Hello good people,
I just received a Polerouter Date (204610-6), which I absolutely adore. Some things are a bit off, e.g. from the reference it was born with a silver dial instead of a black one (which I prefer), the crown is signed UG but seems from a different model. The price was right, I've always wanted one to wear, can live with the cosmetic issues, so I pulled the trigger.

However... When I received it I immediately noticed the strong rattle noise from the rotor. I googled and came across a bunch of quite different opinions on this matter, ranging from "should be silent being a micro rotor" to "noise is normal". The seller stated he owns and owned quite a few Polerouters and the noise coming from that specific watch is rather normal compared to his others and never bothered him.
So I quickly drove to a local watchmaker (not my usual one, since he is on vacation) who warned me saying the rotor, or respectively the pinion and bearing, are extremely worn out and will fall off - in one week, month, year. Since I don't really know how familiar that guy is with vintage pieces I cannot assess on how much I can trust his statement.

I'm honestly torn and don't really know what to believe. I really want to love the watch, but cannot if being scared of it falling to pieces inside and left with manual winding (if that even works with the rotor off). The rotor and parts around aren't offered too often from what I've seen.

Here's a video for you to form an opinion on the issue and appreciate sharing it with me. The sound is a bit more subtle in real life, but maybe some of you encountered it as well in some form.

Link to Vimeo:

Thanks and cheers,
bigk

 

Hi,
Don’t know much about micro rotor, but rotor going loose is pretty common on vintage Constellation, you can see that lots of them have rotor rub on the caseback.
From what I know from @Archer, you don’t necessary have to change the rotor, but only the pinion on which it is attached.
Once again, this is for Omega, don’t know if it may be different on your UG.

Have you open it in order to check if there is rotor rub on the caseback?

 

Being a caliber 1-69 I read that putting in a new pinion doesnt quite work. It would need a replacement, but correct if that was wrong advice.

There is hardly any rub. I took the caseback off and had a look. There rattling noise is still there without the caseback. It's coming from the rotor vibrating against the movement.

 

Do you have a photo of the movement?
Looks to me like there are a few issues...

The 204610 did not originally come with a 1-69 or 69 caliber, only 215-2 (early serials) and 218-2.
These used a classical stem/pinion type rotor system that the rotor swivelled around.
Replacement rotor stems don't seem to be super hard to find at the moment (I even have a few spare).

However, the video sounds (to my ear) like a very loose cal 68/69/1-69 rotor (like you say).
These used a bearing system rather than the stem type of the earlier models - the earlier type generally have a different sound when worn, more "scraping" than "rattling".

To fix the problem on this movement, you'll need a new rotor bearing assembly for caliber 68/69/1-69.
I've never heard of one actually falling off before, they just get so loose that they hit the caseback and don't turn anymore to wind the watch.
A worn microtor wont damage the mechanism, just the inside of the caseback.

You can remove it entirely whilst waiting for a new one and the watch will function perfectly fine as a manual winder, or swap in either style of rotor (early/late type are interchangeable with each other, despite being "incorrect").
From that sound, it will barely be winding as an automatic as it is now anyway.
Brand new rotor bearings rarely cheap and can be hard to find, so it might be worth just looking for the correct 218-2 movement with a good condition rotor.

Hope this helps.

 

This helps a lot, thanks!

That I learned _after_ the purchase, just today. Lesson learned, seems I got frivolous on that occasion.

Is there any record on how this movement would take it as a manual winder? Some automatic calibers (like a ETA 2824) really don't like it to be wound manually over time.

Do you mean a rotor unit from a 215/218 would fit a 1-69?

Phew

I guess that would be my medium-term goal then, I saw some old offerts online with ugly dials still on them. However the rotors had wear from scrubbing against the caseback. Otherwise it's tough to assess the condition of the rotor unit.
Scrubbing marks is something mine barely has, funny enough. It's "just" loose, without hammering against the back.

 

Here's a shot of the movement.

 

Quick follow-up: thanks to @rustynuts, who pointed me to an offer at the bay, a NOS rotor unit for the 1-69 is on the way to me.

 

No problems im aware of, seems fairly robust to me.

Yes. The 68/69/1-69 are the same base plates but the rotor is an "upgrade" to the earlier style unit, maybe an attempt to address the wear issues...

Id guess the dial and movement was just swapped out relatively recently.

You don't need the entire unit, just the bearing part.

 

Thanks for the insights, Caferacer, appreciated!

My thought process was that both parts might be compromised through wear and I myself am not able to assess it. Since it was offered as one NOS unit and they don't come in abundance, I decided to snag it. It's relieving to have the right part at hand, when things get worse quickly. For now I'm going to wear and enjoy this piece for some weeks or months, knowing my watchmaker has a backlog for watches to be serviced for 5-6 weeks.