Good morning, I'd like to ask your kind opinion on an unpleasant event, just noticed on my Speedmaster Professional, cal. 1861, ref. 38705000. Having to cook some fishes for 5 minutes I clicked on the cronograph to start the timing. Well, with surprise I noticed that after less than a complete turn (less than a minute) the cronograph hand stopped! The watch continued working, for what concerns hours, minutes and seconds. I tried several times and it happened again and again. Of course it didn't suffer any shock or impact, I didn't force while winding... Nothing strange. I already called my watch seller and we agreed to meet this afternoon at 3.30 pm, therefore I am waiting and counting the hours... Now the Speedmasters continues working as usual, and the cronograph hand started working again! As if nothing had happened. Unfortunately I was not dreaming. At the beginning I thought, well, the spring has broken; but now is working again. I don't know what to think about and I am ansiously waiting to meet my Omega dealer. Scary afternoon. Marco
Possibly it is a bit gummed up inside and that is restricting the sweep hand. I had a similar thing happen on a cal 321 recently.
Maybe it was just a message from the alien mothership but, in doubt... I went to the Omega dealer and explained in detail what happened. I spent one hour there and had two persons taking care of me. They checked it with a time table and found nothing; no delays. Of course the fact that the Speedmaster stopped at once was suspicious, so they told me to leave the watch for further tests. They suppose that the cronograph has been regulated with minimal tolerances that, once summed after many windings, caused a brief block of the system. They spoke about "incidence" and proposed a series of cronograph tests, for at least five working days. The spring is ok and this is a good news. The bad news is, since I will be away for two weeks, I will remain without my Speedmaster for 15 days... Very sad even if I won't waste a Euro for this check.
Translation - we really have no idea what the problem is, but we'll check it for 5 days, hope this random thing doesn't happen when we have it, give it a clean bill of health, and then give it back to you hoping you will go away.... The techno-babble they gave you really doesn't mean anything that I can decipher.... Cheers, Al
Probably I didn't explain me at best, since I don't know the correct English terms of the proper watchmakers. What they wanted to mean is, since the watch suffered no shock, and since it started working normally again, and above all since the winding is still ok, there are no visible damages. Therefore they will open the watch, have a look and clean it, check the single pieces and parts in an aseptic room and close it again. Then will test both the watch and the cronograph function for several days and will call me by phone. Then I will probably start breathing again.
I am an absolute beginner... Anyway I miss my fellow Speedmaster now. And will miss for two weeks. I only hope they will find the reason of this malfunction. They also offered me to see parts of the work and to take some pictures from outside the laboratory but, unfortunately, I won't be at home in the next 14 days.
Just back from my Omega dealer. The watch is fine and working as it should. After five days spent testing all its functions, they assured me it had no mechanical failures or damages, no time losses, and that as I said before it didn't suffer a choc or direct hit. They supposed that I mistakenly switched the cronographic function with the open crown, immediately after a time correction. I have a week to test it day by day and if whatever problem will arise again, they will simply ship it in Switzerland. It is still under guarantess but in this way I would have to wait for a longer time.
Well glad your watch is okay, but the thing they accuse you of doing as a "mistake" is not a mistake at all - I just pulled the crown to the setting position on a Speedmaster I have here in the shop and started, stopped, and reset the chronograph, and nothing unusual happened. Having the crown pulled has no affect on the chronograph. Again I don't think they have any idea what the issue was with your watch, and it seems they don't understand much about how these watches work.... Cheers, Al
Thanks for your kind reply Archer. I'd like to point out that I am talking about an Omega authorized seller, not a common watch dealer, and that both the technicians studied in Switzerland; moreover they showed me all the screenshots of the tests they did for six working days, with beat and frequency, stops and restarts at various moments of the charge, etc. (I could not explain better this, there were a lot of diagrams). In the end they proposed me to wear and use the watch for a week and, in case a problem will occur again, to send it to the Omega facilities in Bienne. They simply found nothing - if I hadn't seen the problem with my own eyes I would start thinking that nothing occurred. But I trust these sellers, they own a highly respected store that opened in my hometown just after the war, with a laboratory. They also collaborated with a notorius auction firm with offices in Milan, London and if I correctly remember NY.
It's good that you trust them. However the explanations given, at least how they have been relayed here both times, do not make any sense. Since I wrote my last post in this thread about an hour ago, I have had a Speedmaster sitting on my bench with the crown pulled out to the hand setting position, and the chronograph running. It's working fine - if they actually did tell you that it was a "mistake" to start the chronograph with the crown pulled out, then again I don't think they know what they are talking about, as that would not cause the watch to stop. As I said in my first post, they looked at it for a while, found nothing wrong, and gave it back to you. I would suggest the next time it stops (if it happens again), just leave it that stopped state and take it to them again so they can see what state it's in. Cheers, Al
Yes, this was the right thing to do. But it happened at lunch time and the store was obviously closed. Within three o'clock pm the watch was working again. Of course I hope this won't happen again but in this case I will take them immediately. Thank you for your kind assistance!