How long does a complete service REALLY take?

rahul718

I've always been curious about this. I have a 2531.80 over at Omega undergoing a full service. This is the third time I've sent a watch to them and they've all come back at around the 5 week mark. But I'm curious if it even needs to take that long. I assume the main reason it takes this long is because they're working on more than one watch. So out of curiosity, how long would a complete manufacturer service take from beginning to end if they continuously only worked on that one particular watch? A day? A few days? Let's take polishing out of the equation as well, even though I believe this happens in parallel while the movement is being serviced.

And then there's quality control which includes timing and power reserve check, so that's a couple of days right there. Am I wrong to presume that a complete manufacturer service should only take a few full days? What about the actual "servicing" part on the movement - how long would that usually take?

I know co-axials are more complex and involved, so let's just assume this question is for a Swiss lever escapement movement.

Snap Crackle

There’s is a guy on YouTube with a channel. I think his name is Mark Lovick? He breaks down movements all the time in no time and puts them back together.

gostang9

As @Archer has pointed out many times, questions like this are always best answered by “it depends...”

On what? That he’d have to explain (or another watchmaker, but from what I do understand:
- the type of watch movement itself
- the type of repairs and parts replacement
- availability of parts (he sometimes has to search and wait until he finds and receives certain hard to find vintage parts)
- amount of true watchmaking “work” required to repair parts of the movement (lots of fancy words I don’t understand...)
- how many other projects he has on the go
- how much he likes you
- how much he likes working on the particular movement
- if it’s a special / different movement or watch, as he enjoys a change sometimes
- if he’s on holiday

gostang9

Wow, that is interesting. Another great reason not to send a watch to them...

Archer

Good question, and as you might expect if you understand the Swiss, Omega has standards for workshop productivity as outlined in Work Instruction 48 that tell you exactly how long this should take.

The time that a service is expected to take will depend on the movement complexity of course, but for the Cal. 1120 in your 25318000, this is a "WP2" class movement and for a complete maintenance service they allow 2 hours and 55 minutes. This includes disassembling, cleaning & assembling of movement, dial/hand setting, casing and timing. Additional times are alloowed for things like diagnosis, gathering spare parts, and things like bracelet and case refinishing, but the basic service is just under 3 hours.

WP3 movements include co-axials like the 8500, and for those the time allowed is 3 hours and 25 minutes. For a vintage movements that will have more issues, the WP4 class will allow 4 hours and 5 minutes.

For more complex movements like chronographs, the WP5 class includes the 861 and 1861 Speedmaster movements, they are allowed 3 hours and 35 minutes. Cal. 3303, 3313, 9300's are WP6, and are allowed 4 hours and 30 minutes. The longest time allowed is for the mechanical complications in class WP7, so movements like the 980 alarm movement, 3600 split seconds chronograph, etc. and those are allowed 6 hours and 45 minutes.

These are average times, as clearly some watches can take much longer than others of the same type do depending on the condition, and simply how well they "cooperate" during the service. Omega also has efficiency factoring for watchmakers who are learning, so if you are a new graduate from watchmaking school, your "productivity coefficient" for the first 3 months will be 0.5, so you are expected to take twice as long as the average times. Then as you get closer to the end of your first year, you are expected to get better and at one year in you should be at 1, so meeting those average times I've set out above.

Cheers, Al