Quick question regarding servicing of a vintage Omega

Hello all,

My apologies if this thread is inappropriate in terms of topic or scope but I ran several searches and couldn't find an obvious answer, and several calls and a visit to an AD and the Omega Boutique didn't clear this up.

My father passed away last year, and I inherited a small collection of watches he'd received during his career as a high-court judge, of modest $ value but great sentimental importance, including old Cartiers and Tissots and a few vintage Omegas. The one pictured has worked flawlessly since I 'restarted' it -- hadn't been serviced for decades, apparently, and maybe never -- but has been keeping excellent time.

When I was recently in the Omega Boutique attempting to order the rubber for my 2018 SMP, I happened to be wearing this Seamaster De Ville, which I think is from the early 60s, and on having a look at it an Omega rep told me that a service would be critical to "preserving" this watch. Since it may never have been serviced, and I'm not sure of the caliber (likely one of the 5xx calibers that had be installed through the case front?) or its service requirements, I'm happy to do so, but would also like to keep it as my dad wore it, dings, scuffs and all. I'm wondering if sending it out to Omega means giving them carte blanche to repair, replace and polish, etc., or whether I can specify the bill of work more stringently (no polishing, for example). I've seen varying reports of how this process works on the forums so thought I'd ask here, the home of Omega expertise on the webs.

Case, crystal and bracelet seem to be in nice shape to me, and it is a wonderful watch to wear. I have been shocked at how well it keeps time, how precisely the date clicks over at night, and how striking the crosshairs dial is under different lights. I've avoided going anywhere near water with it, of course.

Thanks in advance for any advice and best,

Scapa

Hi Scapa.

Contact Nebit's Fine Watch Service. I have had great experiences with them regarding vintage Omega. They understand vintage and what you are looking to do.

Others will have other good ideas as well.

Many thanks for the tip -- will shoot them an email this aft.

best,

Scapa

I also had a great experience with Nesbits. They serviced my dad’s Seamaster Chronograph 145.018 after I did my research on who can service these in the States without getting a hassle on special requests to leave things unpolished. We wanted to leave the case, dial and hands alone to preserve the history of the watch.

They also did a great job on my 1996 Rolex Explorer 14270 after that.

10/10, would recommend them to anyone.

You do not want to service it with Omega if you want them to preserve the originality of the watch. Omega's service policy is to make the watch like new, which means they may replace all sorts of parts (crown, hands, dial, etc). They may also polish the case. That being said, you DO want to service the watch if you dont know how long it sat without one. Even when not used, the oils dry up and can cause internal parts to break.

So sounding from your preference, you need to find a local watchmaker that can service vintage watches and ask them to clean and service the mechanism but to leave the rest as is.

Nesbit's recently serviced my 2006 Submariner, and they did an excellent job. I then asked them for a quote on my 105.003-65 Speedmaster, and they declined to even look at the watch, saying that parts were too difficult to come by. My watch is in excellent condition, but they want to be able to guarantee a watch for two years and guarantee it to the same water resistance it had when new. That's just (seemingly) not possible with my old Speedmaster.

Every time someone brings up Nesbits I think of toy story lmfao. Sorry to side track.

Watch "Toy Story - Mrs. Nesbitt" on YouTube