Greetings

My 186.004 returned from Bienne the other day so I thought that I would share some pictures with you!



I bought it from a TZUK forum member without the bracelet. Running perfectly and in good condition, sadly minus the original bracelet. A short while later I spotted another with bracelet on eBay France. This one was in poorer condition the main problem being it was losing 2 minutes per day. I sold the head on to the chap I had bought my original from and kept the bracelet.

I decided to have it serviced by Swiss Time Services in the UK, who have a good reputation. However they said that they could no longer service the 1620 quartz movements so off it went to Omega HQ.

Earlier in the week it returned:



New case back and pushers fitted. Running perfectly and very accurate.

Whist it was away I had the bracelet refurbished:



There are a few dings to the case here and there that Omega couldnt polish out and the bezel, which you can no longer get a replacement for, is slightly worn - the worst bit being a minor crack at 10 o'clock. However, none of this is really noticeable and overall it looks splendid in my opinion!



I first saw one of these in 1977 whilst passing a jewellers in London. I fell in love with it there and then, however as it cost more than a mechanical Speedmaster at the time it was way beyond my means. Still, nearly 40 years later......





Ian

 

A lovely piece Ian, these LCD speedy professional (especially the moon watch variation) are uber cool, I've owned loads of these and they really are a great piece of omegas history.

Lots of people dislike Quartz and especially LCD but they are an important part of omegas heritage.

What a shame STS can no longer accommodate the repair of these but great news bienne do, although I wouldn't think biennes prices are cheap!

 

Yes, my thinking exactly

I paid IRO £550 - some of that would have been STS's commission for processing etc of course, not sure what % though

 

Excellent! Don't want to overuse the term undervalued, but these are certainly way cooler than what people give them credit for.

May I ask where? Was it sent to Michael? It seems like they did a great job.

 

No, a chap in Scotland called David - via the TZUK forum

 

Looks great!

I saw some 1620 quartz movements for sale on ebay a few months back and they went for quite high prices. No wonder, if they can't be serviced anywhere other than at Omega.

Here's mine with some bezel wear as well. I was in contact with STS, but they can't do anything about the bezel. Apparently, they have been trying to fix a bezel insert replacement for this watch, but the quality wasn't satisfying so they're not offering this service.

I really like the watch, but I'm a little bit scared to wear it as repairs are so complicated:

 

Looks great!

Is that the original box?

 

Yes, it's supposed to be the original box. Got it with the watch from the son of the original owner. But it's weird that the logo is upside down as you can see in the picture. I also have the original instructions booklet.

 

Not many original booklets around now - mines a copy downloaded from the net

I know what you mean regarding worrying about wearing it too much considering how rare these things are

 

Couldn't agree more, Tom!

And congratulations again on getting your Speedy back, Ian - superb!

 

Thanks Ken

Wearing it today - one of the few watches that people at work have commented on, male and female - all complimentary!

 

Ha! That's cool!

 

Due to some short lived financial difficulties I had to sell this lovely old thing shortly after the above post.

The good thing is that I sold it back to the original owner who has now sold it back to me!

I cant tell you how good it is to have this one back.

I decided to only buy the head as I will be wearing it on either a rubber or leather strap. This worked out well as the seller has another one and he would like to fit the bracelet to that.

I am currently waiting for some Bonetto Cinturini rubber straps and a leather rally, which are difficult to get hold of in my preferred size of leather of 110/70

 

Glad you got it back. I like these as an oddity, they're fairly rare imho. Here's mine:

 

Just curious when you send it for service, does Omega change the entire quartz module ? As I get the impression that serving a quartz module is time and resource consuming and hence more economical to change to entire module out?

 

I think that they do. They did with this one in any event!

 

Great to see these models being restored and maintained, it would be so easy for these models to fade into obscurity! Congrats!

 

Very nice

 

On a BC297