o' clock and see if there is any change. If not, it is going to be a watchmakers job.
What you have identified is the minute register jumper. That part of the movement would not be "engaged" unless the chronograph is running.
I could give some thoughts on my experiences in hunting watchmakers in NYC but probably it's better to send to the real experts RGM as @Larry S said.
I just picked up a tri compax that seems to work well bud I'd like to service it and would love to do it in NYC. Any thoughts on who might do a good job would be greatly appreciated.
OK. Here go my thoughts. I started searching around first with this post, was looking to service an 861 speedy. https://omegaforums.net/threads/servicing-recommendations-in-nyc.84457/#post-1088194 And from that list what I can tell you is Manhattan Time Services - I suggest you stay away from, because they tried to replace a whole lot of stuff even though they were perfectly fine and overcharged me at estimate. Took my speedy back after their estimate. Watchmaking Project - they seem to be OK but they have no brick-and-mortar location (weird) so I had to exclusively talk through them via email. I think they would be pretty affordable if I sent my speedy in for estimate but I had to drop my speedy in a mailbox if I wanted an estimate and that was something quite anxious for me to do, so I didn't go with them. Swiss Precision Watchmaking & Repair - so at this point I was getting really frustrated and I was also pressed for time to start my speedy getting serviced, since I had already spent half the allotted time at my NYC there. They gave me an estimate of 600 and I went with it, because Manhattan time service estimated 1000 and I strongly disagreed with that. MTS also wanted to change the vintage hands and I didn't like that. Swiss precision was happy to keep them as is. I like that they give you more control over what you want done and not done. The drawback to them is that they are VERY slow and communication is kind of a b*tch. MTS had quoted me 3 weeks for full overhaul repair and Swiss precision took something like 5 times more that. But Michael is Omega certified so he was able to order parts as needed. I am not sure of the other ones at the list - I simply didn't have enough time and energy to visit and submit my speedys for estimation. So that's my experience - I guess Swiss precision is the best one from the list so far. You might want to see the others at the list, and the compare them to Swiss precision.
I can probably help if you A) want to drive less than an hour or so or B) don't mind fedex. You can PM me.