Omega movements with silent rotor

llvhhui · Apr 23, 2020

I like collecting James Bond watches. No surprise majority of them are Omega.
I know it’s normal you can hear the rotor inside when you turn your wrist. The only one that doesn’t make any rattling sound is the Skyfall Aqua Terra (8500 movement).
Is it because it’s a twin barrel movement? If that’s the case, doesn’t it mean all twin barrel movements are silent?
Been curious about this for a while now. Never bother posting. Hope some of your bored experts can educate me.
Also I noticed all the Rolex I own are silent. Is it just coincidence or all the Rolex movements are silent I wonder...

timoss · Apr 23, 2020

I have noticed that too: my Rolex is dead silent. None of my other movements are....

Canuck · Apr 23, 2020

I don’t know about a Rolex calibers after calibre 3135, but Rolex hasn’t used ball bearings on the rotor axle. The rotor post accommodates a jewelled bearing top and bottom in the centre of the rotor. These operate silently. Omega for the most part uses a ball bearing rotor. There is bound to be a difference in the sound, or lack of it. A quiet Aqua Terra? Sorry, unable to comment on that.

NikoMartinez_SYD · Apr 23, 2020

Now that you've mentioned this ive checked mine and i am also now curious as I have the same scenario! Following...

Slowpoker · Apr 23, 2020

Alright so I've got two Omega timepieces at the moment with two similar, but different movements.

- Seamaster 300 MCA in Titanium; 8400.
- Seamaster pro diver in black/steel; 8800.

What I've noticed is that my titanium 300 is dead silent when it comes to rotor movement, while the diver makes quite a bit of racket when the rotor moves.

I also have a DJ41 which has that new 32xx series movement in it, It also makes a similar kind of noise to the 8800 diver if you listen closely. Both use ball bearings while the last gen 8xxx movements in the Omega MCA + 31xx movements in the last gen Rolex use the simple jewelled bearing.

Thus the noise isn't due to the barrels its due to the bearing the rotor uses to move in order to wind the timepiece. Your AT uses the 8500 or 8900 I think, which has that jewelled bearing, which = silent winding.

If it ever does start making a noise I would get it checked out. But just know hearing a slight rattling sound while winding the new gen Omega movements is perfectly normal due to those new ball bearings.

Incase your wondering about the upside of the new ball bearings, they're noisy but they require zero lubrication, while the jewelled bearings require it otherwise they seize up eventually.

llvhhui · Apr 24, 2020

Slowpoker
Alright so I've got two Omega timepieces at the moment with two similar, but different movements.

- Seamaster 300 MCA in Titanium; 8400.
- Seamaster pro diver in black/steel; 8800.

What I've noticed is that my titanium 300 is dead silent when it comes to rotor movement, while the diver makes quite a bit of racket when the rotor moves.

I also have a DJ41 which has that new 32xx series movement in it, It also makes a similar kind of noise to the 8800 diver if you listen closely. Both use ball bearings while the last gen 8xxx movements in the Omega MCA + 31xx movements in the last gen Rolex use the simple jewelled bearing.

Thus the noise isn't due to the barrels its due to the bearing the rotor uses to move in order to wind the timepiece. Your AT uses the 8500 or 8900 I think, which has that jewelled bearing, which = silent winding.

If it ever does start making a noise I would get it checked out. But just know hearing a slight rattling sound while winding the new gen Omega movements is perfectly normal due to those new ball bearings.

Incase your wondering about the upside of the new ball bearings, they're noisy but they require zero lubrication, while the jewelled bearings require it otherwise they seize up eventually.

Thanks for the info! Is there a way to tell if a movement is ball bearing or jewell bearing?

Archer · Apr 24, 2020

The 8500 family all use a plain bearing style mount for the rotor. The rotor’s axle turns in a sliding bearing equipped with zirconium-oxide jewels. This makes the rotor much more quiet than with a ball bearing.

Note that the 8800 is not part of this family, but the 8900 is.

Off the top of my head, this is the only modern Omega caliber family I can think of that has this arrangement. Why Omega went this way has a lot do to with who they hired around this time, and where that person once worked. You can figure it out if you give it some thought.

Rolex did finally move into the 1980's back in the year 2000, and put a bearing in the Cal. 4130 rotor, so they don't all use this old system...

llvhhui · Apr 24, 2020

Are Speedmaster movements 1861, 861 silent? I figure chronograph might be a whole different game.

Archer · Apr 24, 2020

llvhhui
Are Speedmaster movements 1861, 861 silent? I figure chronograph might be a whole different game.

Yes - mainly because they don't have rotors...

MRC · Apr 24, 2020

llvhhui
Are Speedmaster movements 1861, 861 silent? I figure chronograph might be a whole different game.

The relatively unloved "Reduced" with 3220 / ETA 2892-A2 movement is silent. Its ticking is almost silent too, unlike the old Valjoux which are audible almost at arms length in a quiet environment.

Archer · Apr 24, 2020

MRC
The relatively unloved "Reduced" with 3220 / ETA 2892-A2 movement is silent. Its ticking is almost silent too, unlike the old Valjoux which are audible almost at arms length in a quiet environment.

It uses the same ball bearing that the ETA 2892 uses, so it is not silent like the rigid axle and plain bearing rotors are...

Omega movements with silent rotor

llvhhui

timoss

Canuck

NikoMartinez_SYD

Slowpoker

llvhhui

Archer

llvhhui

Archer

MRC

Archer

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