Hi. I have the new seasmaster 300 - it has been fine since i bought it in May and keeps fantastic time. I went to change the date (for tomorrow) and when I pushed the crown back in and the manually wound it, there was a little click on the first wind as if the crown hadn't engaged properly. So i decided to click the crown to the date position and also on occasion the hacked position a few times and then back in again, to see the effect on the manual wind. On manual winding it was ok but after a couple of normal winds there was a tiny click again. This happened a few times. I decided not to fiddle around with the watch any more as it has been performing fine. Any ideas?

Thanks
Glenn

 

Probably the mainspring bridle slipping within the mainspring barrel because you had the watch fully wound when you wound it manually. The bridle is fused to the outer end of the mainspring, and is typically a bit longer than the inside circumference of the mainspring barrel. Because your automatic wind watch doesn’t stop winding when fully wound (the way a manual winder does), that bridle acts as a calibrated “clutch” which slips within the barrel when winding a fully wound mainspring. Try leaving the watch off the wrist for a few hours, to allow the mainspring to run down a bit. Then, manually wind it, and listen. Chances are you’ll hear the bridle slipping once again, once the watch is fully wound.

 

Thanks very much for this. The watch had been left off the winder for about 8 hours and not worn in that period. I had wondered if it was the clutch. But it would have lost 8 hours power before I changed the date. I also expected to keep hearing the click periodically if I continued to wind the watch, and I didn't. But if I unscrewed, pulled to date position, moved date a few days, pushed back in and manually wound, I might hear and feel a click, not initially but only after a couple of manual winds. If I tried repeating this again, it didn't happen sometimes and a couple more times it did. Bit weird. May not be a fault. Maybe it's an idiosyncrasy. But it does feel a bit like when on the very first wind after changing the date, the click felt like it was forcing the crown to engage into the manual wind position because pushing in the crown hadn't done it properly on this one occasion. It's a similar click if that makes sense. Really appreciate your reply - thanks a lot.

 

The telescoping crown engages and disengages with the “neck” inside the crown. When you push the crown inwards prior to screwing it down, the crown disengages from the neck. When you unscrew the crown and turn it, the crown must re-engage. That might be what you are feeling.

 

Thanks. Possibly. Although I am not aware of applying any extra pressure to cause the threads to catch for a split second.

 

The vast majority of Omega screw down crowns (modern versions anyway) do not work like this. The crown never disengages from the pipe of the crown. In fact they are often hex shaped - this is from a Planet Ocean for example:



They continue to wind even as the spring inside the crown is being compressed.

Sometimes just the spring compressing inside the crown can make a slight click. If the watch is operating find otherwise, I wouldn't be concerned about what you are hearing.

Cheers, Al

 

Ah, maybe that's it. The spring. Yes I can imagine how that might like click from time to time. Thanks very much. I'll keep an eye, but won't worry about it for now. Thanks a lot.

 

ps - is it normal that sometimes (once in my case) when pressing the crown in from the date position, it hasn't done it properly so that when you manually wind, it forces the crown into the correct position, if that makes sense? Otherwise I suppose pulling out and pushing in again would probably sort it. Is that normal?

 

Not sure I'm following what you are asking about...the spring inside the crown should be strong enough to push the setting mechanism back into the winding position, if that's what you are asking.

 

Hi - yes thanks. Sometimes on some mechanical watches when you push the crown back in from the date position, it doesn't engage properly and you might find that it won't manually wind, and it may or may not still be advancing the date wheel, or it may be somewhere in man's land, or by manually winding, it forces the crown into the manual wind mode, which is what happened in this case (with a click in my case).

 

As long as it's not happening frequently, I wouldn't be too worried about it.

 

Thanks a lot for the reassurance.