Omega P/O Servicing

[Monty911]

Hi , My P/O is now 5 years old and is now in need of its first scheduled service .
I live in East Anglia and have a local Omega Dealer ( Windosr Bishop ) that can do the service however has anyone used them for servicing or is there anyone that you guys can recomend .

Thanks

[yeti]

Why are you servicing it? Does it need it? How is the timekeeping?

[Polome]

If it's a co-axial movement I thought these were all seven year service interval. I recently sent my speedmaster to omega in Southampton for service/ repair ..took eight weeks but very happy with result. My watch was fourteen years old when first serviced and had stopped working ( info listed earlier) I was advised a few years ago by local agent that as long as watch keeping good time the service intervals could be stretched considerably ( although by how much is the individual's choice) I wonder if your local dealer would just send your watch to Southampton anyway. I acted on good advice/ experience from fellow ph'ers and Southampton worked well for me . Regards.

[yeti]

By the way, your local dealer will not do the service - they will simply send it to Swatch in Eastleigh who will do it and they will add a markup as agents!

If you are doing it, send it direct.

[Monty911]

Thanks for the comments , the watch is starting to gain time , couple of minutes every 2-3 months.
The service info with the watch states a 5 year interval .

[yeti]

Monty911 said:

Thanks for the comments , the watch is starting to gain time , couple of minutes every 2-3 months.
The service info with the watch states a 5 year interval .

I am guessing this is your first and only mechanical watch? That timekeeping is superb, 120 seconds in 90 days?? Honestly, if you send it away to them, It WILL NOT be improved and will very likely come back worse.

Chronometer rating is -4 to +6 seconds per days avereged over a week. Your watch is WELL inside those specs.

If you wish to spend 500 quid because your book tells you to, knock yourself out.

[Monty911]

No not my first mechanical watch , infact far from it , My Bond seamaster and Daytona both hold better time as did this watch until fairly recently .

[PJ S]

Monty, take your pick among these….

http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.php?188687-Quali...
http://forums.watchuseek.com/f20/looking-recommend...
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=893... – the first reply is who hilly was referring to

[yeti]

Monty911 said:

No not my first mechanical watch , infact far from it , My Bond seamaster and Daytona both hold better time as did this watch until fairly recently .

So how accurate do you want it to be? Over 2-3 months, do you expect a zero gain / loss? What would be acceptable to you? I am genuinely intrigued!

[Variomatic]

Yeti is right that the gain you're describing is tiny for a mechanical watch. At worst (2 minutes in 2 months and assuming 4 week months) it works out at +2.14 seconds per day, which is well within chronometer spec.

The fact that it's changed from how it was before could be down to a lot of different things, needing servicing is only one. But bear in mind that, if you send it for service, even Omega won't guarantee getting it better than it is now. If it used to be better than this then you were just damned lucky off the production line!

Also remember that the makers service schedule on watches tends to be very conservative because they make a very nice profit indeed on servicing.

In a workshop set up to do specific models, and watchmakers who only ever do maybe half a dozen differen calibres (so know them inside out) a movement service will take maybe 90 minutes - 2 hours.

Parts won't be needed (but will be on hand if they are and are dirt cheap to the maker), so the costs to them are basically 90 minutes worth of the overheads of the workshop (which they have anyway) and wages.

The rest of your £400+ bill is profit, so of course they want you to have it done every 5 years!