WRUW - Friday 5 January 2024?

[tritto]

I've been gathering parts to refurb my early 90s Seamaster 300m and this week the Cousins order containing gaskets, reversing wheel and mainspring arrived.
When I asked a local watchmaker (who used to have an omega parts account) about replacing the gaskets he asked "why would you do that? You aren't going to swim with it are you?"
I think we all know the answer to the first question - because I can!
There is nowhere near as much information available about working on Omegas as there is for Seiko, but I managed to find dimensions of the 4 gaskets on this watch and an exploded diagram of the helium release valve.

Here is are the parts laid out (new gaskets, valve crown still to be cleaned). It all went back together nicely.

The crown is nicely set up for replacing the gasket - the old one was easily hooked out. Wouldn't want to swim with the old one 😳

The caseback gasket looked fresher but I replaced that too.

Next step is servicing the automatic framework and installing the new reversing wheel (I currently have the auto framework removed and am running it as a hand winder). When that's done I will consider attempting a full service myself. It's a bog standard ETA 2892-A2 with a signed rotor so that should be relatively straightforwards.
I might drop it into a local store for a pressure test while I have the movement out for service.

[victor]

Was a bit of an involved process, but finally got the Perpetual Calendar running.  Glad that the process only has to be done every 10 or so years.  EDIT: it appears that the ~10 year lifespan is for the 8F56 movement - this 8F32 movement should be good for ~5 years, so I guess I'll be going back under the hood in 2029.

[scubarob99]

7548. Great insert, not so great hands

Rob

[inboost]

tritto - I'll add that any place a watch can breath through is going to be a problem even out of the pool. Humidity coming and going in / out of the watch case is a real problem. This translation of atmosphere happens every time you heat the watch (expels internal atmosphere) and then cool the watch (ingests external atmosphere). This happens every time you wear it. If you live in a dry climate you'll not have a problem, but in a humid area it rots lume on dial markers and hands and grows grot on the movement parts or even rust. That's why we see so many vintage watches coming from Japan (a highly humid location) with these maladies.

The Superbeat 10 continues to baffle me. Yesterday it's gain/loss was zero point zero seconds over a 14 hour active day of wear! Overnight it gained 1.8sec. I will be running a run-down test on it this weekend to see how long it will run.

I've used my powers for evil instead  of good here - a CAN bus RTC is directing a racing data logger to just show the time. Most expensive clock in my 'inventory'

At the moment the RTC is pretty close to real network time (-1sec roughly). The Leopard has sprung ahead from, it's initial +1.3 starting point to +5.9sec after 57hr 50min. That makes it a total running gain of +2.44 sec/day as worn 24-7

[sundog]

[mnementh]

mnem
I immediately regret this decision...  

[sundog]

Jan 4, 2024 20:45:20 GMT -8 tritto said:

I've been gathering parts to refurb my early 90s Seamaster 300m and this week the Cousins order containing gaskets, reversing wheel and mainspring arrived.

 

Very nice. I am looking for that exact color model right now. I keep going back and forth between the black vs the blue colors.

[cd_god]

Today's Seiko cat tip of the day: "The Maine Coon is thought to be a cross between American farm cats and early angoras."

[scubarob99]

Jan 5, 2024 7:21:27 GMT -8 cd_god said:

Today's Seiko cat tip of the day: "The Maine Coon is thought to be a cross between American farm cats and early angoras."

My specimen

[russtmurray]

[inboost]

Jan 5, 2024 7:36:47 GMT -8 scubarob99 said:

Jan 5, 2024 7:21:27 GMT -8 cd_god said:

Today's Seiko cat tip of the day: "The Maine Coon is thought to be a cross between American farm cats and early angoras."

My specimen

Hey scubarob99 , are those quartz or mechanical Maine Coons?

(My Wife tells me when I'm trying to be funny I certainly crack myself up, but often no one else is laughing - that might be the case here   - Regardless they're 'Cool for Cats')

[scubarob99]

Jan 5, 2024 8:44:13 GMT -8 inboost said:

Jan 5, 2024 7:36:47 GMT -8 scubarob99 said:

My specimen

Hey scubarob99 , are those quartz or mechanical Maine Coons?

(My Wife tells me when I'm trying to be funny I certainly crack myself up, but often no one else is laughing - that might be the case here   - Regardless they're 'Cool for Cats')

I do love a good Squeeze reference!

Rob

[saldog]

7548-700F from July 1981. Arrived dead with extensive internal damage from a leaky button cell. Some patina made its way to the dial and hands I assume from the gases released in that process. I was able to save the circuit block after a lot of tedious cleaning under a microscope. Coil was dead. The mainplate and bridge cleaned up with a soak in CLR. Many other parts were saveable too but I just swapped them for better ones from a donor 7546 (which fortunately had a good coil in it). New mineral crystal. The pip fell out so I punched out a “lens” from a water bottle and backfilled it with lume. Shown here on a genuine Z199, but I’ll probably put back on the OG rubber strap it came with. Gotta love the 7548!

[inboost]

Jan 5, 2024 9:08:45 GMT -8 saldog said:

... Shown here on a genuine Z199, but I’ll probably put back on the OG rubber strap it came with. Gotta love the 7548!

Yes, of course you are because you're selling me the Z199

[suntzu]

[serdal22]

Jan 5, 2024 9:08:45 GMT -8 saldog said:

7548-700F from July 1981. Arrived dead with extensive internal damage from a leaky button cell. Some patina made its way to the dial and hands I assume from the gases released in that process. I was able to save the circuit block after a lot of tedious cleaning under a microscope. Coil was dead. The mainplate and bridge cleaned up with a soak in CLR. Many other parts were saveable too but I just swapped them for better ones from a donor 7546 (which fortunately had a good coil in it). New mineral crystal. The pip fell out so I punched out a “lens” from a water bottle and backfilled it with lume. Shown here on a genuine Z199, but I’ll probably put back on the OG rubber strap it came with. Gotta love the 7548!

Gorgeous! I have its cousin 700B. My watchmaker in BC butchered its lume while reluming it without even my request! I will bring it from Europe for a reluming work.

Serdal.

[serdal22]

Jan 5, 2024 7:21:27 GMT -8 cd_god said:

Today's Seiko cat tip of the day: "The Maine Coon is thought to be a cross between American farm cats and early angoras."

It is a very lovely and robust looking piece. I am planning to hunt their Pepsi GMT model. How do you like the performance and accuracy? What movement does yours have?

Serdal.

[russtmurray]

Jan 5, 2024 8:46:28 GMT -8 scubarob99 said:

Jan 5, 2024 8:44:13 GMT -8 inboost said:

Hey scubarob99 , are those quartz or mechanical Maine Coons?

(My Wife tells me when I'm trying to be funny I certainly crack myself up, but often no one else is laughing - that might be the case here   - Regardless they're 'Cool for Cats')

I do love a good Squeeze reference!

Rob

You and me both Rob!

[sweffymo]

I've been alternating between this and the Grand Seiko I usually wear.  It turns out I like the fitness tracking stuff this watch has so I've been wearing it to sleep and when I've gone outside to do stuff.  This is by far the easiest to read negative display I've ever used!  I'm going to be sad when it gets its first oil/grease smudge from working on my car/bike but it's a g-shock and I'm going to use it for g-shock things, so it's inevitable.

[59yukon01]