Hello, quick ? 1970 Omega Speedmaster Mark II. Worked perfectly fine up until today. Now, large second hand will not reset to 12:00 when I run chronograph. Instead, it resets to 1:00 each time. Whats up with that?

 

"1970 Omega Speedmaster Mark II" - 'nuf said. It's time for some watchmaker intervention. Stuff happens with old watches. When was it last serviced?

 

It was just serviced 6 months ago and cleaned. Everything checked out perfect. Maybe the hand slipping on the pinion? That seems to be the most common answer out there.

 

If the hand was slipping it wouldn't reset to the same place twice.

 

ok, cool. so that rules that out.

 

Have you reached out to the person who did the service?

 

Yes, and he said he would take a look at it, but when he went through it the first time everything was tight and lubed. IDK. He thought maybe shock caused the movement.

 

Internal parts on older watches can get brittle and fail without warning. I'd send it to Omega for a full service.

 

This likely has nothing to do with internal components, and there's no need to send it to Omega - in fact if the OP wants it to remain looking vintage, that's the last place he should send it.

When a hand is not resetting to zero there are a few common reasons, and I'm listing them from most common to least:

1 - It wasn't set in the right position when it was mounted.

2 - The hand's tube has slipped on the post.

3 - The rivet that holds the flat part of the hand to the tube has failed.

While you might expect that if the hand's tube has slipped on the post it will continue to slip, that's not always true. So it is possible that it has slipped on a big reset (when the hand is moving from it's farthest point to the reset position where it has the most inertia) and now if you are only doing smaller resets where the hand doesn't travel far, it would stay in the new location. If it continues to slip it will slip in the direction of the reset.

If the rivet is loose, then the hand will reset to very random positions.

The only way to know for sure is to get the watchmaker to look it over. If the tube on the hand is loose, it can be tightened. if it has split, then it's a bigger repair and you could get a new tube fitted to the hand if keeping the hand is important.

Cheers, Al

 

Thank you everyone for the responses. I believe Archer hit the nail on the head... The hand's tube has slipped on the post. It has not slipped anymore however regardless of how far, close, or how many resets are done. It was resetting to 12 for 50 years and now is resetting to 1. Everything else works fine, and it keeps awesome time, with that little exception. Darn. I'll bring it to my watch guy who can hopefully reposition the tube on the post correctly.

 

What if the chronograph seconds hand doesn’t reset at all but the minute hand and the hour hand resets ok? does that mean the the river needs to be changed or it’s just needs tightening?

 

Just for update:
the buyer didn’t bother me again after I advised him to send me a video of the chronograph running for one minute... so I guess it was just a case of a buyer’s remorse... with no real reason.

 

My Speedy Pro bought new less than 2mths ago, still the 1861 movement with big box. My Chrono Seconds hand resets to various position slightly off center to up to 1mm to the right depending on where the hand is when I reset it. After testing various position, I found that resetting before 30s (hands travel anti-clockwise to reset) the hand will definately be off to the right and even if I reset after 30s it has to be close to 12 at around 55s, it will reset to dead center at 12. Is this normal? If not, will not fixing it does more damage to the watch cos I figure I send in to rectify only when its time for servicing or before warranty is up. Thank you in advance.

 

It should reset to the same place regardless of what direction the hand is moving when it resets. It won't damage anything, but should be covered under warranty.