Hello,

I'm new to this forum and would like to present myself as an interested yet inexperienced Omega enthusiast. My question to start off is one about an Omega Seamaster Automatic Calendar of a certain vintage that I consider buying.

The watch, as shown in the photo (unfortunately the only one I have), is a nice gold case Seamster Automatic that appears to keep time well. It has no Seamonster logo on the reverse but rather a simple "Omega" and "Seamaster" inscription. Apart from the obvious, the seller has little knowledge about the watch as he usually collects contemporary watches in a higher price range. The watch was however bought from someone with a keen interest in vintage watches. The seller is a good friend and 100% reliable.

My question is regarding the setting of the date of the watch. I have read somewhere that the date on a vintage Seamaster Calendar can be set by pulling the crown all the way out, or, in other cases, by pumping the crown in and out. None of these work in the case of this watch however. The only way to set the date I've found so far is winding the movement hour by hour through the dates. From my limited experience this seems strange. Is this the way the movement is supposed to function?

Secondly, I wonder what type of movement would usually be found in such a watch.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

Welcome to Omega Forums. The date change you describe is normal for that watch. Quick change dates didn't become available on Omegas until the mid 60's, and that watch doesn't have one of those movements inside. You might be able to rotate the hands through midnight to 2 AM, then back past 10 PM and repeat to move the date forward a little faster.

Seamaster logos on the case back weren't common to each model either.

 

Hello Ulackfocus, and thank you for your reply. Pardon my ignorance, but this will not damage the movement, then? It does feel a bit wrong winding it round for 14 days.

 

It will somewhat damage the cannon pinion if you keep doing that.

Unfortunately, these movements were produced 40, 50 years ago and if you love vintage watches, you have to tolerate the old mechanism of these old movements.

 

Thank you for the reply. It is most definitely not any lack of tolerance towards the movement, only a wish not to damage it.

 

this refers to the "forward to 2 a.m. and backward past 12" technique that Dennis mentioned above?

 

Everytime you pull the crown out and move the hands, the cannon pinion will slip over the center wheel shaft and wear out more or less depending how much you do it.

An old watch may have it's cannon pinion tightened once or twice already in the past. It won't last as long as an original cannon pinion (which has not been tightened before)

 

Ok, so this is technically a wear and tear issue and not necessarily the effect of the forward and backward technique-right?

 

Properly maintained watches have much less of a chance of wearing parts out.

 

I am afraid that it's not the case with the cannon pinion. It works on the friction of itself and the centerwheelshaft and we never lubricate it .