I think my wife bought me this watch back in 2002 & I wore it probably every day for 10 years. Had it services before, but I took it to the Omega Boutique in King of Prussia, PA as it would not hold power for more 6 hours off the wrist. Well I just got it back & it looks brand new. You can see all the parts replaced. The case & bracelet don't have a mark on them. The bezel had a nasty scratch so I had that replaced. It's almost too pretty to wear. I dropped off my 6 year old PO as well. It too was losing time.
Yikes...new balance complete and new balance cock? WTH? The other parts I can see, but those are puzzling. Anyway looks nice now for sure... Cheers, Al
Wow. My service didn't have nearly as many parts replaced, nothing on the actual movement. How much was the bezel replacement? My watch dated back to 2002 as well. Worn every day. Had it services recently because it fogged up after accidentally leaving the HE valve unscrewed.
How did your old bezel look once removed? I couldn't believe the grime that had collected on mine over the years
It was pretty grimy. It had a big cosmetic scratch. I just figured having it overhauled, I might as well do the bezel too. The boutique didn't think it was necessary, but I felt I'd kick myself later if I didn't take the opportunity. It added around $200+ to the charge.
I have to say, Omega was fast and communicated with me almost every other week until the watch came back.
Most of the parts I see there are pretty typical parts replaced during a service, but a few catch my attention... So the part I have the A beside is the automatic winding bridge, and there is a post on the side you can't see here that can wear, so I can imagine why this was replaced. The part with the B beside is the mainspring barrel, and this illustrates how brands work when they do a service. Rather than just changing the mainspring inside the barrel, they just pull a barrel complete out of the drawer and slap that in (mainspring, barrel arbor, barrel drum, and barrel cover). Quicker, more efficient, or lazy could all be argued for doing this, but to me this is just the way brands work. So instead of spending $38 and replacing just the spring, and taking a few extra minutes, they replace the whole assembly that would cost $104. I can't justify that myself when I service these, so I only replace the barrel if it's needed - here they didn't even bother opening it up to check so wasted parts are a real possibility here IMO. The parts that have me puzzled are C and D. C is the balance complete ($140) and D is the balance cock (also $140). These are not typically parts that need replacement during a service. The balance I can kind of see if the pivots were worn, because if a brand can't bother to change a mainspring in the barrel as B illustrates, they sure won't take the time to replace the balance staff (remove balance spring and roller table, cut old staff out on lathe, install/rivet new staff in place, poise balance, install roller and balance spring, possibly dynamic poise) which can be very time consuming. Here I would not blame them at all for this as the time needed to change a staff and get everything right would easily pay for the new balance complete, but it's rare these need replacing. The balance cock (or bridge if you prefer) is the really puzzling one., This is not a wear part, so I have no idea why they would need to replace this. The only reason I can think of off the top of my head is if a screw got loose inside the movement and this bridge was damaged from the screw getting trapped between the bridge and the rotor, chewing up the bridge. Does this part have obvious damage on it that you can see? If not, then this is a puzzle to me. I'm not sure if they charged you extra for all these parts being replaced (aside from the bezel of course) but if not it tells you how much cushion is built into their pricing - if someone else pays the same amount and they don't replace all those parts, Omega have made out like bandits... Cheers, Al
Thanks for the great explanation Al. Just a pile of stuff to me. I appreciate the detail. They did not charge me anything else for the parts beyond the set service charge (except the Bezel).
Hold onto the parts. If someone were ever to want to restore, it would be nice to have them around, at least the outwardly visible parts. Do you know how the bezel got scratched? Good story or boring one?
Boring. Banged it on a metal railing. Replacing it was over kill, but it bugged me looking at it. [emoji6]
The barrel complete, I can understand. The watch was only running for about 6 hours after removal from the wrist. Typically, this is caused by a mainspring bridle that will only hold up to a point, but when it starts to slip, it can slip far too easily, allowing the watch to partially run down. In most instances, cleaning the barrel, lubricating with Molybdenum lubricant, and replacing the mainspring, fixes the problem. But occasionally, the slipping problem is not cured this way. Then, the answer is to replace the complete mechanism, which they have done. The balance complete? After a 10 year run, pivots bad? Could be. Train wheel pivot scored? Could be. But I would need to see the other movement parts they replaced. Rust? "Had it serviced before"? "Then took it to the Omega Boutique.......?" Sounds to me as though Omega might have been unhappy with the work done during, what sounds to me, like a previous repair not done by Omega! Is that a possibility? Damaged hairspring maybe? Maybe now it is beginning to make sense to me.
Wow, there are quite a few parts that were replaced. I had my electric blue SMP serviced, I had some parts replaced but not that many.
I think the service was $525, but I paid extra for the bezel. Steep, but it looks brand new and a few weeks in, running perfectly.
Looking good! Thanks for telling us about your experience. Although at this price, i'd probablystill just take it to a local and experienced watch dealer.