Some of you may remember my Constellation. It's a 1954 model with the cal 354 movement, in the ref 2652 gold-capped case. So it's nothing particularly special, but I do love the dial with the arrowhead markers. This was in fact just the second Omega that I bought, simply on the basis that I liked the dial and desperately wanted a Connie after finding Desmond's amazing site and avidly reading everything on it late into the night.

When I got the watch it had a cloverleaf crown, which has always bothered me -



Now I know that the cloverleaf is supposed to be a legitimate variant for these early Constellations, but to me the decagonal crown is the very essence of the watch and I was determined to replace it at some stage. The caseback on my example was a bit beaten up, so in fact the first thing I did was to locate a really nice back for the 2652 from the USA and that of course was an easy swap (with a new gasket, of course) -



Once I had got that sorted a few more months went past until I summoned up some energy, ordered an SX42019 crown from Cousins and got on with the job. All went really well, the cloverleaf one came off the stem with no trouble and the decagonal went on. Now I do know that the correct early crown should be very slightly slimmer, but I reckon that the watch now has the "look" -



It's just as well that this watch is an automatic, though, because trying to manually wind it with this crown is just a joke, a real triumph of style over substance

 

+1

 

Looks good
caseback looks great!

 

So nice to add the finishing touches to a beautiful Constellation like that, absolutely worth the effort. The difference a correct crown or seconds hand can make can only truly be understood by a WIS

 

Fortunately, once the old girl has got going, I never have to wind the watch manually, it's very good like that. It was serviced last year, and has another surprising little trick - while most of my other bumpers have a power reserve of around 34 to 36 hours, this cal 354 manages an amazing 42 hours start to stop. Why there should be such a huge difference I really can't imagine . . .

 

I take issue with the "nothing particularly special" part of your post. Looks pretty bloody good to me

 

My favorite Connie reference. Definitely did the watch justice giving her the decognal crown. Enjoy.

 

Not just a watch, but a labor of love. 2 thumbs up!

 

We have been here before. Ranfft is wrong, according to Al (Archer) - but I can't find the link to that thread at the moment

 

That's just a beautiful connie! Updated to it's former self!

 

Omega states the PR of the Cal. 354 to be 38 hours.

Cheers, Al

 

Thanks for that, Al. So it looks as if my other bumpers are doing a bit worse than they should, but still not awful, and this particular Constellation is doing a bit better than it needs to. A lot of these differences can probably be accounted for by general wear and tear in elderly watches, and also by the likelihood of different mainsprings being fitted at various times. There are at least two Omega variants for the bumpers, 330-1208 and 350-1208. Then there is (or was) General Ressorts GR 2605X. And there are also various Bergeon and Bestfit generic springs for the bumpers around, into the bargain. It's not something I'm going to agonise over

 

I guess it depends on your perspective. Observations are fine, but they don't tell you the things you need as a watchmaker.

For me, knowing the proper PR from the manufacturer is important, because this is something that is checked on every watch that comes through my shop. And 10% is not close enough for me, but YMMV.

An observed PR without knowing if the correct mainspring is fitted is pretty useless in my view.

He often states mainsprings for movements that are not correct (and has admitted as much on another forum), so I take some of the technical information from the site with a very large grain of salt.

Cheers, Al

 

Indeed, if the correct mainspring is fitted, knowing the correct PR and comparing what you get is a useful thing to help diagnose problems with the watch. Watches in very good condition will often exceed their power reserve even with the right mainspring fitted. I just serviced a 7750 based watch, which has a 48 hour reserve, and it ran 51. This is not uncommon.

If a watch is significantly under it's stated reserve, then it needs to be looked at. So stating 42 when it's really 38 is a big difference in this instance, at least for me.

Cheers, Al

 

Wonder how many of us found our way here after being corrupted by Desmond? I certainly did, and still have seven constellations.

 

Beautiful piece. I want one of those in the future!