Does anyone know anything about vintage Omegas?

[e90m3]

So I got this Omega De Ville from eBay last week. You might be thinking that it's a terrible place to buy watches, but with everything it's just a marketplace.

Anyways, this Omega was ticking when I got it out of the box, but once I set the day and the date, it quit working. Thought it might be a battery, so I got another one off of Amazon. Replaced it and it's still not working. I'm thinking some grime or something got in the movement. If I tap the side of the watch, it'll run for 3-10 seconds before it stops again, and the hands spin freely. Day and Date change at midnight, so I don't think it's completely broken.

As you can tell, it's seen cleaner days.

It was only $150, so I ordered some watch tools and might try and take the movement out and clean it, unless someone here has a better idea.

Also been looking at various watches to add to my collection. Not really looking to drop a few grand, again, so things like this are in play, when I want to change it up from the usual Day-Date.

[HoustonRunner]

@e90m3 Brake Kleen! (OK, maybe watching a little too much Roadkill lately.)

[e90m3]

@houstonrunner said in Does anyone know anything about vintage Omegas?:

@e90m3 Blake Kleen! (OK, maybe watching a little too much Roadkill lately.)

I was thinking who the hell is Blake Kleen.

[Chariotoflove]

My first thought would be to bring it to a watch repair place so as not to mess it up. However, if you're viewing this as a project, have at it and let us know how it turns out!

[HoustonRunner]

@e90m3 Ha! I'm definitely embarrassed about my typo, but not surprised.

[e90m3]

@chariotoflove I think it would cost more than I would want to spend to fix it. Sort of viewing it as a project. As an engineer, I like fixing things.

[Jb boin]

It's definitely too expensive for a first time watch project and it's not a (fully) mecanical watch so you might not be able to fix what is wrong with it.

As a first time project you can at least start with rodico and Moebius oil and oilers to try to re-oil the apparent jewels from the back and remove the teal corrosion you can see but removing hands without proper (and of quality) tools (and thus accessing the front of the movement) is very risky.

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I also have two Omegas in this kind of state (and still non functional after a few years) that i also bought not for much so don't be ashamed of yourself

[Chariotoflove]

@e90m3
Completely off the topic, but what happened to your long term battery life test?

[e90m3]

@chariotoflove It died back in September, and I never got around to making a post. Think I was either in a mood that week or work was very hectic.

[Chariotoflove]

@e90m3
Oh well. Fun while it lasted.

[e90m3]

@jb-boin It seems like it wants to work, and if I remove the hands, I'll make sure to get the proper too.

Maybe this could become a hobby of mine.

[RallyDarkstrike]

@houstonrunner said in Does anyone know anything about vintage Omegas?:

@e90m3 Brake Kleen! (OK, maybe watching a little too much Roadkill lately.)

I've often used MAF/MAP sensor cleaner as a replacement for electronics cleaner and it works fine!

[A Former User]

@e90m3

I am not much of a watch guy anymore, but I like the simplicity of most of the classic Omega watches. They are understated and classy as opposed to gaudy and showy, which is how Rolex seems to me - more flash than substance. I have always viewed watches as something that should be a subtle reminder of the amount of fuck you money a person has as opposed to a billboard advertising that fact.

My father used to wear a Baume et Mercier Classima 18k gold watch. Honestly, at first glance it looked a bit mundane, especially since it is a quartz movement, but it was, and is, an expensive watch. It was the thinnest watch he could find without a date window and it had Roman numerals, which for some reason mattered to him. I guess that rubbed off on me.

[e90m3]

@rallydarkstrike I actually have some of that.

[e90m3]

@sovande They're also a lot cheaper than a Rolex of a similar vintage, not that it stopped me. I feel like the older Rolexs aren't as flashy, the newer ones certainly are.

[RallyDarkstrike]

@e90m3 Cool...could try it? I use it sparingly, but I've used it to clean up PC parts before in my computer repair side-gig and it seems to work fine. Just let the cleaned area completely dry before putting it back together, of course.

[xsnowpig]

@e90m3 definitely looks like a cleaning is in order. The other thing to take a quick peek at is the alignment of the hands- after rough shipping, one might have gotten bent enough to hang up on something.

[e90m3]

@xsnowpig Hands seems to be just fine, don't feel any hold up when I use the crown to move them. I think it's just very dirty.

[Jb boin]

@e90m3 forgot to mention but it might also run a little then stop because hands are touching each others... have this problem on one of my mishmash Omega (the hands are definitely not original to the watch and don't match it's look).

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ps: just saw somebody else said the same thing just before, my bad.

[DucST3]

@e90m3 those old running fork movements are finiky for sure. Worst case, you can probably find a spare working movement and swap it in. All you need to do it drop the old on out and transfer the dial, hands and maybe the date disk