Omega Constellation service expectations and advice

Giovannii · Mar 12, 2024

Hello OF,

I recently joined the forum here and it’s great!

My Constellation 14381 came to a dead stop a couple of weeks ago and I did send it for a service. Before the service it had a power reserve of approximately 45 hours, and ran a bit fast at +10 sec per day.

My watchmaker of choice is a well known watchmaker in my area with an omega parts account. Total trust from my side.

Got it back from service and I measured the power reserve to 40 hours (full wind and resting in my watch box) and it seems to run even faster now. Approximately +20 sec a day. Measured with an iOS-app so maybe not the best accuracy measurements but I do notice it runs fast. I will do a few more measurements just to be sure.

I’m curious to hear your opinions about this. Maybe this is all normal and to be expected, this is my first old (early 60’s) vintage watch but I did hope to get a little better accuracy and power reserve after this service. He did replace the mainspring, crown and crystal.

I really don’t want to step on my watchmakers toes, and though I paid a lot of money (to me) I don’t think I paid enough regarding the great work these watchmakers do.

is this within the tolerance of an old serviced vintage cal 551? Please let me know.

Also, on top of this above, he did relume the hands. I didn’t expect that, and it didn’t cross my mind to tell him not to. I actually don’t mind, on these hands it’s barely noticeable and I don’t think it will devalue my watch. One thing did catch my eye though, and sometimes it’s hard for me to unsee it. In all honesty it do look a lot worse in the picture, in some angels I don’t see it. But then I do… it’s a little lump of lume on the hour hand at the end (or beginning) of the lume strip. It bothers me, but I can let it go.
What’s your take on this?

Okey, to sum up:

40 hours power reserve - should be ok? Read a thread on here that omega specs says 40 hours? I’ve heard 50 hours before and I got 45 pre service.

Runs fast after service. Maybe ok?

Relume. I’m ok with relume, but lump bothers me a little… 😉

Sorry for low quality picture, it’s a screenshot from a video.

Thank you for a great forum!

Kind regards,
J

Dan S · Mar 12, 2024

If the timekeeping is consistent, I'm sure he would be happy to adjust it to run slower if you ask him.

kaplan · Mar 12, 2024

Wannabe kids who build replica watches do a 100x better job than that sad relume, it's a deal stopper for me - it's just plain white powder by the looks of it, not old yellow, no discolorants

As far as the time keeping goes, delta I guess matters most, if it's consistently +20 - you could ask for it to be closer to +0

You have to keep a watch running for a couple of days for the healthiest calibration

Sorry you experienced this, and I think the relume is a RED FLAG - the +20 is just one tiny touch away from being +1-2

Edit: And it most definitely reduces the value of your watch, the value is now an_unserviced_watch-cost_of_service-cost_of_new_hands - any potential buyer is going to assume a hand set that was lumed like that is likely abused and not worthy too - and they will assume it needs to be serviced for a new hand set to be installed

Giovannii · Mar 13, 2024

kaplan
Wannabe kids who build replica watches do a 100x better job than that sad relume, it's a deal stopper for me - it's just plain white powder by the looks of it, not old yellow, no discolorants

As far as the time keeping goes, delta I guess matters most, if it's consistently +20 - you could ask for it to be closer to +0

You have to keep a watch running for a couple of days for the healthiest calibration

Sorry you experienced this, and I think the relume is a RED FLAG - the +20 is just one tiny touch away from being +1-2

Edit: And it most definitely reduces the value of your watch, the value is now an_unserviced_watch-cost_of_service-cost_of_new_hands - any potential buyer is going to assume a hand set that was lumed like that is likely abused and not worthy too - and they will assume it needs to be serviced for a new hand set to be installed

It’s that bad huh. Any advice what can be done? Is it possible to remove the new lume altogether and just leave it empty? Or ask for a better relume?

As I said, the picture that I posted make it look a bit worse than it is, not defending that poor relume but on these pictures below it doesn’t look quite as bad.

To bad he didn’t call me and asked about reluming or not.

Thank you for your reply!

/Johan

kaplan · Mar 13, 2024

Conflict resolution isn’t my thing so I can’t make a suggestion there - my suggestion would be to ask for a full refund and sell the watch afterwards

Every time the hands are removed, the way its regularly done, the dial is stressed as they are usually not airlifted and your dial is in the risk class

Externally you could gently apply coffee on the hands to discolor the lume a bit

That blob on the tip of the hours hand is out of place as well, are you sure it’s not a bump on the hand?

The main reason everyone uses an independent watchmaker is to keep watches original and in this instance the opposite happened. Would you mind sharing who did this?

Giovannii · Mar 13, 2024

kaplan
Conflict resolution isn’t my thing so I can’t make a suggestion there - my suggestion would be to ask for a full refund and sell the watch afterwards

Every time the hands are removed, the way its regularly done, the dial is stressed as they are usually not airlifted and your dial is in the risk class

Externally you could gently apply coffee on the hands to discolor the lume a bit

That blob on the tip of the hours hand is out of place as well, are you sure it’s not a bump on the hand?

The main reason everyone uses an independent watchmaker is to keep watches original and in this instance the opposite happened. Would you mind sharing who did this?

Hmm okey sounds a bit extreme to sell my watch, i still love it regardless of this flaw. Interested to know if anything can be done to help this situation, hopefully someone can share some information and give me advice on this matter.

Would like to hear a few more opinions before sharing information about this watchmaker. It´s a "lume lump/blob", not a bump on the hand.

Appreciate your reply!

/Johan

kaplan · Mar 13, 2024

Nice that you can think positively - if you decide to postpone the issue, make sure to ask what binder the watchmaker used and what dissolves it, then you can just get it corrected faster the next time it's serviced - this matters as more aggressive solvents also damage the coating on the hands

gbesq · Mar 13, 2024

Simply put, I think that you may need a better watchmaker. After reading about your experience, my biggest concern is not the accuracy or the power reserve of the watch, but rather that your watchmaker relumed the hands (and did a poor job of it) without your authorization. Now, if you had given the watchmaker carte blanche to fix whatever he deemed necessary or, alternatively, gave him no instructions at all other than to service the watch, that's another matter, but it doesn't sound like that's what happened. Any competent watchmaker can adjust the timing. Given that the mainspring was replaced, the power reserve should have improved unless there was some other problem that required attention and was not fixed. Reluming the hands is not a difficult job either and Kaplan is correct that they should have been color matched for a better aesthetic with the dial. If you still have confidence in this watchmaker, I would have a sit down talk with him, express your concerns, and see if he is willing to address them at no additional charge. If you're reluctant to have him work on the watch again, then I think that your only alternatives are (a) live with the watch as is, (b) seek whatever refund you can get (and my guess is that you won't get much) and then have the watch serviced again by a competent watchmaker, or (c) sell the watch as is for what you can get. Just my two cents.

Peemacgee · Mar 13, 2024

@Giovannii
Do you have pics of before the service?

both @kaplan and @gbesq are correct.
The lume is poorly done and your watchmaker should have asked before he carried out such a major change to your watch.

However, if the lume fell apart when removing the hands he may have replaced the filling as an additional service. ( as a benefit or to cover some clumsy hand removal)
Did he charge an additional amount for reluming?
Does the lume glow (ie is it superluminova?)

Either way, communication is key here - talk to your watchmaker and have him rectify the blob and colour match the lume.

While he’s in there, ask him to regulate the movt.
Unless there is something worn in the watch (which he should have mentioned) a cal551 should be able to run spot on and not not 20 secs out.

BTW is there something going on with the minute hand just beyond the lume?
It looks a bit odd in some of the pics.

Dan S · Mar 13, 2024

The lume can be replaced with something more appropriate in color. This is typically done by adding pigment, it's not hard to do. If the original lume was badly damaged previously, there's really no harm done.

And if the watch was serviced properly, it's likely that the watch can be regulated to keep better time on your wrist.

Giovannii · Mar 13, 2024

Peemacgee
@Giovannii
Do you have pics of before the service?

both @kaplan and @gbesq are correct.
The lume is poorly done and your watchmaker should have asked before he carried out such a major change to your watch.

However, if the lume fell apart when removing the hands he may have replaced the filling as an additional service. ( as a benefit or to cover some clumsy hand removal)
Did he charge an additional amount for reluming?
Does the lume glow (ie is it superluminova?)

Either way, communication is key here - talk to your watchmaker and have him rectify the blob and colour match the lume.

While he’s in there, ask him to regulate the movt.
Unless there is something worn in the watch (which he should have mentioned) a cal551 should be able to run spot on and not not 20 secs out.

BTW is there something going on with the minute hand just beyond the lume?
It looks a bit odd in some of the pics.

Here’s a picture from when I first got it. Again sorry for the bad quality it’s from a video. Is the lume missing, or is it really really dark?

The new lume glows, and he didn’t charge me anything for it. I will talk to him, just wanted some opinions from you guys before I do. So there should be no difficulty to replace this bad lume with a new better and color matched lume and get the blob taken care of? Anything else I should ask for regarding the lume?

I haven’t noticed anything odd with the minute hand. Not wearing the watch at the moment. Soon I’ll be to scared to look at my watch to close

thank you for your reply!

Giovannii · Mar 13, 2024

Dan S
The lume can be replaced with something more appropriate in color. This is typically done by adding pigment, it's not hard to do. If the original lume was badly damaged previously, there's really no harm done.

And if the watch was serviced properly, it's likely that the watch can be regulated to keep better time on your wrist.

That’s good news I think? I will talk to the watchmaker about this and it to be regulated. So your opinion is that it’s no problem replacing this lume with a better one that’s better executed?

Thank you for your reply 😀😀

Peemacgee · Mar 13, 2024

The lume looks to have darkened - this is not uncommon.
If the lume now glows it is likely SL - which is why it is so bright ( I don’t know if you can colour SL)

regarding the minute hand -it may just be reflections but it looks like there is a problem at the end of the lume slot -as though the hand has been bent and has been creased.
It may be nothing but worth checking out all the same.

before ( admittedly poor reference pic)

After

Dan S · Mar 13, 2024

Giovannii
So your opinion is that it’s no problem replacing this lume with a better one that’s better executed?

Yes, the current lume can be removed and replaced with something that is a more appropriate color. It's a fairly routine process.

Giovannii · Mar 13, 2024

Peemacgee
The lume looks to have darkened - this is not uncommon.
If the lume now glows it is likely SL - which is why it is so bright ( I don’t know if you can colour SL)

regarding the minute hand -it may just be reflections but it looks like there is a problem at the end of the lume slot -as though the hand has been bent and has been creased.
It may be nothing but worth checking out all the same.

before ( admittedly poor reference pic)

After

I will look into it, thank you! Sure looks odd.

ChrisN · Mar 13, 2024

Before discussing the watch performance with the watchmaker, try wearing the watch. Wind one morning and wear it for a few days to see how the timekeeping balances out on the wrist day by day. You may find this is very good, I don't know. This is something you can discuss. Then rest it in dial up to check power reserve after auto winding. Again, this is something you can quantify and say if there is an issue.

Yes, twenty seconds (I don't know how accurate your app is) in dial up seems a lot but as I recall, the allowed variation at full wind is 25 seconds across three positions being Dial Up, 6 High and 9 High. That changes to 35 seconds after resting for 24 hours. Also the Omega minimum spec for power reserve is 38 hours. I'm out of the game now but these are my recollections for a 550 series. Al, @Archer will have these numbers straight off.

It may be that the lume fell off when removing the hands and not due to any poor work - sometimes this happens although rarely. It doesn't look brilliant lume work in my opinion but standards vary.

Good luck, Chris

Giovannii · Mar 13, 2024

Dan S
Yes, the current lume can be removed and replaced with something that is a more appropriate color. It's a fairly routine process.

Okey thank you very much for this information.
I will talk to the guy (old man) and have this hopefully sorted. Kind of surprised by all this because he do have a great reputation in my hometown, even listed on omegas website as service center. Kind of curious to hear what he have to say about this. It’s always a delicate dance with these old school watchmakers and I don’t want to offend him.

Thanks again 😀

steversaurus · Mar 13, 2024

It should definitely run better after servicing, but I would agree. I would be really irked if my watchmaker polished or relumed without my prior authorization.

Giovannii · Mar 13, 2024

ChrisN
Before discussing the watch performance with the watchmaker, try wearing the watch. Wind one morning and wear it for a few days to see how the timekeeping balances out on the wrist day by day. You may find this is very good, I don't know. This is something you can discuss. Then rest it in dial up to check power reserve after auto winding. Again, this is something you can quantify and say if there is an issue.

Yes, twenty seconds (I don't know how accurate your app is) in dial up seems a lot but as I recall, the allowed variation at full wind is 25 seconds across three positions being Dial Up, 6 High and 9 High. That changes to 35 seconds after resting for 24 hours. Also the Omega minimum spec for power reserve is 38 hours. I'm out of the game now but these are my recollections for a 550 series. Al, @Archer will have these numbers straight off.

It may be that the lume fell off when removing the hands and not due to any poor work - sometimes this happens although rarely. It doesn't look brilliant lume work in my opinion but standards vary.

Good luck, Chris

Thank you Chris, I will continue analyzing the performance for a while before discussing with the watchmaker.
I hope he will take this the right way, and help me fix the lume, and that he is capable to do it like it should be. Again, this looks so much worse on the phone/photographs than in "real life" the only thing that really bothers me is that blob but since i'm going back i will ask him to redo the whole thing.

/Johan

Giovannii · Mar 13, 2024

S steversaurus
It should definitely run better after servicing, but I would agree. I would be really irked if my watchmaker polished or relumed without my prior authorization.

Agreed, i was very clear on no polishing, and he wasn't going to do it any way. Could have been an good opener for him to ask me about reluming one might think 👍

Omega Constellation service expectations and advice

Giovannii

Dan S

kaplan

Giovannii

kaplan

Giovannii

kaplan

gbesq

Peemacgee

Dan S

Giovannii

Giovannii

Peemacgee

Dan S

Giovannii

ChrisN

Giovannii

steversaurus

Giovannii

Giovannii

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