Repair: Omega Constellation 168.010 calibre 564

Kes sent me an email and told me he had problems with his Constellation – when it comes to the 20th of the month, the watch often stops around midnight – sometimes between the 20th and the 25th.

So either Kes turns into a sloth around the 18th, or there is something wrong with the date change…

The watch has been serviced, and sent back a couple of times to fix the problem, but to no avail. Doesn’t sound like an easy one to resolve, but I’m always up for a challenge….

On the timegrapher, the watch is doing very well indeed. So whoever did the service did a good job on the movement. Just that darn date change!

First impression confirms what I saw on the timegrapher. It’s clean and tidy in here.

Not under here, but removing the bezel and cleaning up underneath isn’t always part of a standard service.

The dial is in incredibly good shape.

Odd dirt left of the “14” – some black stuff, could this be graphite??

Same stuff on the pawl. I hope it’s not graphite – as that shouldn’t be used in a watch. It wanders freely around the movement and can cause all sorts of mayhem. Just think of the stuff on the hairspring or the balance jewels …

Pretty dry here. No sign of any lubrication.

Well, I’ll give lubrication a go, then. Here, I’ve put some Moebius 9501 below the date change wheel on the friction surface.

The arbor gets some Moebius D-5. The intermediate wheel gets the same treatment.

I’ve cleaned the cover plate, pawl and spring, and give it a bit of lubrication as well.

Last but not least, the date wheel gets some attention as well.

Everything goes back together.

The movement goes back into the case. You have to remove the auto-winder gears to be able to put the second hand on – that’s because the second hand arbor only has a spring at the back, and not a jewel. My only criticism of this movement.

Auto-winder back in.

Beautiful watch. Now I set the date to the 19th and wait for 6 days and see what happens. It should go smoothly, but you never know. I have to test this properly before returning the watch.

I love Constellations, especially the stainless steel ones with a light dial. This is a watch I want for my collection as well, but I got to save up a bit for that 😉

Monday, July 9th, 2012

The watch changed date without stopping over the weekend, but I’m still not happy. The date change at midnight isn’t snappy at all, but takes a good hour to complete. That means the pawl and its spring aren’t able to “flick” the date ring on to the next date, but are dragged over by the date wheel.

I take the bottom plate apart again and compare the date ring with one from another Constellation.

This black on white date ring is from another Constellation. I put it in, and instantly, I have snappy date changes.

Working date ring on the left, the one that sticks on the right.

This is the working date ring. Notice that the contact surface with the plate is the innermost part with the teeth – you can see slide marks, and the tweezers that I put across are in contact with the innermost ring.

Now the same view of the non-working date ring. See how the innermost ring doesn’t touch the tweezers at all, but there is quite a gap. That means that the intended contact surface with the plate isn’t in contact, and we have thus too much friction on the date wheel, which makes it not change properly.

Glad I found the problem.

Now for the solution. The client would like the original silver date ring, and it’s still for sale. I don’t think I stand much of a change to push the center of the date ring in without damaging the numbers on the dial, but I’ll give it a try.

With a case press, I try to push the inner ring a bit further inwards, but I can’t get near enough to where I would have to be.

Good thing you can still  get an original date ring, so I go ahead and order it.

Tuesday, July 10th, 2012

The original Omega date ring has arrived.

As expected, the date changes now snap into place as you would expect.

The only question for me that remains unanswered is how either the date ring got deformed or how the wrong date ring got into there … I’ll never know. What I know is that the date changes are as they should be, and I can return the watch after a couple of days on the bench.

5 thoughts on “Repair: Omega Constellation 168.010 calibre 564

  1. i have this exact same model in immaculate condition externally but the movement i have been told is in need of a few parts and some of the screws are badly chewed up. Would you be interested in purchasing it?

  2. Pingback: Date change problem Omega Constellation 564

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