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Omega barn find treasure… previously undocumented 372 movement!

M
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I wasn’t sure if I should post this, but I figure I’ll need help with this one… 2 pics show it as-found, and other pic shows it in its temporary home while I try to find a suitable 18k Omega case. Looking to do a sympathetic restoration to get her fully operational, but I am unsure of things like a dial refinish… this one is definitely in poor condition, but it’s original. The current hour & minute hands came out of my parts stash, but I’ll need to find the sweep seconds hand or have a “correct” one made if possible.
If anyone has an appropriate-looking 1950’s solid 18k Omega case that this movement will fit into, I would be very interested… and ANY restoration advice will be helpful, so thank you in advance!
 
1514811D-7DB9-4F08-B420-6F3A518F1909.jpeg E8707F79-A4BD-465E-8BEE-591CB47F5B27.jpeg 5F5D902A-22E8-49C6-B52E-78056C002FB5.jpeg
dsio
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Very cool, not many of these synchrobeats around. It would be good to pull an extract on it to find out if they have any info on the case or anything else cool like where it was delivered.
 
UncleBuck
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That 372 has jumping seconds I believe and would be sweet to see going again! I hope you find a stunning seconds hand.

Good luck, it looks like work.

I personally feel it would look better cleaned up and left original, as-is with the "moon-crater" dial. The watch companies work hard to get dials looking like this!
Cleaned up with shiny markers and proper hands and I bet this looks killer.
 
M
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UncleBuck UncleBuck
That 372 has jumping seconds I believe and would be sweet to see going again! I hope you find a stunning seconds hand.

Good luck, it looks like work.

I personally feel it would look better cleaned up and left original, as-is with the "moon-crater" dial. The watch companies work hard to get dials looking like this!
Cleaned up with shiny markers and proper hands and I bet this looks killer.
I am leaning toward just cleaning the dial & markers… and I’m one who really appreciates originality on my cars, jukeboxes & watches. Amazingly the movement is running strong and actually keeps good time after a quick clean & oil, but the seconds function isn’t working as far as I can tell. It appears to be all there, but something is preventing it from ticking properly.
 
Tony C.
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It's a "Synchrobeat", and I don't know why you would characterize the movement as "undocumented".

They are rare, as the production run was small.

omega-synchro-beat.jpg
 
M
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Tony C. Tony C.
It's a "Synchrobeat", and I don't know why you would characterize the movement as "undocumented".

They are rare, as the production run was small.

omega-synchro-beat.jpg
I said undocumented because the serial number is not on any Synchroneat serial list that I’ve seen. Obviously caliber 372 is well documented, but there are only a certain number of known examples’ serial numbers published on the Internet.
 
M
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M Maddiecaddy
I said undocumented because the serial number is not on any Synchroneat serial list that I’ve seen. Obviously caliber 372 is well documented, but there are only a certain number of known examples’ serial numbers published on the Internet.
“SynchoBeat”… typing with cold fingers LOL
 
Tony C.
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M Maddiecaddy
I said undocumented because the serial number is not on any Synchroneat serial list that I’ve seen. Obviously caliber 372 is well documented, but there are only a certain number of known examples’ serial numbers published on the Internet.

I see, thanks for the clarification.
 
watchyouwant
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M Maddiecaddy
I said undocumented because the serial number is not on any Synchroneat serial list that I’ve seen. Obviously caliber 372 is well documented, but there are only a certain number of known examples’ serial numbers published on the Internet.

If yours has never shown up before, why would you find it on the Internet? Everything on the Net is put there by somebody.....
 
kaplan
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Haha, very funny and ironical, as Quartz destroyed the market and they had to be Synchrobeat by hertz

If they patented this well and fought the Quartz second hand movements somehow, things could've been interesting
 
watchyouwant
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Btw: My previous Watchmaker in Sydney, who unfortunately passed away, did fix 3x Rolex Truebeat' s. He knew the spring driven add-on well ... Second hand: find a correct lengths hand and apply the triangle at the top. Or send everything to the Factory.
 
M
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watchyouwant watchyouwant
If yours has never shown up before, why would you find it on the Internet? Everything on the Net is put there by somebody.....
That was my point… no one has seen this watch in decades and it’s been hidden away in a parts drawer. I said this serial number is not included on any list online… so naturally it’s not on the survivor list yet…
 
dsio
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kaplan kaplan
Haha, very funny and ironical, as Quartz destroyed the market and they had to be Synchrobeat by hertz

If they patented this well and fought the Quartz second hand movements somehow, things could've been interesting
The early quartz weren’t synchrobeat originally, both the Beta 21 including Omegas and earliest Japanese quartz designs have a smooth sweeping hand which looks really cool as its smoother than a mechanical, I think it was Seiko that started using dead seconds to save battery and make them last longer between changes.
 
M
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watchyouwant watchyouwant
Btw: My previous Watchmaker in Sydney, who unfortunately passed away, did fix 3x Rolex Truebeat' s. He knew the spring driven add-on well ... Second hand: find a correct lengths hand and apply the triangle at the top. Or send everything to the Factory.
I’d be worried that the factory would recall it and destroy it! LOL
 
M
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M Maddiecaddy
I’d be worried that the factory would recall it and destroy it! LOL
If I thought that the factory would do a proper restoration I’d consider it… but I’d have to discuss it at length with someone in their restoration department beforehand.
 
dsio
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M Maddiecaddy
I’d be worried that the factory would recall it and destroy it! LOL
That isn’t something that would ever happen, Omega has the Cal 372 on display in the museum:

https://omegaforums.net/threads/visit-to-omega-museum-part-b-movements-and-early-days.6453/

In its day it was an embarrassment somewhat akin to the NSU 80, now so much time has passed that it’s a funny and interesting story coupled with a rare watch movement. They didn’t want to disappoint buyers of new watches who had high expectations of Omega and embarrass the brand, but people buying these now know what they’re getting and don’t care about the issues.
 
watchyouwant
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dsio dsio
That isn’t something that would ever happen, Omega has the Cal 372 on display in the museum:

https://omegaforums.net/threads/visit-to-omega-museum-part-b-movements-and-early-days.6453/

In its day it was an embarrassment somewhat akin to the NSU 80, now so much time has passed that it’s a funny and interesting story coupled with a rare watch movement. They didn’t want to disappoint buyers of new watches who had high expectations of Omega and embarrass the brand, but people buying these now know what they’re getting and don’t care about the issues.

That was the same with the Rolex Truebeat' and there are 3 other brands, that tried their luck with that set up. Rolex would not repair these . Only an experienced Watchmaker could make a new spring with the right tension. And that did cost ! But a functioning True Beat fetched a lot of money. And: trying to fix these jumping seconds wristwatches needed a language warning. A lot of swearing involved....
 
Tony C.
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watchyouwant watchyouwant
That was the same with the Rolex Truebeat' and there are 3 other brands, that tried their luck with that set up. Rolex would not repair these . Only an experienced Watchmaker could make a new spring with the right tension. And that did cost ! But a functioning True Beat fetched a lot of money. And: trying to fix these jumping seconds wristwatches needed a language warning. A lot of swearing involved....

Interestingly, though, the dead-second "exact time" dealer display watches seemed to function very well. I've owned a few, and they have all performed well even after 60-70 years, with unknown service histories.
 
mac_omega
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M Maddiecaddy
That was my point… no one has seen this watch in decades and it’s been hidden away in a parts drawer. I said this serial number is not included on any list online… so naturally it’s not on the survivor list yet…

Hi, would you mind sharing the serial# ? It can´t be read in the photo.
 
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