All, I recently fitted my speedy, my datejust and my SMP300 with sapphire crystal casebacks and am HOOKED! Does anyone know of anyone that makes custom casebacks for vintage Omegas? I'd love to get one of these on my 67 constellation. Seeing the 564 every day would be a treat. I reached out to Thomas Preik already, I am just seeing if there is anyone else out there doing this.
Kyle and others do have some vintage omega sapphire casebacks. They look amazing especially on bumpers
Kyle L , AKA Grasshopper, is one of the moderators here. I am sure he will see this post in short order.
Ok...I'm a bit late but here's mine. I bought it off of a seller from TZ a couple of years ago for something like $30, last time I checked his source wasn't making them anymore. I should have bought them all. I know a couple of watchmakers who can turn a current caseback into a clear one but it costs a couple of times more than what I paid for mine. The caseback also has to be thick enough. When I have the funds I'll have a couple done on my spare casebacks.
I found a guy that will do that as well, but I don't have any spares. I am sure as hell not sending the original. Kyle, that is awesome!!!! Any suggestions on where to buy case backs?
Finding a caseback for a Constellation will be harder than for a Seamaster. Buying one from watchco is kind of a waste since the center would just be cut out. I would just buy a beat up Constellation for a couple of hundred, steal the caseback and save the rest for extra parts. If you're trying to do it for the C-Case Constellation it will be less than for a dog legged one. Perhaps something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Omega-1966-...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network
I've not done one for a Constellation (and I have no plans to) but if done correctly, you can still have the center of the case back as a key ring - that's what I did for the SM300 case backs I made: Cheers, Al
I bought two SM300 case backs very cheap when watchco had their sale Very tempted to ask Al if he would make a clear case back for my SM300
I am trying to get enough people together to do another run of these for the SM300's, so if anyone is interested, let me know. I use all Omega parts for this, so nothing is aftermarket... Cheers, Al
I pressure test each one on a case before it's shipped, yes. They are tested to a -0.7 bar vacuum and a +3 bar pressure in my Witschi Proofmaster S dry testing machine. Of course I can't vouch for the rest of the watch the case back is being installed on...
I had a nightmare of a time getting a regular watchco SM300 case to seal properly, the crown gasket seemed to come in two varieties, leaky and impossible to turn or use.
Every one of these I assemble I warn the new owner about the tight crown gasket. They seem to be particularly tight on these cases for some reason, and this is true even with the crown that comes as part of the case when I buy a whole new case. There is nothing that can be done other than to use it and let it wear in over time. Adding more grease does not help, so it just has to wear in. At first it makes finding the winding and setting positions difficult, because the tightness of the gasket on the case tube sort of "drowns out" any feeling of the positions of the setting lever jumper (set bridge). The tight gasket will also tend to want to make the crown start to screw down. It's a bear for the first little while, but it does loosen up over time. When I assemble or service any watch, I put them through extensive timing and power reserve checks (at least 10 days), so I am constantly winding watches each day while doing this, and these ones do make the fingers sore for sure. In contrast I just finished assembling a Baby Ploprof with a brand new case, and the crown turns normally on this one, so not overly tight at all. Not sure why the SM300 cases are such a pain in this regard. The good thing is with the crown seal so tight, the crown has no problems sealing. Cheers, Al
See Watchco started fitting a looser crown gasket which made setting very easy but provided no water resistance, so it failed the WPT repeatedly until I had it replaced by a new one which as you described was very stiff, at which point I got sick of the watch and sold it. AFAIK Most of the Watchcos use those looser leaky gaskets.