As you may recall, I sent my 146.006 with cal. 321 to omega for service. This thread contains all the gory details: https://omegaforums.net/threads/upd...atch-to-omega-for-service-is-a-problem.32472/
I finally got the watch back from Omega, still with the polished case but they did correct the subdial hands.

While the watch was on its world tour and with the keen eye of an OF member, I was able to pick up an unpolished 146.006 case, a 1116 bracelet and a pair of 548 endlinks. All I needed was the watch so I could put it back together in about the same condition it was in before Omega screwed the thing up.

As soon as the watch arrived, I took it and all the parts to my watchmaker. I had him put the old hands back on; tried to put the original pushers on but Omega crimped them so they couldn't be reused and put the new crystal on the old case. I now have a fully serviced 321 from 1966 that looks almost as good as vintage.

 

Congrats - I really like these with the radial subdials.

 

Glad it worked out!

 

No thanks to Omega, though.

 

Holy crap, I just read the entire other thread... Insane.
Well looks like you got s beautiful watch back up and running.

 

That, sir, is dedication. I'm sorry to do that to you.

 

oh, the lengths we'll go for our beloved omegas...and I thought I had it bad recently.
kudos to you, efauser!

 

I just read the old thread too. Wow, what a nightmare. It'll make me think twice about sending a vintage (or modern) watch to them for servicing.

Did they offer you any sort of compensation, or are they still flat out denying that they caused any harm? At the very least you should have gotten a refund on the servicing.

 

I'm SOL.

 

well, except for this . . .

 

Can you please show these "crimped" pushers?

Similar story very recently on another forum...Mk. II sent to local Omega service center for service and polish. They screwed up the finish, rounded off corners, etc., then claimed it was the best they could do. Not my photos but I'll post them here so you can see what they did...here is the watch before it was sent in:



After refinish at the service center:



Clearly didn't use a proper lapping machine and they originally said they didn't have that equipment. Then they found that they did actually have it, so they refinished the case using the lapping machine. The owner said he wanted Bienne to look at it to make sure it was right, and Bienne refinished it again. Here is the end result:



Looks better, but if you look at the red arrows in the first and third photos, you can see how much material they removed to get it to this point. Not sure this case could ever be refinished again...

 

Man, what was wrong with it to begin with? Not the best pic, but looks fine in that first photo..

 

Holy cripes, that could have gotten real ugly real fast. How could they possibly take off so much? It's a shame that second shot doesn't show how much is left after the first refinishing--can't tell which center is to blame for screwing it up.

I used to hear such good things about Omega servicing, but lately all I've been reading are horror stories...

 

I think the owner just wanted it to look pristine. This is one reason why I'm not really a fan of all the refurbishing done on these cases...even examples that are really fine can get messed up quite a lot.

I think there's plenty of blame to go around. I did see a shot of the case after the local service center had a go at it with their lapping machine, but it was showing the 12 o-clock side, not the same 6 o'clock side. There was plenty of material left on it at that spot, but the case had not been fully cleaned up yet, so the final removal of material was done by Bienne and that is when it was thinned out so much.

I think because the flat right at the crystal was already so thin, they set the angle of the lapping machine to a steeper angle than the case already was, so they removed more material off the outer circumference than they did near the crystal. Not sure they had much choice if they were going to fully clean it up. Again that's why I prefer to leave these alone rather than lap them...

 

Good info as always. A mk2 is on my list of wants, and I'll remember never to allow this kind of work to be done. Better dented/scratched than permanently ruined.

 

Geez, that's a deep cut if i ever saw one. I happen to be wearing my family-owned-never-polished (but serviced last year by Archer) mark II today and there's a considerable difference in thickness.

I know she's looking a little rough, but it was father's watch from the 70's that I just couldn't bring myself to having the case redone..



and here's a dial shot

 

Totally understandable. In your case, the damage would be a plus. Looks like you had the bracelet refinished though?

 

Actually this one is a spare! I have the original beat-to-heck 1170 (with extra links too) tucked away for special occasions.

My next big purchase is hopefully going to be a minty 145.022 from the same era (early 70's).

Do you guys buy most of your watches here on the forum?

 

What's wrong with looking rough?

Looks like a quality watch which was used as such...

 

So glad it worked out, great piece!