- Posts
- 29,896
- Likes
- 77,326
Archer
··Omega Qualified WatchmakerI see a lot of very bad work done by other watchmakers, but sometimes things I see are quite puzzling in addition to being bad. They often involve bad repairs that take more work to accomplish than the proper repair would take, but then again sometimes they are just strange and seem to have no real purpose. Here's an example from a watch that came in recently with a 550 series Omega movement inside. When I removed the barrel, I saw this:
Now, I see a lot of mainspring barrels that are filled with so much oil, that I have often thought a drain plug would be nice, but this is the first I've seen where someone has actually drilled a hole in the barrel. Closer look:
I will say it's nice work - nice clean hole and a good countersink on it. Still have no idea why someone would do this. So the photos above show the barrel drum, but what about the cover?
If 1 hole is good, then 3 must be even better! 🤣
So what are the implications? The wall of the barrel drum is worn out so that had to be replaced anyway, but did this do any actual harm?
What you can see here in the barrel cover is that it had been deformed enough near the hole that the mainspring has been rubbing on the inside of the cover. This will cause drag, wear, and is generally not good.
Omega used to sell all 4 parts of the barrel separately (mainspring, drum, cover, and arbor), but then started selling the drum, cover, and arbor as a set of 3 parts. But very recently they changed to selling a "barrel complete" so the entire assembly already to go, so that's what will likely go into this watch once I address some other issues.
If you have any bad or strange things you have come across when working on a watch, let's put it in this thread.
Cheers, Al
Now, I see a lot of mainspring barrels that are filled with so much oil, that I have often thought a drain plug would be nice, but this is the first I've seen where someone has actually drilled a hole in the barrel. Closer look:
I will say it's nice work - nice clean hole and a good countersink on it. Still have no idea why someone would do this. So the photos above show the barrel drum, but what about the cover?
If 1 hole is good, then 3 must be even better! 🤣
So what are the implications? The wall of the barrel drum is worn out so that had to be replaced anyway, but did this do any actual harm?
What you can see here in the barrel cover is that it had been deformed enough near the hole that the mainspring has been rubbing on the inside of the cover. This will cause drag, wear, and is generally not good.
Omega used to sell all 4 parts of the barrel separately (mainspring, drum, cover, and arbor), but then started selling the drum, cover, and arbor as a set of 3 parts. But very recently they changed to selling a "barrel complete" so the entire assembly already to go, so that's what will likely go into this watch once I address some other issues.
If you have any bad or strange things you have come across when working on a watch, let's put it in this thread.
Cheers, Al
