First Project: Omega Genève Cal. 565

[handwound]

Hey guys

I just wanted to share with you my first project, an Omega Genève with the calibre 565. I saw it on Chrono24 for really cheap. It was sold as not working, but for the price I just couldn't say no to it and immediately bought it. When the watch arrived some days later, I opened the caseback to see if there is something obviously wrong with the movement what causes it to not run. A screw fell out and I noticed that it should keep the one missing caseclamp in place. I suspected that the clamp has made it's way into the train of wheels what causes the watch to stop. And indeed: a slight shake and it fell out and the watch started ticking, it wasn't running great at all but at least a sign of life so I hoped a service would recover it.

 

Movement before service

 

The movement was quite nasty, everything covered in small pieces of dirt and old oil. Stripping the movement down went quite smooth and I took photos of some parts to remember their location. I cleaned it in an ultrasonic cleaner with Elma Red and then rinsed it in distilled water and isopropanol. After all parts were dried I started to inspect them and I thought that they would all be fine, but that assumption turned out to be wrong later.

All parts cleaned and dried (with expeption of the automatic assambly)

 

When the movement was assambled again I was really happy to see it ticking again, but the joy only lasted for a short time, because it stopped after about a minute. I first inspected the balance again but it was moving freely so I assumed that the problem would be in the train of wheels, because the watch was running nice at first. When I checked the third wheel I noticed a small black dot between to teeth, barely visible even under magnification. I cleaned this spot and also all other wheels again and pegged out the pivot holes. After reassembly it was now running nicely.

 

 

On the timegrapher the watch is running with around 240° in dial up and down position and around 220° in hanging positions. Beat error as well as positional error a quite low. I know that these results are far from perfect, but it's my first project and if I consider the condition it was in before I'm quite happy with the result  The lession I've learned from this: spend more time on inspecting the parts, as it can save you a lot of time and nerves later  

I found a new original Omega Crystal for this case reference, now I just need to wait for it to arrive and it will be a nice watch again. 

I hope you enjoyed this short report and I wish you all a nice weekend 

[SparkyLB]

Well done. That was a nice catch. During reassembly after first clean and lube, did you give the train of wheels a spin before adding the pallets?  

[handwound]

yes I did, but maybe the train had more momentum so it could overcome this small piece of whatever

[Jon]

Couldn't you find a new mainspring for this, as 240 amplitude is very low to be happy with?

 

[handwound]

I wanted to keep costs as low as possible, but I want to replace it in the next time maybe it will boost up the amplitude a bit

[rodabod]

I find these movements can be a bit fussy and sometimes will "pick up" after running in a little.

Good job!

[handwound]

Thanks  

[handwound]

Update: I replaced the mainspring with a new one, now I'm getting an amplitude of around 270°