Search the Community

Hello everyone, I got lucky in an antique store and bought an Omega watch with a nice R17.8 movement (reference: http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&&2uswk&Omega_R17_8) The watch was covered in green gunk, smelled like shoe polish, and I had to take a gamble on it without seeing the movement (the case has weird clamps to keep it shut (I'll post pics when I'm done)). It would only run for a few seconds when wounds a turn or so. I made my concerns very clear to the seller (largely emphasizing the amount of grime on the case and what it might mean for the insides), made a lowball offer that was promptly accepted... weird Anyways... the movement had a lot of dried sticky oil in it but after a disassembly and cleaning, it started right up. On the timegrapher, the amplitude is in the 200-230 range, (a little low), the beat error is 3.5ms. The rest of the readings are fine (2 exactly parallel lines), either gaining a few or loosing a few seconds depending on the position. The beat error surprised me a bit so I took out the balance and the pallet fork to check the position of the roller jewel between the banking pins (thank you Mark for the great video on beat error) but it is smack in the middle, not even a tidbit on one side or the other, in the centered middle. I double checked the pivots and jewels on the balance but I see nothing out of alignment (I thought maybe a pivot was bent on the balance staff, but not that I can see). I checked the jewel holes for the balance, all clean (cleaned them 3 times). I cannot see any grime on the hairspring and I don't see it catching on anything when it's running. I'm at a loss as to how to proceed next, and what to check. Any helps and advice is greatly appreciated!! Thanks