Hi there, I have got a question which for most of you will probably ridiculous. I want to make an Frankenwatch. I have been looking for vintage Omega's for a while (newbie). The models I am most attracted to are the pre 1950, especially the two-tone Suverans. I would like to use it as an everyday watch. The one thing what keeps me from buying one is the fact that these pre '50 watches are manual winded. For an everyday watch I would very much prefer an automatic watch with rotor. Is it possible to change the cal 30T2 movement for an automic movement with rotor (for example the cal 490)? If so I could buy two watches and switch the movements. If I would ever want to sell the watch I could switch it back. Thanks! Joop
In theory, this sounds easy. In practice, quite difficult. First of all, dials are usually not compatible between different movement families. So you would need to use a dial compatible with the replacement automatic movement, not the original Suveran dial. Not sure that this is what you wanted. Second, even if you were able to find a dial to fit the movement, automatic movements of the 1950's were generally much thicker than their manual wind counterparts. It is highly likely that your redone dial/movement combo wouldn't fit inside the Suveran case. Even if it did, would there be enough room for the rotor to move freely to wind the watch? Last is the diameter. Some Suverans used the manual 30mm movements. The early bumper and rotor automatics were around 28mm, so these might fit width-wise. However, you'd probably need custom made clamps or spacers to keep the whole thing from moving around from side-to-side inside the case. Probably not worth the effort IMHO, gatorcpa
There is nothing difficult about winding a watch every morning. Some even find it a pleasant ritual...