Omega Equinox Reverso 386.0013/1655 LCD Restoration

This has been in my watch list for an eternity. I made some lowball offers back in January. For some reason I just keep coming back to it.

The recent thread on a too far gone LCD made me really want to have a go at this. Even though it seems a bit overpriced. I could get something really nice, but what is the challenge in that? I have dozens of three handers with more parts on the way.

This one looks really bad. I guess it probably had a gold bezel. The crystal(s) and dial will be next to impossible to find. I suspect that the value here is the bracelet.

Interesting that the battery look impossible to access.

Will be interesting when it arrives.

There are a few threads here with some clear photographs of the bezel/crystal dial so I sort of have an idea of what it should have looked like. The real question is can the glass be salvaged? The gunk on the front may be the polarizer screen. According to the data sheet these had either a white or yellow reflector.

I could have added this to the eBay addiction thread, but it seems to warrant it's own thread. I did binge a bit this month, Pipe organ projects (which provide for the funds to play with this stuff) Have been taking most of my time.

more like a safe jester

Bit too complete for my taste.

There seem to be a few parts in spain and france. But for the embargo tarrifs that rules out non domestic binges. Otherwise I might have gone for the val-206 case.

It arrived!

Much quicker than I expected.
I can hardly wait to start pulling the movement apart. I have gardening and pipe organ stuff to do first. Not to mention the bench is still covered with bumper automatic balances and hairsprings, what I sort of stalled out on.

One thing getting it in person is this photo (shown above from the auction listing.) was confusing.



Turns out the movement was installed the wrong way round. Probably also flipped top to bottom.

This style is not particularly rare. So there are plenty of photographs from past and current sales. Supposidly they only made these for the one year. Must have made quite a few. I think there are currently 1/2 dozen or so listed worldwide at the moment.

Photographs are really useful for seeing what the missing case parts look like. There are hands and dials listed in the EU.

The glass looks to be intact. The reflector has some of the distortion. There is some spotting on the front, but it is not on the glass surface, So the liquid crystal may be crystalized. I can see the transparent traces if I hold it at an angle.

There is a sort of black corrosion on everything. Looks a bit like soot. No obvious tells of heat damage. The watch in the EU that was scrapped out has similar black corrosion on the circuit board. Will not know too much until I remove the glass. The battery is still in place. The gunk on it looks more like insulating tape than dielectric. More likely this was water damage.

The display is not that much different than the ones given out as cereal box prizes. So a temporary fix might be all than could be done. There may be someone in Germany who rebuilds these on a swap exchange. Many complain though that such removes the family heirloom status. One suggestion was to replace the quartz (or non functioning.) side with an engraved plate.

The oLED display I have are too large and to power hungry, or that could be a fun option. Apple watch electronics are also too large to fit into the 20 or so mm space, although the missing bezels are quite thick.

There is a listing for the service manual in Austrailia. https://www.ebay.com/itm/257484924519

I have no idea of what the tariffs on printed materials are. The most useful page is shown, which gives the electronics readings. Would be nice though if there were formal disassembly steps. By the time I would get this, I probably will have everything apart. The operators guide is online although page photos and not a pdf.

If the coil is good then the analog side could be made to work. The bezel and crystal difficult to source. Probably just as easy to make a dial and hand set from tuna can sheet metal. Might be possible to make a temporary bezel with 3D printing.

Not a lot of experience with bracelets. This one is way to large for my wrist. Looks like there are removable links, but not sure how to do that.

As noted compared to 571 and 712 calibers (which had short runs.) these are not particularly rare.

The maintenece sheet arrived yesterday. And the new frame today.


No tariffs were billed on either item.

I have been avoiding powering up anything (other than to measure the coil resistance.)
I did make a frequency generator for testing LCD glass. Managed to drop and step on the test LCD so a bit wary to try the actual glass to see if the segments still light. There is spotting in the display.

I had purchased an 'earth pin.' because one was listed in Canada. Turns out I may need two. Plus the connector which goes on the front of the dial. This is to connect the alarm speaker which is in the front bezel (which is missing.) None of what I did not know before reading the maintenance docs.

I also learned this shares parts with 1365 movements (different motor.)

Surprisingly there are a fair number of parts from overseas sellers. The prices are most reasonable as well. Scarcity and rarity does not really affect pricing as stuff that is truly rare has a small market demand.

The maintenance sheet does not give the motor pulse timing (other than once per minute.) I giggled it and got some interesting AI on lavete motors, plus some AI code for the tiny 25/45/85 which may or may not work. There was also a link to a hakaday project what does much of what I want to do. Even with a buck boost part number. This though to drive common quartz clocks, but from a single battery cell.

I really need to test the electronics. Got side tracked with a miniture test bench (audio scope) using an arduino NANO. That should also work with the pipe organ stuff.

This also presents the real issue working with this old scrap stuff. Since the watch was water damaged, some of the button contactors are broken off. It might be possible to laser and rivet new contacts onto it. The alternative is that there is a contact plate listed in Dubi, for a really reasonable price. So the temptation is to rush in and order the part, while it is available.

It is also my intention (for the last few weeks) to put the tear down photos into a watchmaking thread.