Hey

Had a question about the watch band in the image. Is it a common issue for the pins to come loose and fall out in this style? A few on mine are quite loose and one has fallen out with too much ‘play’ to put it back together and hold.

I have had the watch for 2 years, use it as my daily watch and is worn daily. I’m a tradie so it gets a fair amount of action through the day.

Cheers

 

You may need new pins and collars. I’ve had a few collars become stretched and the pins would start to walk out. Good thing is omega sells them pretty cheap.

 

Also make sure that the collars are actually in there. I’ve never seen a pin completely fall out unless someone forget to put them in along with the pin.

 

.......and the case and point for a NATO.

 

I can’t do NATO. I like them just not with my style of dress. Plus you don’t have these issues with the screws.

 

Over time the pins, tubes, and even the links can wear to cause these parts to become loose. Although you have had this watch for 2 years, it's clearly a lot older than that, and depending on when and who did the last service it may or may have had the links fixed up. I always check all the pins to see if they are loose, and Omega even makes a tool specifically for this, but I just check them using my own judgement. If I can move the pin just by pressing on it, it's too loose and I replace the pins and sleeves for those. Sometimes the wear can be quite striking - this is a tube that is nearly worn away:



And this pins shows significant wear also:



And even the link is worn on this one:



Sometimes things are so worn out that really the bracelet should be replaced. Taking good care of the watch is important to help prevent it from getting this bad, so making sure you keep the bracelet clean is a good idea - once dirt gets inside the links and between the pins and sleeves, it acts like an abrasive compound and speeds up the wear. Also if you wear the bracelet really tight, it will increase the pressure and accelerate wear.

Cheers, Al

 

Great post and pics and usual Al. Thank you

 

Omega will normally check and replace any worn pins during a full service as they did with my 2531.80 last summer.

 

Thanks Al, the info is appreciated.

It was a new watch when purchased 2 years ago (long but interesting story. Short version, my partner loved this watch when seen previously and went on an absolute mission to find one new from an mega dealer). Was going to send it in for a service this year so I will just be bringing that forward.

Here in Australia on a cooler day I can rotate the watch around my wrist but not a summers day, would that be the correct sizing for the band?

I shower with everyday and give it a scrub once a month. Might need to look at a better cleaning method to minimize the wear on sleeves/pins. Is there a preferred way to do this?

It’s my first ‘premium’ watch and I love it. The seamaster is great for labour/action tasks but it also looks at home with a suit.

 

I'm not an expert, however I've had several dealers tell me (not just Omega) that if the watch band is too loose, you get way more wear in the bracelet as a result of it constantly moving.

All down to personal opinion of course, but I've always gone with - if you can rotate the watch off the top flat part of your wrist, or it bashes the back of your hand when you run, it's too loose. Sounds like your wrists are like mine as well - mine have a huge difference between a cold and warm day in terms of wrist diameter. Perhaps get yourself a micro adjust clasp so you can keep it comfy all year round?

 

Thanks steelfish. I will look into them.