Hi everyone, I have recently purchased an Omega Seamaster Cal354 Reference 2577 as my first vintage watch. The watch runs smoothly but looses around 20 minutes and needs a service. I am based in Melbourne, Australia and has visited a few watchmakers here, and the service they offer differs greatly. A prestigious watchmaker (one of the best in the country) reviewed the watch components and offered the following: - Full restoration of the watch, replace all worn parts, source a clover crown original to this model, clean up the dial, and provide 2 years warranty on the work. - Quoted at 1300-1500AUD A vintage watchmaker reviewed the watch and offered the following: - Service of watch, ultrasonic + pressure test. - quoted around 300 AUD I have never owned a vintage omega or serviced a mechanical watch, so I have no idea what I got myself into... The first quote was surprisingly high since its twice what I paid for the watch, but the watchmaker did sound very knowledgeable and wished to restore the watch to a high standard. The second quote was within budget but didn't offer a few services I wished. The 3 services I am looking for are: 1. Service of the movement ready for everyday wear. 2. Cleaning of the glue around the 10oclock (the previous owner must have glued it back clumsily after fallen off), but preserving the patina of the dial. 3. If the crown needs replacing, change to a clover crown original to this model. *no polishing or refinishing of any kind. Are any of these 2 quotes reasonable and I should just get it serviced? and are there reliable watchmakers I could post the watch to for those 3 services? Please see photos. Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
I wouldn't put any money into this watch as it is a very common model and as it already has a very poor redial that is missing all the minute markers. Pumping any money into servicing it ( a $1500 service is about 5x its current value ) is wasted money IMO. If the dial had been original I'd say a $300 service would have been reasonable. My advice would be to put this one down to inexperience, stick around here for a while reading the thousands of vintage Omega posts and when you have built up some knowledge then try again.
Thanks for the advice! Is there any value salvageable from it then? The case is in good condition and the movement is running. Since the model is pretty common do you think its possible to find an original dial to restore it?
If you can find an original dial it will be a nice watch as the case is a great starting point, I've done it myself