New Member, First Post, What to do with Seamaster 2521.81 with sentimental value?

Sorry to hear about the problem with your watch and Omega’s response at the time about the dial/crystal. Those were cool watches - I had a Bulova back in the day that had the ETA version of the movement.

if the case back is all you care about from the watch, you could just remove it and frame it or attach to a wood base. Would make a nice momento.

Or, you could find a working version of the watch (I see them occasionally on eBay) and switch out your case back.

Does indeed look like a nice watch.

Be a shame in a way to frankenize it. I am not too familiar with watches of this era other than in general terms. I was there and never really happy about the disposable nature of such watches.

A quick search online does show a couple of these on auction sites. So the best option would be to get another one and replace the movement. The donor movement could then be sold piecemeal as parts, to recover some of the costs. One needs to be into this sort of thing for the long haul.

I also see that there are some threads here, on this style I did not follow those links.

I do have expertise in micro electronics. For the most part the LCD screens hold up well. These are basically soap sealed between sheets of glass. (A soap bubble is the classic example of a liquid crystal.) Conductive ink connects this to the outside of the glass. Most failures are in the glass to copper transition. Such is done with more conductive metals. Gold is the best, which is often plated over the contacts. Carbon and silver oxide are also used. When this breaks down some of the digits start acting weird.

If the rubber strip is used (like on a calculator or thermostat.) sometimes a simple cleaning can fix it. If it is plated conductive ink on tape (flex printed circuit) Then repairs become unreasonable, other than for personal passion.

The good news in a way is that the manufacturing process means that thousands were made. So parts should be available for a price. On the other hand if the failure modes cause one part fail often, then that part can be hard to find.

Omega, has told other members here that it is easier to repair something from the 1880s than the 1980s. They do want to continue to sell new watches, so often they can be helpful when approached respectfully. I suspect, that they too are frustrated too with watches from this era and the limited availability of parts. Most of the techs who designed these chips and displays from 50 years ago are gone as well.

This watch has great and innovative design. In many ways way ahead of the curve with the (pun intended) curved display. The quick online search does imply that this is the sort of example, that will be preserved.

Thanks for sharing, now I will keep an eye out for this style, as I like impossible challenges for my own projects.

-j

The watch itself is toast, I wouldn't put any money in trying to resurrect it to a functioning state. In these types of situations I would make a static display out of it. Remove the bracelet and go buy a shadow box at Hobby Lobby or other craft store. Collect a few mementos of that era; pictures of your dad, your last days in school, whatever was personal to you at that time of your life and make an attractive display with the back of the watch as the key focus. (Enlist a woman who is craft oriented, they always have good ideas from an artistic point of view to make it attractive. You'll use a glue gun to attach the pieces to the back of the shadow box) Then you'll have an attractive conversation piece that means something to you.

For restoring it, I agree with looking for a working example of the same reference from which you can scavenge parts. Then maybe you can find someone with the knowledge to do so. At one extreme, you can just swap case-backs and wear the second watch. At the other end of the spectrum, you could just take the display from the other watch. It might be easiest to do something in-between, where you transplant the guts of the working watch into yours, so that the cosmetic parts remain mostly the same.