Hi all. First time post here. I took my speedy that I recently inherited to a local watchmaker for service and evaluation and he advised me that the threads on the case were damaged, resulting in the caseback not sitting flush and the original oil-based gasket blowing apart and leaking residue. and the magnetic protector inside moving ever so slightly when you turn the watch over. Has anyone had experience chasing threads on a case and cleaning them up? Or am I looking at a new case from Omega ?

 

Sometimes a thoughtful watchmaker can find a way to install a case-back that has been cross-threaded. It may required detailed inspection of the threads and careful tweaking by hand. You may or may not consider this to be a robust long-term solution because if you remove the case-back, it may be tricky to re-install the next time. Also, this watchmaker may not want to make the effort.

I'm not sure that the problem with the gasket is connected, but that will need to be cleaned up and replaced.

 

It really depends on how much damage there is. Without knowing that there would only be guessing if it can be fixed or not.

 

It appears that at one point there may have been an obstruction in the threads and the caseback was forced on. I don't see any evidence of cross threading on either case or caseback. It's also difficult to see through the gasket gunk that is nearly impossible to get off. The watchmaker mentioned that under his scope it almost looked like a dab of superglue. If I can get the movement out and clean up the case I'm thinking maybe I can heat up the area and clean it out. That is all way too much than I would like to do with this watch as I have never done anything like that with a watch before let alone an important timepeice

 

I think there's no question that the movement needs to be removed so that the case can be thoroughly cleaned. I wouldn't even use a wire brush with the movement in place. It sounds to me like the movement should be serviced anyway, so you probably need to find a good independent watchmaker who likes working on vintage pieces and is a good problem-solver. Or just sell the watch as needing repair if it doesn't have great sentimental value.

 

Will the watchmaker not fix this for you? If not, find a new watchmaker...

 

This is quite simple but definitely a specialist task. Please give it to someone with instrument machining skills to assess. Almost certainly repairable but the cost could exceed a new case in extremis. It won't take long to assess the male and female thread size and condition and then none of us will be throwing around cross threading and other disaster terms before the actual cause is known.

 

Years ago I had one Speedy case re threaded by Michael Young , Hongkong. Perfect job.

 

Depending where you are located Simon Freese also can do it and recently rectified a similar issue on one of mine.