I was in the vicinity of the Omega boutique in NYC today and decided to stop by and have them take a look at the movement of my recently acquired 145.022-69.

It was an interesting experience to say the least, more on that below.

But first, I was hoping for some advice from forum members on interpreting the timegrapher results. The watchmaker said that the seals looked good and the pressure result was good, and that the movement was running well but could use a full service as the oils were probably drying up. No surprise there for a 45 year old watch. I've attached the results. Does anything stand out as problematic?

On to the interesting part: the employee at the counter recommended a $675 service that included replacing all 6 of the hands, and polishing the case. He then went on to tell me that he would recommend replacing the bezel as it had chips in it, and that a case replacement may also be necessary as the new bezel may not fit the old case.

I know that the Omega boutiques often try to restore watches to like new condition, but the complete lack of comprehension of the value of the vintage characteristics of the watch were quite surprising to me.

I thanked the employee for his time, and exited the store as quickly as possible!

 

Well, watch companies don't really have much business interest in vintage since they don't make money off them - so I think they stick their heads in the sand when it comes to proper service. There really is a dichotomy between the new and vintage watch worlds.

 

Nice people and beautiful store but don't do the service...I tried to speak with them before and the only thing they won't replace is the dial and bezel. They absolutely will replace the hands no matter how you ask as they say it has to be as part of their guarantee

 

I'm just surprised that there was, what seemed to me at least, a complete lack of understanding of why someone would want to preserve the vintage character of a watch.

Agree though, very nice people.

Any thoughts on interpreting the timegrapher results?

 

For every one of us that wants to preserve a vintage watch there is 5 who want to make it shiney shiney new again and wouldn't even look at the Internet as its only a watch.

Was at a watchmakers / vintage jewellers for few hours not long ago and was surprised at the drop off technique of some. One lady dropped in her husbands Rolex and something else (chrono) and said can you fix them as they are not working. (both looked vintage nothing else said)

I dropped in the following day to show him a connie I had with me. He had a look said the buckle was not a Omega buckle . He took it out the back saying he had something for me and pulled a Omega buckle out of the Omega plastic and put it on and handed it back free of charge.

 

If you don't have a service history, then I'd get it serviced somewhere as it's a lot of watch to risk.

You can't tell if the movement is fine from the timegrapher results as it could be running dry and chewing the pivots. Have a search on here for something by Al @Archer as he posted a thread with one watch that measured okay but was suffering wear.

From an interest point of view, the numbers on the left are for three positions, which is all an 861 non chronometer needs to be measured in but, most people would do all six. The three positions are CH, 9H and 6H. Here's a little picture of the various positions (5 for a Chronometer) but missing 12H which is an unnatural position on the wrist.


So, you have horizontal amplitude of 294 degrees and vertical of 253 degrees, minimum. Both of these are fine but vertical could be a little better.
The daily rate varies across the three positions from +14 to -6 seconds a day. Can't remember the spec on these but I think it's a delta at full wind of 25 seconds Max.
You have a Max beat error of 0.8 ms which just happens to be the maximum allowed.
All the numbers on the right are derived from those except the small ones at the top which are the lift angle (50 degrees) and, likely, the test period of 30 seconds.

So, assuming this is full wind, it doesn't look too bad but I would not be happy with the rate variation or beat error. You really need to make a +24H check as well (wind fully, leave for 24 hours and do it again) as there are another set of specs then as well as average rates between 0H and 24H. You should also test with the chronograph running when there is an allowable amplitude drop. There is quite a lot in this....

Long explanation to say I'd get it serviced anyway.

Regards, Chris

 

They may or may not fully understand the desire to keep a watch original - either way it's completely irrelevant to what Omega is trying to accomplish with a factory service. Their number 1 goal is to make sure that watch does not come back with a warranty issue after they service it, and anything that may have even the slightest chance of making that happen will be replaced. From their perspective that's completely reasonable, and as someone mentioned most people would be perfectly fine with that.

The second thing they prioritize is doing the job as quickly as possible. So if there is a chance of say some cracked lume in a hand possibly dropping out and getting into the movement, instead of taking the time to stabilize that lume to eliminate that risk, they walk to a drawer and pull out a new set of hands. You could call this either being efficient, or taking the easy way out, but it would depend on your point of view.

And of course it's not just Omega who does things this way. Once you get out of the mid-tier brands like the Omega/Rolex level, you have a better chance of a company doing a truly sympathetic restoration, but of course you will pay for it.

Chris has covered the timing machine results just fine, so although amplitudes look reasonably good from what's there, there's little doubt the watch needs to be serviced to prevent damage.

Cheers, Al

 

Thanks everyone for the detailed responses, this board is a great asset.

A service is planned for the near future!