A Little Fun With An Older Quartz Omega

[Irishcain]

So I found this in a junk bin and decided to fix it up a bit. It took a little work but I found the information. The watch is a quartz Seamaster Jubilee (MD 396.0969) 1432 caliber, 6 jewels, created in 1983.

The first thing that needed to be taken care of was figuring out what model it was, and to do this, I had to remove the caseback. Problem? Well, just looking at it tells you it’s a snap back, but there was no **BLEEP**in’ place for purchase with a case knife or any other tools I have.

 

 

Finally, I pulled out the superglue and a Nut. Glued the nut to the caseback, let it cure overnight, and the back popped off easily. Let the caseback/nut sit in acetone overnight and the glue completely dissolves, leaving a clean back.

 

After doing the necessary homework, I was able to source a gen stem and crown, in Poland of all places, and put in the order. Now it’s time to remove what’s left of the broken stem

Since it was broken flush with the tube, there was no way to grip it

But here I was both lucky and unlucky. The stem slid out easily enough when I could access it through the case next to the movement, but that also meant there were problems with the keyless.

 As you can see, there is no visible stem release, so to get to the keyless, I first had to remove the electronic components

 

 

And now we have the exposed keyless which will have to be disassembled to diagnose.

Turns out, the keyless just needed to be reset. So, service and reassembled, it’s now time to replace the stem.

Definitely too long, so I needed to cut and file it down to proper length.

Nice snug fit in all three positions (here it’s in position 2)

Test and reassemble electronics

Then it was just a matter of completing the service and reassemble. I’m buffing the case now to give it a nice shine, but since I kind of wanted the aged look to be kept, I’m not doing much more. Not touching the dial, but I may relume it. All in all, I enjoyed working on this. It’s a bit of history, sentimentality, and intelligent design that lends to the understanding of why Omega is what it is today.

 

[anilv]

Nice... these watches are very underated.

 

Since they're not really worth much (currently) and the prices of spares are so high they will probably end up more valuable than their mechanical brethren as a lot of them get junked!

 

Anil

[bobm12]

Good job irishcain! I followed it with great interest!

 

Cheers,

 

Bob

[autowind]

It might just be my cataracts playing up but I don't think that is the correct crown,  I would expect it to be very close to the case when pushed fully in.  What do others think?

[Irishcain]

It might just be my cataracts playing up but I don't think that is the correct crown,  I would expect it to be very close to the case when pushed fully in.  What do others think?

You know, I thought it might be the wrong crown, but it's the crown listed on the Omega sheet. What gets me is how far out the tube is. It's actually pretty prominent on the watch, but even Omega shows it as being really prominent (http://www.omegawatches.com/planet-omega/heritage/vintage-watches-database?ref=15419).

[rogart63]

Nice work . The Omega movement is a ETA 255.111 movement so their is lot of parts available if one needs to find parts . But it's good to now there is one Omega quartz saved for the future . 

[Ishima]

I'm confused though you can see the entirety of the case pipe when its engaged, surely that's a dust proof crown intended for a tubeless case? 

Also it's gold plate! Do not polish!

Edited April 30, 2015 by Ishima