Omega 8806 accuracy issue

padders

If its still within Metas specs I can't see you have any case. They probably serviced the watch to fix it and this is the result. +5s per day is not running poorly for a mechanical watch. In fact it is running very well. Hack it once a week and it'll never be more than about half a minute out.

serhij

Hi all,

My Omega Seamaster 1948 with METAS 8806 movement is running poorly and I need your advice on how to proceed with my case.

I bought my watch brand new from an authorized dealer about 6-7 weeks ago. That means two things - it is a brand new watch from legitimate source with full 5 year warranty and that quite possibly it was waiting on a shelf for me to pick it up for several years. Don’t know an actual production date, but it was a limited edition reference from 2018, so we are talking easily 3-5 years of sitting in the AD.

2 days after I got my brand new watch, I’ve realized there is something wrong with a rotor - It was spinning like crazy when watch was wound up manually. I took it to an official Omega authorized service, they sent it to a central service for Omega in my country, confirmed the issue and my warranty claim. All good stuff, I got my watch back very quickly (2 weeks I believe), reversing wheels have been replaced (no full service carried out) and the watch was working fine again.

Now here is the problem. Obviously I have had very little time with the watch before I sent it for a service. All I knew at this point with regards to accuracy was results of synthetic METAS certification test showing an average accuracy of +0.3s/day (crazy good). Now interestingly Service center gave the watch back to me with their own synthetic tests (a part of service procedure) showing the watch running +5.8s/day on average. We have now moved from one side of METAS range to the other. (the range for 8806 is 0-6s a day). The watch left the factory as remarkably accurate, spent some time in AD collecting dust and now is barely meeting METAS standards.

In the meantime I have had the watch demagnetized at local Omega service center (following an advice from the main service center for Poland) - no change. I wear the watch daily now for over 3 weeks and track the accuracy in WatchTracker. It seems to be running anywhere between +5 to +8 seconds per day.

I wonder if anyone has any idea what might be causing this issue, is there a legitimate reason to be worried and send it again for warranty repair? What could be possibly a reason for such a big discrepancy between METAS results and the test scores from the service center?

Thanks, a.

Canuck

I guess I don’t understand METAS standards tolerating up to about 6 seconds per day variation as acceptable. I am wearing my 34-year old Rolex Date-Just which has been on my wrist for 30 days. As of this moment, it is 3 seconds slow! It has not stopped or has it been re-set in those 30 days.

serhij

Funny you’ve mentioned Rolex - I own a METAS certified Tudor BlackBay. METAS cert says +0.84s/day and I’m getting +0.6 to +0.9 regardless of the position the watch is in, both on the wrist and in the box. I appreciate METAS, I understand the tolerance for every certification, but I don’t understand how the watch can change it’s results within those tolerances without being used. 20 or 30 years ago I’d blame it on oil, but now with synthetic oils used for watchmaking few years in the box should not have any impact on the watch.

serhij

Hi, this is normal (confirmed with a watchmaker). As you wind the watch, the tension is going to increase and unfortunately a clover crown doesn’t offer the best grip ever 😂.