This watch descended to me from my grandfather, he got it when he retired. (These days it's nearly unimaginable corporations once cared about the loyalty of their employees, but I digress.) The serial number dates the cal. 564 movement to 1967. The watch, case, crystal, hands, dial, bracelet, everything is 100% original -- but when I received it the watch it didn't keep good time and and the bracelet had some bent/broken links and rivets. The bracelet had also been polished sometime in its history. I felt the watch deserved to be restored and worn; my watchmaker worked on it for 6 weeks; he fully cleaned, oiled, and restored it with genuine Omega mainspring and other replacement parts it needed, and polished out a scratch in the crystal. I also picked up a mid-1960's period box. Now, it keeps great time; I haven't had to adjust it in over one week wearing it. It seems to have a power reserve of at least 24 hours, perhaps as much as 36 hours? In the future, I will replace the springs next to the bracelet endlinks, but for now all the rivets are solid again. I realized it looks like the vintage ad shown on Constellation Collectors Blogspot. I thought I might share some pics. The watch reference number is 168.019 and the bracelet number is 368.819. Hope you enjoy. View attachment 14680
Hi Great watch , lovely heirloom....funnily enough I saw one of these bracelets having a complete strip & rebuild on my last visit to STS by their onsite goldsmith....the costs for the replacement 18k links , springing & rebuild was literally eye watering ! Enjoy it.... Best - Neil
Thanks everyone for your replies! Very interesting to read the threads and posts here. Neil, (or anyone else) what is "STS" and is there anyone else you know, in NYC perhaps, that does spring bracelet rebuilds besides the two Omega AD's (Tourbillon and Tourneau said they would just farm it out to Switzerland). The rivet work I had done is good work, but I'm interested in eventually restoring all weak springs and redrilling some rivets that were poorly repaired years ago. I'm sure it's going to cost $$$, but who would say it wouldn't be worth it in the end?
Hi STS is Swiss Time Services , based here in the UK and the Authorised Vintage Omega restoration specialist. See: http://www.swisstimeservices.co.uk/ The Watch & Bracelet I saw had a massive rebuild including some of the links being recreated in 18k along with the springs....fantastic work....but the bill including the Service etc was £3.5k GBP plus 20% VAT ! Best - Neil