Vintage Omega Repair

[Matter88]

Hi All,

Hopefully someone can help me.

I have a vintage Omega Seamaster (I think 1960’s) which is in need of repair & service.

The watch is of sentimental value as it belonged to a friend who passed away. It is an automatic, and once manually wound will run & keep reasonable time for 10hrs or so, but then will stop even if being worn on the wrist and need to be manually wound once more.

Does anyone know of a firm that would be prepared to repair/service?

So far everyone I have approached has stated it is too old for their workshop, and Omega themselves won't touch it.

Finding a repairer is proving much more difficult than I anticipated.

Thanks for any pointers.

[Raddors]

I would get in touch with Swiss Time Services, they are Omega accredited and recently did a big service on my 1970s Chronostop that had a similar issue. Used them on my more recent omegas as well they're pretty well regarded.

[SlimJim16v]

https://www.genesiswatchmaking.co.uk/

[knk]

Joe at Anglesea Watch Repairs.

http://angleseywatches.co.uk/2-uncategorised

[Matter88]

Gents, thank you for the replies.

I will try Anglesey Watches & STS - Genesis have said they cannot assist due to age already but appreciate the reply.

[BrokenSkunk]

You don't state where you are in your profile, so people won't be able to recommend a watchmaker local to you.

There should be no problem servicing a 60's Omega. Any decent watchmaker should be able to do it. It could just be a broken mainspring.

Use the BHI website to find a qualified watchmaker local to you. Or tell us where you are, and you might get lucky with a local recommendation.

[K50 DEL]

I had exactly the same thing a few years ago

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Rigga (who posted on my thread) ended up doing a lovely job of servicing and repairing the watch, so that's where I'd recommend.

[944 Man]

I’d try Joe first. STS can restore it to as-new, but it will cost plenty. Joe can repair it and sympathetically refurb it for, in my experience, a fraction of the cost.

[MarkJS]

I'm astounded that Omega won't touch it. What was their reasoning?

[RiggaTheMighty]

MarkJS said:

I'm astounded that Omega won't touch it. What was their reasoning?

Swatch group don’t service any of their historic watches.
This is the same with nearly all brands.
Tag, Breitling, Cartier, Rolex, etc
Main reason is they don’t have the watchmakers to do them as the majority of the watch houses have sequential systems and no one watchmaker is proficient at servicing a full movement and doing the case work themselves, etc.
They all have a date cut off as they can’t guarantee a repair on a watch they have no parts for and cannot give a modern day guarantee.

A 1960s omega couldn’t be serviced by their service centre and given a 2 yr warranty, which is unfortunate really, as any watchmaker worth their salt can service a 1960s omega and likely it will have another 5/6 yrs of good working order.

Hope that makes sense.

[Timer]

[MarkJS]

RiggaTheMighty said:

MarkJS said:

I'm astounded that Omega won't touch it. What was their reasoning?

Swatch group don’t service any of their historic watches.
This is the same with nearly all brands.
Tag, Breitling, Cartier, Rolex, etc
Main reason is they don’t have the watchmakers to do them as the majority of the watch houses have sequential systems and no one watchmaker is proficient at servicing a full movement and doing the case work themselves, etc.
They all have a date cut off as they can’t guarantee a repair on a watch they have no parts for and cannot give a modern day guarantee.

A 1960s omega couldn’t be serviced by their service centre and given a 2 yr warranty, which is unfortunate really, as any watchmaker worth their salt can service a 1960s omega and likely it will have another 5/6 yrs of good working order.

Hope that makes sense.

Thanks Rigga - makes perfect sense as to the reasons, but it’s also rather sad in my head.

[the-norseman]

watchguy.co.uk try Christian.

[Lotobear]

I use a local time served watchmaker who does it as a hobby/interest (by way of contrast he now runs a chicken farm full time!).

He serviced my 1962 Seamaster Auto a few weeks ago now - full strip, clean and reassemble, new crystal, new chapter ring (as a previous repairer had fitted an incorrect one) and cleaned the dial.

It was £80 and is now like new. He takes a while (often as he's waiting for parts) and there are no papers or receipts but he always does a superb job.

By coincidence Genesis are in my local town but I think they charge pretty much the same as the main dealers.