Forgive me for being a bit slow.
Please confirm, the Valjoux 7753 which is the base calibre of the Omega 3304 is a modular chronograph design. Therefore the Omega 3304 would have some "alignment mechanism" to line up the pushers with the crown. Am I understanding this correctly?
As Foo says, it is not a modular chronograph. I would take technical information on ABTW with a very large grain of salt. This is the guy who said the 3330 was based on an F. Piguet movement, (like the 3301, 3303, 3313) and that still pops up on forums occasionally, although I have spent considerable time dispelling that myth.
The 3304 is pretty much a 7753. Of course Omega has made small tweaks to their entire 7750 base line of movements, so for example the automatic bridge is a different shape than it is on the ETA version, and the bearing in the rotor of the Omega version can't be replaced like it can on the 7750 (meaning the whole rotor has to be replaced), but in general they are the same basic architecture.
To relocate the minutes sub-dial, they have added a couple of extra gears to the dial side, and the date mechanism is different, but there's no module. The 7750 always has a calendar platform that is mounted on the dial side of the movement, and that doesn't change here. It's one reason why the movement is quite thick.
Here's the dial side of the 7753 I'm working on now:
The minute counting hand mounts to the post that is at the 3 o'clock position, right near the 31 digit on the date indicator. Now with the date cover removed:
The wheel at the upper arrow is driven by the minute counter, and that in turn drives the wheel at that 3 o'clock position that the hand mounts to. Here I have removed the calendar platform:
Under this platform is normally where the day and date driving wheels are, but they have been relocated on top of the platform. This is also where the hour recorder mechanism is driven off the mainspring barrel as it is on every 7750, and where the hammer is that resets it - located at the 6 o'clock position here.
The arrow at the 12 o'clock position is the wheel that is pressed into the post of the minute counting wheel. Normally it would be the hand that is pressed onto this post, but in this case they have shortened that post, and pressed a wheel on it. This wheel drives the wheels that are above the calendar platform, and eventually the minute counter.
The dial side layout of the 3304 is identical to this. Note that this is also how the minute counter is relocated on the 3330, so the dial side is exactly the same on that version as well. No modules involved.
Cheers, Al
