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Bumper
·Sometime in 2015, a close friend expressed an interest in vintage watches & asked a lot of questions about getting a vintage Omega. Being an idiot, i thought i could help out said friend by starting him off with a nice vintage watch.
Browsing through the internet late one night, i came across an interesting watch. A 166.0228 Constellation.
A C case, non chronometre rated connie with a cal 1012.
Here are pics from the auction.
Not too shabby, crown is worn, watch is listed as working condition.
I would service it, replace the crown & gift the watch. This was back when i had a regular watchmaker.
I was the only bidder & won the auction for $250, the waiting began.
In the meantime, i enjoyed reading Desmond's blog on C shaped connies.
The 1012 movement was one of the few non-chronometer Constellations.
Now, here's how it arrived.
Opened for inspection by Colombian customs, lovely.
Internal envelope slit by a box cutter.
Bubble wrapped watch was similarly cut open with a box cutter.
Thanks Colombian customs. Bezel cut & crystal destroyed.
Sat dumbfounded for a bit after this, the cut in the bezel was deep, it was not something that was going to buff out.
Contacted the seller - no reply
contacted flea bay - no reply
contacted Colombian customs - no reply.
And, the watch was not working. It refused to run.
By then, the watchmaker i had used for many years decided he did not want to service watches anymore. I searched local blogs, watch groups & forums to find someone who could fix this.
I found someone who was popular with the seiko crowd, he exuded confidence, no problem, i can fix this he said.
Left it for a month while i sourced a crystal, bezels were of course unobtainable.
Got called back, & here's what greeted me.
What happened? I asked.
Huh, nothing happened, your watch is unfixable.
What happened to the bezel?
Nothing happened, it was like that when you dropped it off. It's unfixable, take it & go.
WTF did you do to my bezel?
It was already like that, if you are accusing me of damaging it, i have nothing to say to you.
At this point, 2 men at the back of the shop stood up & glared at me. No doubt invited to be present when i collected the watch.
From what i can work out, he must have tried to remove the bezel with a bezel removing tool.
Well, what could i do? i found another shop with an old school watchmaker that did re-plating services.
At least now i had to replate the whole case.
They took ages, many months later, i popped in to check & the watch had indeed been replated. But also polished so much that the plating had already been worn off the edges. I rejected it & told them it had to be re-done.
Several months later, i returned to find the case had been re-done. The new crystal had also been fitted.
I still had not found a crown though & though they said the movement was serviced, it ran & stopped.
A few more months later, i popped back in to see the progress, and was told they had sent the dial off to be redone, because it looked scruffy.....
It was not something i had asked for, or been asked about. I told them i did not want the dial redone & to get it back ASAP.
This dragged on for a few years by the way, with me checking every few months only to be told they were trying to find someone who could fix the movement.
Finally, on a visit in 2019, i was greeted by glum faces.
They offered me a Seamaster Cosmic in place of my watch.
I asked why, and was told the watch had been sent overseas to be fixed.
AND, had been returned without the crown, crystal & movement ring.
I really lost it. In 18 years of collecting watches, i had never been so angry. i gave them a real bollocking & walked out of the place.
So here i am. I have a watch in pieces, no crown, no crystal, a movement ring that does not seem to fit & i don't know if the watch runs.
Everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
I'm hoping that someone here can tell me if a spacer is missing perhaps? A plastic ring or a doohickey?
Thanks in advance for your advice..
Browsing through the internet late one night, i came across an interesting watch. A 166.0228 Constellation.
A C case, non chronometre rated connie with a cal 1012.
Here are pics from the auction.
Not too shabby, crown is worn, watch is listed as working condition.
I would service it, replace the crown & gift the watch. This was back when i had a regular watchmaker.
I was the only bidder & won the auction for $250, the waiting began.
In the meantime, i enjoyed reading Desmond's blog on C shaped connies.
The 1012 movement was one of the few non-chronometer Constellations.
Now, here's how it arrived.
Opened for inspection by Colombian customs, lovely.
Internal envelope slit by a box cutter.
Bubble wrapped watch was similarly cut open with a box cutter.
Thanks Colombian customs. Bezel cut & crystal destroyed.
Sat dumbfounded for a bit after this, the cut in the bezel was deep, it was not something that was going to buff out.
Contacted the seller - no reply
contacted flea bay - no reply
contacted Colombian customs - no reply.
And, the watch was not working. It refused to run.
By then, the watchmaker i had used for many years decided he did not want to service watches anymore. I searched local blogs, watch groups & forums to find someone who could fix this.
I found someone who was popular with the seiko crowd, he exuded confidence, no problem, i can fix this he said.
Left it for a month while i sourced a crystal, bezels were of course unobtainable.
Got called back, & here's what greeted me.
What happened? I asked.
Huh, nothing happened, your watch is unfixable.
What happened to the bezel?
Nothing happened, it was like that when you dropped it off. It's unfixable, take it & go.
WTF did you do to my bezel?
It was already like that, if you are accusing me of damaging it, i have nothing to say to you.
At this point, 2 men at the back of the shop stood up & glared at me. No doubt invited to be present when i collected the watch.
From what i can work out, he must have tried to remove the bezel with a bezel removing tool.
Well, what could i do? i found another shop with an old school watchmaker that did re-plating services.
At least now i had to replate the whole case.
They took ages, many months later, i popped in to check & the watch had indeed been replated. But also polished so much that the plating had already been worn off the edges. I rejected it & told them it had to be re-done.
Several months later, i returned to find the case had been re-done. The new crystal had also been fitted.
I still had not found a crown though & though they said the movement was serviced, it ran & stopped.
A few more months later, i popped back in to see the progress, and was told they had sent the dial off to be redone, because it looked scruffy.....
It was not something i had asked for, or been asked about. I told them i did not want the dial redone & to get it back ASAP.
This dragged on for a few years by the way, with me checking every few months only to be told they were trying to find someone who could fix the movement.
Finally, on a visit in 2019, i was greeted by glum faces.
They offered me a Seamaster Cosmic in place of my watch.
I asked why, and was told the watch had been sent overseas to be fixed.
AND, had been returned without the crown, crystal & movement ring.
I really lost it. In 18 years of collecting watches, i had never been so angry. i gave them a real bollocking & walked out of the place.
So here i am. I have a watch in pieces, no crown, no crystal, a movement ring that does not seem to fit & i don't know if the watch runs.
Everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
I'm hoping that someone here can tell me if a spacer is missing perhaps? A plastic ring or a doohickey?
Thanks in advance for your advice..
