Ok, I went to put on my GSOTM yesterday. When I did, the oscillating weight seemed to spin excessively! In fact, I came to realise that when the watch is placed near horizontal, the weight will do this almost every time. I intentionally left the watch off my wrist to guage how long the power reserve would last. The watch stopped running after only 14 hours (the watch had previously been worn For 5hrs per day for 2 days after 24hrs in a watch winder). I just wound the watch up manually, and I notice now that the crown actually turns in reverse slightly whilst the weight spins (approx. 120°). I have tried to see if my DSOTM behaves even slightly similarly, but it doesn't appear to. Incidentally, since I bought the grey, I always thought that the mechanism ran a little rougher than the DSOTM. Any opinions or experience with this? I know the Omega dealer would normally be the best place to go first, but I'm in Vietnam, and I'd appreciate some insight before the inevitable losses in translation. Oh, and of course I'm hoping that someone will tell me that everything is gonna be ok...
Well, I'm inclined to say it just wasn't wound enough, but although it seems there is a lot of information given, there are a few questions I have... 1 - When you put it on the winder for 24 hours, was it fully wound before you put it on the winder, or was it half wound, not wound at all, etc.? 2 - Do you have the direction and turns per day set correctly on the winder? 3 - How active were you in the 5 hours per day you wore the watch? Even being really active, that isn't a lot of wear... A watch winder is not designed to wind the watch up from a dead stop if it is set correctly. It's job is simply to maintain the state of wind that was in the watch when you put it on the winder. The watch has a 60 hour power reserve, so if you fully wind it using the crown, note the time, let it run down until it stops, let us know how long it runs. Then fully wind the watch, wear it for 2 days (all through the day) then take it off, note the time, and let it run down. The difference between the run times will give us some information. Cheers, Al
Thanks Al! From full manual wind, 60 hours reserve was no problem. Bearing in mind that the watch was left stationary. I'm wearing the watch again now, and trying for the automatic wind. I have to say though, whilst wearing the watch, the occasional 'spinning' it keeps doing is still a concern. Even if it is nothing to do with the power reserve. Is it possible for the watch to 'unwind' itself if something goes wrong? Cheers!
The only way the watch could "unwind" itself is if a mainspring broke. If you are getting 60 hours on a manual wind, then that certainly has not happened. Let us know the result of the second test...
The results are in! 30 hrs earlier than hoped for.... I got 30hrs run time out of the automatic wind (~35hrs wear over 42hrs). I don't know if 2 days wear should be more than adequate or not. It might be worth noting though that I did give the watch an initial (partial) manual wind as it was from dead flat. Also, I wear the watch on my right hand, so it sees a lot more activity than it probably should. Thanks for taking the time to help me with this.
From my post above: "Then fully wind the watch, wear it for 2 days (all through the day) then take it off, note the time, and let it run down. The difference between the run times will give us some information." You didn't fully wind it...but having said that, unless you are very sedentary, I think something is up. Might be worth taking it back to wherever you bought it to have a talk... Cheers, Al
Hmm.... I missed that. I can live with a shorter power reserve for the time being, and I'd rather send it back from the UK when I'm next there, which may be some time away. Do you think I will be doing any harm to the mechanism by continuing to wear it? I am no expert, but I am certain there is something not right with the watch, and I'm confident that something happened to it last week which wasn't happening previously. Thanks, Sam.
Without knowing specifically what the problem might be, I can't really tell you if any damage could possibly be happening. Cheers, Al
Not figured it out yet. I am away at the moment, and without the watch. I will start to monitor it's behaviour again when I get back in a few weeks. I will post any findings a couple of weeks later.