Hi,

The quest for my first vintage Omega has reached a point where I more or less have made my mind up that it is an automatic that I want.

Now to my question. Omega has made quite a number of automatic movements during the 50ies, 60ies and early 70ies. Are there any of these movements that I should avoid due to a lack of available parts or that they are hard/expensive to service? On the other side; are there any movements that I should look for that have good parts availability and are easy/cheap to service?

I talked to a guy at a watch store in my town that is selling and servicing Omegas, and he mentioned that availability of parts is getting tricky on quite a number of old Omegas. He also mentioned that the "factory" is moving more towards bringing the watches in for complete factory overhauls which takes months and costs the same as the watch did.

That is why I ask the question. I know for example that the 564/565 are very good movements, but are they hard/expensive to service? What about other automatics?

Hope you can help me out.

Per

 

Thanks for the reply!

So what you say is that if I stick to 55x/56x/75x I should be ok with service costs and parts?

 

Appreciate the help. Thanks a lot!

Cheers!

 

The ones to be wary of are the post 1972 calibers like the 1000 series, with the exception of the Lemania based automatic 104x chronographs. I'd avoid a 100x at all costs unless it's an extremely cool and uncommon dive watch. The 101x and 102x are still decent movements but they don't compare to the 55x / 56x / 75x series that prededed them.

 

Thanks.

The post -72 1xxx calibers where not "in-house", where they? Rather developed jointly with other manufacturers?

But ok... I know what to look for now. I had an idea already before asking, but internet is full of people who like to have an opinion even about things they have no idea about. So I thought I would ask you guys who also likes to have an opinon, but actually have the knowledge to back it up.

Per

 

Some were, some weren't.

 

A watchmaker friend of mine (who my kids refer to as my drug dealer) services Omega. He recently received a new catalogue of spares for the 55x/56x series Omegas, seems there's enough demand on these that they've re-issued some parts.

Warms the heart doesn't it.

 

I can't say I recall ever having run into a part that I could not get from Omega for these...what parts have they now brought back?

Cheers, Al

 

I'm not sure, I think it was more a topping up of what was available, to assure the inventory was complete for the future.

I thought it sounded like support for the mid 500 calibers was being rethought and extended, and that can't be bad!

 

If he's a dealer, maybe he wasn't talking about Omega supplies? did he specifically mention "tops"?

 

Okay wondering if by "catalogue of spares" you mean the Omega technical guides for these movements. Omega recently reissued the technical guides and spare parts listings for these calibers, with updated photos, diagrams. Here are some screen shots that I cropped to show what the new guide looks like:







They are cropped because Omega insists on plastering my email address 4 times on every page of every document I download from the Extranet, as we are not supposed to distribute them....so don't ask...

I don't know what Omega's intent was for doing this, but I would certainly be cautious to read anything about future parts supply into it. My guess would be that they are issuing these again to make sure people use the correct part numbers for things they are ordering.

For example if you look at the old tech guide for the 563, and want to order a ratchet wheel, the parts number is 550.1100. I know from personal experience that the people at Omega filling your order will tell you that is not a valid number. The number they want is 72205501100, the modern version of the Omega number. For countries where the watchmakers do not have Extranet access, I can see these updated guides would cut down on the time in the ordering process for Omega.

The other thing is these guides are now in more languages than before, so this may be the reason for the updates....

Cheers, Al

 

honestly, beats me, I'm just happy to know I can get parts!

Maybe I'll pry him for more information when next I'm at his shop.