Omega Seamaster - Cal 286 - Rose Gold

Sent in by one of my regular customers is this rather lovely Seamaster, the movement was non running but in good condition and the dial has a little age & wear but nothing overly bad. The movement in this case was a Calibre 286 with sweeping centre seconds, very basic movement design but very classical and reliable also. Always enjoy working on these movements as their size is very comfortable to work with and the end result is nearly always a very accurate and reliable time piece.

The casing had lost some of its rose gold plating but this is to be expected with a watch of this age, the case back was a little dull but easy enough to clean up. The dial has suffered slightly under age and weather but in this case it was best to leave alone and preserve the look of the watch overall. The original glass was far gone and the crown was worn so both of these would need replacement for sure.

Onward to the strip down phase and get things going, stripping the movement down reveals lack of lubrication and dry oil deposits on the jewel faces and holes >>
​

---

With the movement being cleaned it was time to clean up the case back and get the new crown and glass ordered. The case back goes through six stages, photos show first three stages >>

Ultrasonic Clean > Graining to remove scratches > First Buff > Polish 2 > Polish 3 > Final Compound

With the movement cleaned and all parts accounted for it was time to reassemble and lubricate the movement. Some jewels required further hand cleaning with pegwood and essence as the cleaning machine can't always remove the really stubborn deposits. >>>
​

With the movement assembled and running well again it was time to get the whole watch together and assembled, but before that a new crown was needed to match and fit the watch. Omega rose gold crowns of the exact dimensions needed were not available so an ISO Swiss Rose Gold plated crown fitted the bill quite nicely >>>

Crown and stem adjusted and ready to go the new glass was ready to be mounted and assembly finished >>

With the watch now complete it was time to reflect and enjoy the watch briefly until it was time to send it home for strap fitting and a future owner :)
​

As any of you who follow my blogs will know i do have a soft spot for Omega's and this is one little gem i won't forget, someone somewhere will have a nice timepiece to enjoy :)

​Till next time ;)