Looking to buy this non running omega inorder for me to understand how to strip and repair and rebuild watches. my question is is the dial original or refurbished ?

Thanks
Steve

 

Turns out it is invisible

 

The Omega logo is not right for that period, so it is probably refinished.

 

That was my hunch that the dial my be a refurbished ..as its a non runner I really looking to have-ago at stripping it down then rebuilding the movment.

Thanks for the advice.

Steve

 

Please take many photos of your project. Please!

 

Poorly repainted dial.
IF you want to learn, why not start with a cheaper option? For the price of one Omega, you could probably buy an auction lot with anumber of watches to work on. This will allow you to work on different movements.

 

Thanks for that Joe ,I've just purchased an old movment that's not working for £30 let's see if I can put me North sea engineering skills to better use . My wife kindly got me a couple of books for xmas .

 

That's a 30 mm watch. Not the easiest movement to begin with, the 26.5

Start with a pocket watch movement instead

 

This might be a silly question but are all movements made in the same was roughly ? Makes good sense to start on somthing a bit easier .
Againg thanks Steve

 

Don't worry, there is only one way to reassemble a mvt, so if you are good at logic. The only difficult part is to take away/put back the bridge with the balance. Do no forget to breath. It is better to start with a watch you don't estimate or even hate.

 

My hobby for a long time was restoring old BSA / triumphs Moter bikes from the mid 50-60, but my real passion is time pieces I look at the movment and think to my self how did people back then manage to manufacture such small parts. My knowledge isn't great at preasnt I'm no was an expert in these matters but im learning fast as we say. I looking forward to trying my hand at this .
Thanks
Steve

 

The only thing you need to learn is to work with a 10X magnifier and avoid head ache in the end. The rest is just mechanics.

 

I've purchased a Basic repair tool kit to get me started as well as taking over the spare room in our house ( wife not happy) . My only concern is what type and grade of oil should I be using ?

 

It is probably a ref CK 816 with a 26.5 inside. A good workhorse but the spare parts are less and less easy to find nowadays. You will need to find a non repainted dial.

 

For oil use escapment oil and you need some fine grease, unless you service 1.000 watches, you will have plenty left.
But first figure out how to clean the parts and get rid of the old grease and oil.

 

I was in a similar situation last year and if you click on my picture, go to profile page and look at my few threads for 2014, you will find an explanation from @Archer of how to generally select oils for a typical wrist watch movement. Then go to Cousins website and prepare to empty your wallet.

In my limited experience, taking apart and reassembling a movement is possible but fine tuning it needs a lot of dedication which we will probably never achieve. Anyway, it's enjoyable when it's not frustrating and a lot easier to be working inside than the garage.

If you haven't bought a movement yet, get something with good/cheap parts availability, like an ETA 6497 and that works before you touch it. Take lots of photos when stripping it and good luck.

Edit: Have just seen that you already have a movement. Which one did you get? By the way to see what proper watchmakers do, read Archers posts which always have something of interest.

Cheers. Chris

 

Good luck, i strip fishing reels down every few months and that's about as small as i ever want to go....

 

Please tell me your technique for assembling a full plate movement?

Cheers, Al

 

No, they are not. There are countless layouts for the wheel train, variations in how cannon pinions are implemented (2 piece, 1 piece, offset styles, etc.), and how for example the sweep seconds hand is driven (direct or indirect), or even if the watch has a sweep seconds or sub-seconds. Then countless variations of how automatic mechanism and dates mechanisms are implemented...

As Chris has mentioned, start with something big and easy. When someone says "get a pocket watch" that could be very good advice, or the worst advice ever depending on the pocket watch you get. For example, you really don't want to start on a full plate Waltham 1883 or something like that...

There is a reason most watchmaking schools use the ETA 6497 as the movement for training new watchmakers. It's big, so parts are easily handled by inexperienced people. The pivots are generally strong so are difficult to break or bend. The layout is very simple, and generally it's not expensive to get replacement parts for it. It has a simple flat balance spring that is large and forgiving when you first learn how to manipulate balance springs. It's easy to do escapement checks on, and to see how much oil you have applied on pivots, and very easy to learn how to oil the escapement on compared to many other watches. I would highly recommend this is the movement you start with, or use the money to buy one of these and buy 4 Asian made clones of this movement - this will give you 3 to work on and 1 for spare parts.

Also, if you manage to get through working on it and it still runs, then there are plenty of cases, dials, hands available to make this into a watch that you can wear.

Take it slow, don't rush anything, don't use force on anything (if you feel you have to use a lot of force, you are likely doing something wrong that will end badly), and if you get frustrated or tired, walk away and go at it again another day.

Good luck.

Cheers, Al