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Posted

Hello all,

Embarking on a new adventure!  Starting with an inspection and disassembly of an Omega 351 bumper automatic.  Feels like a privilege, what a blast! Seeing as this is a new movement to me and I'm a little outside of my novice comfort zone. This one looks like it's been sitting on the shelf awhile.  Inscriptions on the case seem to be servicing from the 70's.  I have a few questions to ask and pictures to share along my journey.

The inspection turned up a few key items:

  • 1. Large intermediate wheel has two broken teeth
  • 2. The movement is held by a single case clamp and metal bracket that is rusted and bent.  Pulling/pushing the crown moves the entire movement within the case.
  • 3. The barrel has excessive side shake due to wear damage on the barrel bridge.
  • 4. There was a concerning clicking noise about once per full rotation of the crown.
  • 5. Leaning towards replacing the crystal although it's probably salvageable
  • 6. The mainspring is an unknown because I don't have mainspring winders in the budget just yet and thus I haven't opened it. 😞

Question:

  • Any tips on securing the movement in the case?  Should I try to bend the bracket? I'm afraid it may break.
  • Any thoughts on the rough click and noise while rotating the crown?  
  • If anyone has a spare intermediate wheel, or bridge to sell please contact me I'm interested.  

Enjoy the pictures from the disassembly! It's about time for the ultrasonic 👀!  I think this is gonna clean up nicely!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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IMG_1947.JPEG

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  • Like 2
Posted

Okay, I was being daft, I had the winding pinon upside down and thought it was a second intermediate wheel.  I've been staring at my Raketa too long.  There is only one intermediate wheel on this movement.  The teeth are broken on the winding pinion which makes a lot of sense and very probably explains the gnarly clicking during manual winding.

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    • Thanks for this post MikePilk, I just came across a similar problem with an Omega 1022.  The problem I had was the seconds pinion spring was bent out of shape and did not even engage with the wheel properly, so the seconds hand was not moving at all. (no power loss though :) I removed the automatic module so I could access the spring and work on it. Once I bent it back close to the right shape, I experienced the same problem you reported about power loss.  Many tweaks later, and the seconds hand is moving properly again, with amplitude back to good numbers again. Cheers
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