Guenter, my first customer from Austria, sent in this Constellation for a service.
Let’s see what the movement is up to…
The amplitude is way too low, and the movement is too fast.
The case back with the Geneva Observatory. Lots of scratch marks where people have slipped trying to open the case.
The usual dirt under the bezel ring.
Looks like the dial has been restored before.
I start taking the movement apart.
All the parts clean and ready for reassembly.
As usual, I start off with a new mainspring.
The base movement back together.
Freshly put together, I already have an amplitude of over 250 degrees. Within a couple of hours, this will have gone up to well over 270.
The bottom plate is in very good shape as well, no rust, no damage.
The auto winder bridge is back together.
The cleaned case gets a new Omega crystal.
Back together, and looking gorgeous!
How does the Omega chronometer movement 561 stack up against later models that were installed in the Pie Pan model….or did they in fact, use the same movement in that model?
All Constellations from that time have movements from the same family, e.g. 56n movements. Decent movements, with a central second construction that could be better…
Good Day Christian,
Great article, interesting reading.
Do you also refinish dial. Got a Constellation with Pie Pan dial that I would like to restore.
As I live in South Africa and with the exchange rate currently I will appreciate if you could please provide a budgetary quote.
Regards
Jeff
Hi Jeff,
We don’t do dial restorations ourselves. Try David Bill & Sons.
Best regards,
Christian
Hi Christian,
As always it is a great pleasure to read up on your repair blog!
One suggestion: You are normally referring to the movement caliber in your blog. In the case of Omega, and may others, there is a case/model reference number inside the case back as well. Could you either photo this as well, or at least provide this in the blog text?
It would be helpful for instance if one should decide to find something similar for oneself 🙂
I’ll be a good boy in the future and mention the case reference. This one is a 168.004.
Always enjoy a constellation tear down and reassembly.
About the dial, you say it is redone because of the grinding of the marker posts? The text on the dial is, however, flawless to my untrained eye. The person who did tha redial would be a master in my book… right below your name Christian 🙂
It looks great, but for the age of the watch, it’s too new I would say.
If it’s a redial it looks really good to me. Maybe the markers were removed to just re-laquer it rather than to do a complete redial?
Anyway, it shows you just how good these movements are when you get a result like that. I have a couple of 551/561 Constellations and they are both excellent timekeepers and even older than this one.
i’d be willing to bet a good amount of money that’s not a redial.
It’s just odd that the markers were removed at some point. But I agree that the dial looks very original.
I’d say it’s original. I’ve seen the grinding marks on many Omega dials with applied markers, so I guess it’s just how thay made the. Glue on the back is a giveaway for a re-dial though.
Thank your very much again Christian for taking care of this watch I inherited from my father. You did a great job restoring it to its former glory. I’m really looking forward to wearing it again. I have also ordered a nice black leather strap that should come close to the original band. I’ll take a picture of it when it’s completely assembled.
Christian,
You mention the amplitude increases after a couple of hours? Is that because the oils “bed”-in (couldn’t think of a better word) and the movement “gets back into the swing of things” 🙂 so to speak?
I wish I had more technical wording for it all, but I find “the swing of things” is a rather witty way to describe a balance wheel if I may say so myself. 😀
Very simple, yet so perfectly elegant …… and a beautiful movement.
Have newer watches lost something with all the added complex decoration?
Wonderful job !
Regards