Picked up this nice little 2535.80 a couple days ago from a Toronto vendor. Took a couple days to get to me in Ottawa by mail. The watch just got back from the Omega service centre in Toronto a few weeks ago, so is cleaned up pretty nicely. I have all the service paperwork, pressure test printout and timing printout.





So first question - Serial number on the lug (and 2628B movement) is 819325XX, so I think it's a 2007 production timepiece. Correct? Also, am I correct that the 2628B is the GMT equivalent of the 2500C? If so, hopefully it's been serviced to eliminate the issues 2500C watches had when first released?

Next, they seem to have refinished the bond SMP bracelet at the Omega SC, and they replaced every removable pin and collar in the bracelet, and refinished it to close to new looking, but I noticed that on some links the flush pins that hold the links themselves together are now visible. It's been years since I last owned an SMP Bond 1503 bracelet, and I honestly can't remember if these pins were visible in my old ones. Is this normal? Or perhaps an artefact of Omega having to aggressively polish the side of the bracelet to refurb it? What do you guys think?













Lastly, I got all the parts Omega replaced during service when I got the watch - it basically got back from service, and I bought it days later. I know guys like Archer will often look at what was replaced and opine on why - so how about this haul? Any ideas why such a large portion of the movement had to be replaced on a relatively "new" watch?

 

The 2826A is equivalent to the 2500B in terms of the co-axial parts, beat rate, etc. The 2826B is equivalent to the 2500C in terms of co-axial parts, beat rate, etc. So this gives you the most up to date version of the 2-level co-axial escapement - still not a 3-level, but the best 2-level design.

On the parts, most of these are regular service parts that are replaced on most watches. In particular the case parts,. so gaskets for the crystals, case back, etc. New crown, new case tube, new HEV. This is all standard stuff to be replaced. The stem is still in the old crown because the watchmakers won't take time to remove it from the old crown and use it again - technically there's usually nothing wrong with the stem, so this is just either laziness, or a time saving measure depending on how you look at things.

For the bracelet - common to replace the worn pins and tubes. It is unusual to see the pins for the fixed links showing, at least in my experience.

On the movement parts, the entire barrel is replaced, again mostly to save time, as usually all that requires replacing is the mainspring. The co-axial parts wear (so much for no friction!) so replacing the co-axial wheel and pallet fork is not uncommon at all (these are parts that are rarely replaced in a lever escapement movement by the way, even though the lever escapement is supposedly inferior). The other wheel are likely replaced for wear on the pivots, so the third wheel and intermediate wheels are common to replace.

The reversing wheel and the reverser are replaced from the automatic winding - again hard working parts that are often showing wear. Looks like maybe the ratchet wheel driving wheel, and some other auto wind and barrel bridge wheels there. A few of the wheels seem to have a lot of dirt in the teeth, so not sure what that is from. If they came out of the watch this way, that would be unusual. No idea what the setting lever was replaced - not a parts that often needs it unless it had rust from a faulty crown seal...but it doesn't look rusty.

Curious about two parts I don't see there. One is the bearing for the rotor, and with all the worn automatic winding parts I would have expected the bearing to be replaced also.

The second one I'm very surprised not to see is the hour wheel. This movement has the one hour jumps of the hour hand, and that wheel fails over time, and I always replace it at service. I thought Omega did as well, but maybe not...

Cheers, Al

 

Thanks al, at least the link ends don't show on the wrist. Better than buying a new $800 bracelet, I guess.

As for things like a missing hour wheel, i bought this watch a couple weeks after it got back from service at a used watch dealer in toronto. He said it needed to be cleaned up to be saleable, and i believe it. Omega did a great job, but there is lots of wear on the external parts of the old crown and hev, so it likely needed cosmetic attention everywhere. I paid a fair price nonetheless for this reference.

For all i know, some parts might not have been returned from omega by accident, or the dealer lost something out of the bag. No idea. But the watch is keeping cosc time and looks nearly new again, so whatever omega did, they did it well and it has a fresh warranty and passed pressure test.

 

Ps:

The parts do look dirty, no idea if they came out of the watch like that, but I doubt it. Nothing is rusty anywhere and the display back shows no visible sign of prior moisture infiltration. The dial is also perfect and wasn't replaced.

The parts were in the same baggy as the bits that came out of the bezel mechanism, and they are very dirty too. I'm assuming the sharp gears picked up a bunch of crud from being in a bag with other very dirty parts.

 

@Claven2, how did you know it was a 2628B movement? Were you able to tell that from the serial number?