OMEGA 176.007 Service and Repair

[stephanve]

Hello everyone, I am new here! I recently got this Omega 176.007 from my grandfather, and I am greatful to have the opportunity to create new memories with it. 

I do want to get it in better shape then it is now. Right now I would love to replace the crystal, polish the sides of the case, fix the indices at the 7 and 8, and service the movement. My question is, are these issues I can solve myself? I have no experience in watch repairing, but I am eager to learn. If not, is it recommended to send it to Omega for service, or will a avarage watchmaker work as well?

Some extra notes on this... The time and chronograph function are working well. However, the 24-hour indicator doesnt seem to be aligned with the time. Also, automatic winding is working fine, but manual winding doesnt seem to do anything, besides a clicking noise.

I am also curious how I will be able to source original parts. Especially the indices seems to be hard to find. Will even Omega be able to fix this?

Looking forward to see some thoughts on this, and thank you in advance!

[RichardHarris123]

Hello and welcome from Leeds, England.  Definitely not a  watch to start on. Omega might fix it or say it's too old, a decent watch repairer could do it but getting parts may be difficult. 

[Nucejoe]

 Your best bet is a watch repairer who already has donor movements of same caliber, he would know if he is got the parts your watch needs.

Material houses , Causins , esslinger, jules borel ....supply some parts. 

 

 

 

 

[Bonefixer]

You could try to contact one of the prominent youtubers that do watch repair? French Watch Collector is good, the best (in my opinion) is the Nekkid Watchmaker but I’m not sure he takes commissions. 

[tomh207]

12 minutes ago, Bonefixer said:

You could try to contact one of the prominent youtubers that do watch repair? French Watch Collector is good, the best (in my opinion) is the Nekkid Watchmaker but I’m not sure he takes commissions. 

I would limit any approach to a YouTube repairman to professionals running a proper company. Two that spring to mind are Chronoglide and gentleman’s watch service.

https://www.chronoglide.nl
 

https://gentlemenswatches.co.uk
 

whilst there are many talented amateur watch repair folk on YouTube making money at this work, some of them are members here, you don’t have the security as a consumer of a fully insured business in most cases.

 

Tom

 

[Knebo]

Hi @stephanve,

That is an awesome watch! Very cool choice of Nato strap (with the matching colours), by the way.

Personally, I'd limit the restoration to the movement itself and the crystal. I'd leave all the the scratches on the case -- those are your grandfather's scratches and the history of the watch. 

The risk with Omega themselves (apart from the price) is that they will probably restore it to a "new" look. Maybe even exchange dial or hands. That would dramatically harm the originality/authenticity of the watch and it's embedded memories. So please don't do it

The indexes will be close to impossible... Omega may have them, but they'll most likely replace the whole dial instead of fixing just the indexes. For me, an absolute no-go. 
Maybe you can live with their absence?

I agree with most others, find a good (not "average") independent watchmaker and discuss with him/her what exactly you want (especially regarding the case, dial and hands).

Some names of companies where thrown around... just among those, I think Chronoglide stands out as a true professional. Nekkid Watchmakers does wonders in "back to new" case restoration (which I personally, wouldn't want), BUT I'm not convinced by his servicing of the movement (you may find some posts about it on the forum).

Cheers!

 

 

[JohnR725]

On 9/4/2024 at 7:06 AM, stephanve said:

Omega 176.007

here's some information that Omega has on your watch. You'll notice that the number 176.007 is the old number even though people list the watch with that number. The decimal point isn't actually a decimal point think of it more like a separator the new number is 176.0007

https://www.omegawatches.com/en-us/watch-omega-seamaster-omega-st-176-0007

On 9/4/2024 at 7:06 AM, stephanve said:

polish the sides of the case,

ideally if you really want a refinished the watch and make it look brand-new and not like your grandfather's watch you would want to study up as to how the watch was originally finished as I doubt that it was polished on the sides. or conceivably could just wash the case and possibly do some light polishing but you are going to change the original book of the case. Which is why a lot of people would leave the watch exactly as it is at least the case new crystalline make the watch looked really really nice.

On 9/4/2024 at 7:06 AM, stephanve said:

no experience in watch repairing, but I am eager to learn

the most important lesson to learn in watch repair is when not to service a watch. This is a chronograph not considered a beginner's watch plus it's an Omega watch everything on this watch is going to be very expensive. So unless you like very painful lessons as others have recommended this is not a beginner's watch.

On 9/4/2024 at 7:06 AM, stephanve said:

s it recommended to send it to Omega for service, or will a avarage watchmaker work as well?

and yes Omega could service the watch but as others have pointed out typically what they do is restore the watch to its original condition. Then they probably consider this vintage which will bump the price up even more. As it's a chronograph I'm not sure how many average watchmakers work on chronographs. But there are watchmakers out there that can work on this watch ideally you would want to find somebody who has I Swatch group parts account. That makes it a lot easier to find information and possibly get parts of there's still available.

On 9/4/2024 at 7:06 AM, stephanve said:

Omega 176.007

then the Omega reference number always interesting to try to explain the people that it's not an exact number. for instance here's a link below it talks about your watch and noticed the references to the dials? Especially some of the coloring because your crystal appears to have the ring the outer ring is part of the crystal.

https://www.timeline.watch/watch/1972-omega-seamaster-cal-1040/

because I was really curious about the crystal coloration part here's a crystal brand-new Omega which is why it has the interesting price and you can see the ring on the inside.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/256370459684

than I have a link to a confusion. On the cousins website I search for your number typically each one of the PDFs would be a different material that the case is made out of. Looks like two of them are stainless steel no idea what the differences. Then if you look at the PDFs it gets even more confusing because each of those PDFs has several different crystals with slightly different letters but not a detailed explaining of what those letters mean. This is why be really good if you can find someone with a Swatch group account because they can get better material than what cousins as near usually there was a better description and sometimes they had pictures which would be really nice for these type parts if they're still available.

https://www.cousinsuk.com/document/search?SearchString=176.0007

 

 

[AndyGSi]

1 hour ago, JohnR725 said:

Then if you look at the PDFs it gets even more confusing because each of those PDFs has several different crystals with slightly different letters but not a detailed explaining

Is the Crystal not just the PN5220 with the varying parts being either the bezel or the tach ring?

[JohnR725]

6 hours ago, AndyGSi said:

Is the Crystal not just the PN5220 with the varying parts being either the bezel or the tach ring?

I think technically you need the 063 in front of that because that's the code that says Crystal. then yes all the rest of the letters lurking in the number will have some sort of meaning. We just conveniently don't know what it is.

so for instance if you look at the list you'll see list the top number as the and the bottom numbers just the crystal

I was doing a quick search on my computer because I know somewhere I've seen at least a partial listing of what all those letters mean. Unfortunately I have way too much Omega documentation and none of it has a particularly helpful title so giving up on that. But did notice that reference number in 2023 I downloaded the PDF's. Suspicious I just now did a search on this website and sure enough somebody was looking for a movement ring but there's a whole bunch of other references to this. It's always good to do a search on the website to see if anyone else had any other questions or similar questions. Some may want insert the crystal but decided to take it somewhere more professional as they got a better price of $190 yes everything is going up in price.

[AndyGSi]

The top number (PF5220) is the Crystal with Blue Tachy ring and the bottom number (PN5220) is just the crystal.

Edit

Should have added that Cousins used to only sell Tachy rings but the letter after are as follows.

TA - Tach

DE - Decimal

PU - Pulse

TE - Tele

Edited September 12, 2024 by AndyGSi