Service Advice - case refinishing

Halo community,

recently bought my first Omega.
Its a Seamaster Diver 300M reference 212.30.41.20.01.002.

i am absolutely in love with this model, and would like to keep it for a while, therefore i desided to do the service (watch is allmost 8 years old and is still in its original state on the inside and on the outside).

Last week i went through some local watchmakes in my area to get some impression and found a sympathical one, who is also listed at the Omegas Website as the official Service center of my city.

He told me he hast to open the watch and next week i will get an estimation of the reparation cost. Normally this would be something between 450 and 600 Euro for full service, and for this Movement 2500c.

So far so good. However until next week i should deside whether or not i want to do the refinishing on the case. The general look of the watch in my opinion is good, and i wouldnt mind some minor scratches on the case. However unfortunatelly there is one dent at the 9 o'clock that kind of disterbs me. But even if the watch maker would do refinishing on the case, this dent will not be gone completely. He told me, it will be a little bit smaller, but it will not disappear.
Since i have never done such a thing, i am kind of unsure if i should do refinishing at all. On the one hand it is included in the cost of the service, and would not cost me any extra. On the other hand i am a little unsure, what if the general look of the watch will look different just because of this dent.

For those of you who say, those dents give a watch a character, yes, if these were my dents, maybe i wouldnt mind. but those beatings are from some random person.

In my opinion, i wouldnt touch the bezel, and the case on the crown side also looks perfect. only the Helium Valve-side is a little bit messed up.

would you refinish the watch?

Thank you for your advice!
Eve

Refinishing changes the original case shape (and finish) forever. No matter what anybody says, metal is removed. It can not be undone. Whats worse, X years after refinishing/polishing you will be back to where you are now with dings and scratches. And then what? (Go to beginning of paragraph...)

->

Repeat after me (100 times) : ‘I will NEVER send my watch in EVER to be polished’.

Thank you guys! i will follow your advice! 😀
i guess the bracelet refinishing is not as tragic as the case right?

‘I will NEVER send my watch in EVER to be polished’.‘I will NEVER send my watch in EVER to be polished’.‘I will NEVER send my watch in EVER to be polished’.‘I will NEVER send my watch in EVER to be polished’.‘I will NEVER send my watch in EVER to be polished’.‘I will NEVER send my watch in EVER to be polished’.‘I will NEVER send my watch in EVER to be polished’.....
😀

I had a choice of two pre-owned identical Speedies when I bought mine. One was older, with some small dents on the case, but a bracelet scratched to crap, and the other one was pretty much flawless on the case and bracelet, but with a scratch in the crystal. I can live with the tiny dents on the side, but that scratch drove me batty. In the end I opted to swap the bracelets and get the dented one, because they were almost impossible to see on the side of the case, and the movement felt like it was in better condition. The flawless case made all kinds of noise and motion when the rotor spun. I was grateful they were willing to do the swap, and have been considering having the case refinished when it goes in for service in three years. After reading this, I think I’ll keep my tiny dents

Finally received my watch, after 5-6 weeks beeing in service.
It seems they replaced the whole Coaxial escapement, although it was only 7-8 years old.
The watch performs quite good now about +2 sec/day, much better than before the Service.

Although i feel they did a good job, i must say, i have very mixed feelings.
Even though i explicitly told them (per email, directly in person and on the telefon) not to polish my watch, they still managed to completely ignore it and did a full Service including refinishing of the case and bezel.
Obviously i was dissapointed, especiall after they charged me anyways full price 590,- Euro for the service.
They did apologize though and told me they will look what went wrong there.
So i am waiting what they will propose, however the polishing thing is now irreversible anyway.

i hope photos work now.


we did write it down.. however for some reason the watch was not serviced in my home town as i was told, but was sent to another Service center in Vienna. I asked them why, and they replied, because the watch maker was on holiday. so maybe true maybe not.

for me its hard to judge how much metal was removed, but the dent didnt get smaller, so i guess not too much 😀 Thats why i even told them not to do it, because i knew they will not manage to get the dent out with polishing.

So, this is what i got as an apologie, for mistakenly polishing my watch. i received it today by post.
I am not sure what it is. is it a cup-holder? its leather though, would be weird if it was a cup-holder.
i tried to google it, and looked at the omega accessoires on the homepage, but couldnt find it.

i also found out, that my watch indeed was not Serviced in Austria at all, but was sent to Switzerland for service, strange, since they told me they will do it locally. A lot of "miscommunication" took place in a shortes period of time, i am not sure if i will ever visit them again.

It’s a valet tray, to lay your watch in/on.

Another sign for me to go to Simon freese and not an omega service center when it’s time for a service.

Bad luck, but at least it isn’t ruined, it could be way worse😉

Thanks for clarifying! 😀
so now i know where im gonna put my watch when i go to sleep ^^

Who is Simon freese?

You should write on the blackboard 50 times "i will NOT send my watch to an Omega Service Center". I'm glad you're not too broken up by this one, but really that sort of miscommunication should not happen at all. Don't give them another chance with some vintage watch that might have half its value taken away.

In fact i even asked them if they gonna do service localy or will send it to Omega, since it was my condition that i dont want it to be sent to Omega. I heared enough of such stories before. They did assure me that they will do it at the shop. When i picked the watch up, they said it just arrived from Service. I was surprised and asked them how come they sent it off. They said the watchmaker was on holiday so they sent it to their serive center in Vienna. So i just called to their service center in Vienna to confirm. They told me the watch never arrived there, but was sent straight to Omega Service Center.
So there was one lie after another.
I dont like when someone tries to lie, and then dig themselfes even deeper, when you start to ask questiones. If they were honest about it at least i wouldnt mind so much.
Of cause i am kind of dissapointed, but its not the end of the world. The real loser is actually the shop, since i probably will not go there again. 😀

Dear OF Members,
i apologize that i contribute to this forum so far only with questions, but i have a new dilemma now.
I would like to do a service on my freshly acquired 2254 Seamaster.
Since this one is in original (unrefinished) condition, i have an issue to trust the same Service Center.
I know the 1120 Caliber is easier to service than the 2500c i had done recently. However if it requires some spare parts, then it is probably better if it is serviced by an Omega-certified watchmaker who has access to new parts.
I am not sure if i should give the same Service center a second chanse, the watchmaker there assured me, the same issue would not happen again. But this is what he told me before doing my 2500 watch as well...
Is there a possibility to do some written agreement of any sort? I doubt any watchmaker would sign such a thing..

I really dont know what to do.. my new 2254 is from 2006, as far i was told it has never been serviced, i have been testing it a few weeks and it is running in the COSC norm. i have visited another Omega certified watchmaker, he told me, why would i want to do a service if the watch is running fine? well, great question..
And a wrist-shot:

Are you located in Vienna?