Vintage Omega Seamaster Ti-Tan-Rau Cal. 1154 Repair Advice

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Forgot to update this one...

New pushers:



Rusty movement spacer:



Movement installed:



Looking good:



Odd ball sleeves in the end links:



Done:

 
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Forgot to update this one...

New pushers:



Rusty movement spacer:



Movement installed:



Looking good:



Odd ball sleeves in the end links:



Done:

Looks like you replaced a good amount of parts, this one will not need anything for the foreseeable future. Mine had the same same treatment at Omega but I regret not telling them not to polish it.
 
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Very cool, nice to see a special watch like this back in good shape!
 
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This is an awesome thread, thank you very much @Archer for the pictures! I was expecting MUCH worse when i saw "movement replacement", then there was just mostly surface transfer (where rusty water dried on other things), so only a few replacements needed. This is definitely one of the cases where a good independent is worth 100x their weight in gold 😀

IF I may ask: the original quote was 4k or so, what did it end up being in the end for parts/service? Given what I see, I'd guess about 1/4 of the quote, but I presume you have better parts prices than I do, but charge more for labor than I do (which is 0).
 
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you have better parts prices than I do, but charge more for labor than I do
😂

Swings and roundabouts Erich.
 
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😂

Swings and roundabouts Erich.
I also realize I forgot it was canada-bucks, so my estimates are for that too, so shrug.
 
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This is an awesome thread, thank you very much @Archer for the pictures! I was expecting MUCH worse when i saw "movement replacement", then there was just mostly surface transfer (where rusty water dried on other things), so only a few replacements needed. This is definitely one of the cases where a good independent is worth 100x their weight in gold 😀

IF I may ask: the original quote was 4k or so, what did it end up being in the end for parts/service? Given what I see, I'd guess about 1/4 of the quote, but I presume you have better parts prices than I do, but charge more for labor than I do (which is 0).
I've serviced/restored a good deal of rusty watches, and there's only ever been one where the movement really required replacing. It was rusted into a solid mass. Given the condition I saw in the photos in this thread, this watch didn't seem to be anywhere near that bad, so the owner took a chance and let me take a look.

As I suspected, it did not need a new movement. It did need quite a number of new parts, but for this movement most of the parts are pretty reasonably priced. After labour, the single largest expense was the new rotor - as we discussed in a recent thread, the bearing in this rotor is not sold separately and is burnished into the rotor, so this means you have one option - a new rotor. Not so much for wear, but the bearing was rusted.

The second most expensive item was the new pushers (less than the rotor each, but combined more than the rotor cost). These are the so called "monoblock" pushers, so unlike most of the pushers in these models, they could not be disassembled to change the seals - the entire pusher had to be exchanged, and since they pusher caps are solid 18k gold, these were not cheap. So instead of 4 new seals at $9 each, these were a $400 set of pushers. Thankfully I ordered them before the last price increase, because that same pair would be $640 now.

The rest was pretty mundane stuff, and although I'm not going to give out exact costs here because it's not my place to tell you what someone else spent, let's just say it was around half of the Omega estimate of approx. $4800.
 
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I've serviced/restored a good deal of rusty watches, and there's only ever been one where the movement really required replacing. It was rusted into a solid mass. Given the condition I saw in the photos in this thread, this watch didn't seem to be anywhere near that bad, so the owner took a chance and let me take a look.

As I suspected, it did not need a new movement. It did need quite a number of new parts, but for this movement most of the parts are pretty reasonably priced. After labour, the single largest expense was the new rotor - as we discussed in a recent thread, the bearing in this rotor is not sold separately and is burnished into the rotor, so this means you have one option - a new rotor. Not so much for wear, but the bearing was rusted.

The second most expensive item was the new pushers (less than the rotor each, but combined more than the rotor cost). These are the so called "monoblock" pushers, so unlike most of the pushers in these models, they could not be disassembled to change the seals - the entire pusher had to be exchanged, and since they pusher caps are solid 18k gold, these were not cheap. So instead of 4 new seals at $9 each, these were a $400 set of pushers. Thankfully I ordered them before the last price increase, because that same pair would be $640 now.

The rest was pretty mundane stuff, and although I'm not going to give out exact costs here because it's not my place to tell you what someone else spent, let's just say it was around half of the Omega estimate of approx. $4800.
Awesome, thank you! I didn't realize they were gold pushers, and I blanked out on the rotor cost, so yeah, that seems perfectly reasonable. OP ended up way better off obviously!

FWIW, I love your posts like the ones in this thread, and I suspect others do too! I'm sure we'd all love any interesting/non mundane findings you can share! I'm a huge fan of gore/failure analysis, so your takes in other threads are super interesting to me too.
 
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This was a great thread! Very happy the owner got his watch back in great looking/working condition!
 
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This is an awesome thread, thank you very much @Archer for the pictures! I was expecting MUCH worse when i saw "movement replacement", then there was just mostly surface transfer (where rusty water dried on other things), so only a few replacements needed. This is definitely one of the cases where a good independent is worth 100x their weight in gold 😀

IF I may ask: the original quote was 4k or so, what did it end up being in the end for parts/service? Given what I see, I'd guess about 1/4 of the quote, but I presume you have better parts prices than I do, but charge more for labor than I do (which is 0).
You do watch repairs and don’t charge for labour? Wow.
 
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You do watch repairs and don’t charge for labour? Wow.
Most of my watch repair costs me more than I get for it😀 it's a touch of a joke, I do it as a hobby, so only help out friends and not for money.
 
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@Archer what tool is the one you're grabbing the pusher? I don't recall having seen anything similar. Also, I imagine the red section on the pusher threads is some sort of factory applied thread locker or sealant?

 
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@Archer what tool is the one you're grabbing the pusher? I don't recall having seen anything similar. Also, I imagine the red section on the pusher threads is some sort of factory applied thread locker or sealant?

That is the tool that Omega sells used to remove and install the pushers/tubes. I didn't have this specific one so I had to order it for this job:



The red is Loctitie that I applied per Omega specs.
 
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The red is Loctitie that I applied per Omega specs.
That's a beautiful application I must add. Looks factory applied.
 
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That's a beautiful application I must add. Looks factory applied.
I do this a lot so I have plenty of practice!