Setting date on a 751 Constellation with broken quick-set

Hello,

I have recently inherited an Omega Constellation 751 from my Grandfather. I don't have precise details but, apart from being gold plated, it looks exactly like this one:

https://omegaforums.net/threads/5x-...-day-date-ref-168-016-cal-751-serviced.60398/

The watch is in very good condition and keeps excellent time. The only thing that isn't working is the quick-set date function. I've searched the forum and it appears that this component is a little fragile so it's unsurprising that it hasn't survived 50 years of use. (My Grandfather wore it every day.) That said, to make it easier for my Grandfather to wind, the original Omega crown was replaced with a larger generic one during a recent service. (I have no idea where the original crown is.) Could it be possible that the crown isn't compatible with the quick-set? (Perhaps they changed the winding stem too.) With the current crown and stem there appears to be no "position 3" so I can't even attempt to pull-push to engage the quick-set. There are only two settings: Fully in against the case, which works for winding; and fully out, which is used to set the time.

From various forum posts it sounds like it should be possible to set the date using a semi quick-set method, where the date can be repeatedly advanced by passing backwards and forwards through midnight. The exact method seems to vary between calibre, but none seem to work on my watch. Is the semi quick-set method something that should be possible on this watch? For reference, on my watch the day changes forward at 11pm and the date follows at precisely midnight. When I pass back through midnight the day reverts at 11pm but the date doesn't go back until I wind back to 4pm. If I move forward through midnight once again the date doesn't advance further. (If I previously wound back past 4pm it will advance again as I pass midnight, but I've not gained anything since it went back at 4pm.)

Also, does anyone know what crown will fit this watch and an approximate cost for replacement and installation? (I'm in the UK.)

Many thanks.

The quick set not working is probably the fault of the part on the left, the improved part is on the right which works much better.
I would need a case number to say which crown you need.
Cheers, Michael

That's a nice watch. The day on these does not have a quickset, but the date does....you operate ithe date quickset by pulling the crown out beyond the time setting notch. You use a pull/push motion to keep moving the date. When it works its great, but it can be a little fiddly too, sometime you need to wind the hands around a day if it doesn't catch properly. What I do with my day/date is to set the day to yesterday, quickset set the date to yesterday and then wind the hands around to today and set the correct time. I hope that helps.

Thanks for the replies.


Yep, I get the concept of how the quickset should work and have seen it action. As mentioned in my post (and the title of the thread) the quickset is broken, so I am trying to work out if there is a semi quickset method for the date so that I don't have to set it manually. If not, then I'll just set the day and ignore the date. (I can't be bothered manually re-setting the date every time I end a month without 31 days.) Sorry if this wasn't clear.

Why not just get it fixed?

Yes, that's the long term plan. In the interim I'd still like to know if the semi quickset method should work on this watch and, if so, what I'm doing wrong.

Well, all of a sudden the quickset has started working again! I can only assume that there was some issue following the crown replacement which has eventually worked itself loose. Previously there were only two positions and the crown was fairly stiff to pull. Now all three positions are accessible and the crown moves a lot more freely. Phew!

I'll look for a replacement crown once I get a case number. Probably at the next service.

Cheers.

In case it's useful to anyone - I had this issue with my 751 and managed to fix it myself as a "tinkerer" (i.e. by no means a watchmaker).

Quickset suddently stopped working. To access the mechanism you need to take the dial off and remove the day wheel, then remove the plate underneath together with the date wheel. The part that breaks is on the underside of that:



I bought the part from here: https://urdelar.se/products/omega-563-1530-date-corrector-generic

A satisfying fix for me as a novice, the tricky part was putting the plate back on with the hole in the date corrector aligned with the appropriate knob in the keyless works, and making sure the day and date change were synchronised. Remember when testing it without the hands fitted that the crown winds backwards to move the hands forwards!