Omega Century cal 269

I received this Omega Century from a repeat customer in the south west of England.  Although I’m based in Somerset, I receive watches from various countries and from different counties in the UK.  It’s in such fantastic condition that it seems worth showing here.

The case is as sharp as they come and for a watch that’s nearly sixty years old, the condition is exceptional.  This picture is as received.

After service and the movement can also be seen to be in terrific condition with virtually unmarked screw heads and no real traces of damage or corrosion.  Serial number is obscured here.

During the service review, after strip down and cleaning, the pivots can be seen to be virtually unmarked and are still as smooth and polished as when this watch left the factory in Switzerland.  An example is shown below with the pivots indicated by the arrows.  Most watches of this era have worn pivots, generally due to neglect, and this condition is only usually seen after polishing of the pivots or replacing parts.

A couple of pictures during re-assembly showing an almost perfect hairspring.  Again, watches of this age will often show misshaped hairsprings due to careless handling or impact damage.  This can usually be resolved but it all takes time so seeing a hairspring like this is always welcome.

Looking in from the left in the picture above and, after a small adjustment, the hairspring is easily centered in the regulator pins which will give the best running. This is a typical adjustment but this particular example was almost spot on without any tweaking.

And, as usual, the watch is tested in six positions and adjusted to give the best running on the wrist.

For this “non chronometer” specified watch, the fastest position just after build is dial down (CB) and shows a gain of 6.1 seconds/day.

The small images at the lower of that graph give an indication of the other five positions and the slowest shows a loss of 6.8 seconds/day giving a total variation of under 13 seconds per day.

This is an excellent result for a watch of this age and is testament to the original build quality.  It has been a pleasure to work on a watch without issues and that’s why it’s featured here.