My Mini Omega Seamaster Project

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paulyV6

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Aug 24, 2010
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Once sunny St Albans, Herts - now delightful Deal,
A few weeks back I asked a question about buying something new for my car. Anyway - in that thread someone suggested buying and restoring an old watch, so I promptly dropped all ideas of AMG steering wheels or private number plates and chucked in a cheeky bid on this:
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From a brief bit of research it's an Omega Seamaster Newport Quartz from 1983 from their 1432 range.

I know next to nothing about the internals of watches so this being a quartz, I thought I'd have more chance of being able to have a go at getting it running myself. Once I'd got the back of the case off however, I realised how naiive I'd been!

Anyway - there was no battery in there, so first port of call - the local jewelers to see if that would get the hands turning. Alas no. He offered to service it for me for £150, but I felt that would sort of defeat the point of getting the watch in the first place.

Sooooooo I just won this:
omega3_zpsa3767af5.jpg


New genuine Omega 1430 movement, dial and crown in working order.

That's all I've got for now. Hope people are interested in this mini project of mine anway!
 
Next decision to make is the bracelet / strap.

The gold played one pictured is currently off the watch to aid with cleaning. Looking at the serial numbers on the watch case and the bracelet, it looks like a genuine Omega part, but not the correct one for this case. It didn't seem to fit 100% perfectly either.

Options are:

1. Clean the gold plated s/s bracelet up and re-fit it. Trying to improve the fit at the same time.
2. Fit black leather genuine Omega strap with gold buckle.
3. Fit brown leather genuine Omega strap with gold buckle.

I've got a stainless steel square chronograph on a black leather strap which is why I was thinking of gold on brown for this watch.

Opinions?
 
Sounds like an engine I needed for one of my r/c planes in the 90s. They stopped making them, so I put together a new one by ordering all the individual parts from the spares list :)
 
New bits arrived this morning. I haven't had the new movement tested yet, but couldn't resist having a little trial fitting.

So off with the back of the case, loosen one small screw and pull the crown and out it comes - stem and all. Old movent and dial out, new movement and dial in. Easy.

The old crown is plain and quite tatty, whereas the new one looked good after a simple clean up and it's got the Omega symbol on it. Only problem I ran into here was the new stem was about 1.5mm shorter than the old one. I simply swapped the crown over and bingo. New face, movement and crown all sitting snug in the old case.

Spot the difference:
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Old v New:
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New home:
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Took the watch into a shoe menders round the corner to get them to put a new battery in it for me. They looked at me in sheer horror when I told them there wasn't one in there currently and said to leave it with them and come back in 45 minutes.

Back I went to be told that they'd found a battery that was the correct size which they'd left in for 20 minutes, but nothing happened.

I found this strange as when I looked at the watch face, the second hand had moved (it doesn't move when you pull the crown out to adjust the time), but said thanks anyway an left.

The person I bought the new movement from had assured me that the watch had been working perfectly well before he split it up and sold the gold components so I went on the hunt around my house for old quartz watches that I could steal a battery from - hoping to find one the correct size.

Nothing was looking anywhere near the correct size so I decided to take my Raymond Weil chronograph apart. The battery in this was the correct circumference and hey presto the second hand startedocing as soon as I placed it in the Omega. Only problem is, it's too thick to get the case back back on.

Good news is that I know it works though. I'll take it to a proper jewellers tomorrow and get then to put a battery in and a new o-ring to deal the case shut.

Brown leather 19mm crocodile leather strap (similar to the one pictured above) will be ordered tomorrow too. Hey presto - new (to me) watch for the princely sum of £135. The old movement and strap are going on eBay so anything I get back for them is a bonus.
 
Good work mate , have enjoyed this thread !

Any piccies of the finished watch ?

Might be worth an email to omega to check which is the correct battery for the watch ?
 
There will be photos once the leather strap turns up.

I've tried googling which battery I need, but an email wouldn't hurt I suppose. They seem to have pretty good customer service section in their website.

There's a similar looking Patek Phillipe in this months Esquire listed as an "essential" (admittedly it's a £18,000 automatic, but it looks similar to my bundle of parts!)
 
RESULT!

Just sold the bracelet and movement on eBay for a grand total of £51 (+ £11 P&P).

The watch now owes me £91. I'm still waiting for the battery and strap to turn up to get some photos of it finished, but I'm happy as larry with what it's cost me. Might treat it and get the case gold plating re-done.
 
This thread has got me looking at vintage watches, of another brand. I just bought a new dress watch two weeks ago, but...

I like the uniqueness idea of an old watch.
 
Something much cheaper as a daily wear item.

I don't do "watches in boxes" so would soon ruin an expensive one. I've got interested in wearing watches from the '70's and '80's.
 
Hirsch straps will more than suffice.
 
Hirsch straps website now bookmarked.

Battery arrived today - and suprise suprise, it started ticking straight away! Just waiting for the strap from the good ole US of A.
 

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