Omega Deville Seamaster (Omega Calibre 565) – Service

Richard gave me this Omega Seamaster Deville for a service and a bit of TLC,  it is powered by the excellent Omega Calibre 565.

The watch came with a seconds hand not fitted to the watch, so it must have been removed at some point in the history of the watch.Omega Seamaster Deville

This Seamaster is a monocoque case, there is no removeable caseback, so the movement comes out from the front after removal of the bezel and crystal. There are a lot of marks and scratches on the dial and hands, I always wonder how this kind of damage happens, such a shame.

 

 

 

Now you can see the case with the solid back. It is hallmarked 9ct gold, very nice indeed.

 

 

 

 

Moving on the the movement, a view from the dial side.

 

And the upper side.Omega-Cal.-565-service

 

I start with the dial side, and start stripping it down.

 

And then move on to the upper side. The automatic works has been removed on the photo below.Omega-Calibre-565

 

 

 

I find a lot of evidences of dry lubrication, it was definitely time for a service. (Note in passing the beautiful sunburst finish on the barrel).

 

 

 

I soon have the movement stripped down.

 

And the parts now looking immaculate after ultrasonic cleaning.

 

 

I start re-assembly with a new mainspring.

 

 

 

 

Then lubricate the balance cap jewels.

 

 

 

The keyless work is rebuilt.

 

 

 

Train wheels, barrel bridge , train bridge and ratchet wheel now in place.

 

And the movement is now fully re-assembled and lubricated, except for the automatic works which I do last:  on this movement access is required to support the sweep seconds pinion while fitting the seconds hand. 

 

This version has the Omega swan neck type regulator, which is very precise during adjustments. It does not look bad either does it?

 

I complete the dial side, assembling the motion work. 

 

The calendar works is now installed.

 

 

As I now fit the dial and hands, I find out why the seconds hand had been removed at some point in the past. The minute hand was very bent, and there was no way the watch would run with the seconds hand, as it would clash with the other hands and stop the movement. I guess whoever worked on the watch just thought it was easier to do without it!

 

 

 

 

 

A little bit of work was required to straighten the minute hand.

 

 

 

 

It was well worth the effort as the seconds hand which came with the watch can now be fitted.

 

 

With the hands installed I can complete the assembly of the movement with the automatic works.

 

 

 

At that point I have the watch fully re-assembled, but disappointingly find that the quickset mechanism is not working reliably. This function allows change of the date by pulling the crown on the calibre 565, which is a very nice feature. After a lot of head scratching, I finally find the root cause of the issue when I compare the part which was fitted to the technical manual, and find that they bear no resemblance whatsoever! 

 

What the date corrector looks like in the technical manual.

 

I then source the part as per the technical manual.

 

And thankfully once fitted the quickset mechanism is back up and working as it should. 

 

I also encountered another issue with the stem. Because the case is monocoque it is a split stem to allow the stem to be pulled out to remove the movement out of the case for service. Unfortunately I found that it was very loose, and I was concerned it would just pop out under normal use when the crown is pulled to adjust the time or set the date.

 

 

I attempted to tighten it which I have done successfully several times in the past. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be this time… it is very hard steel, and the jaw of the split stem broke.

 

 

 

 

I procured another one, filed it to the correct length.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here it is, fitted to a new crown & gasket

 

 

 

 

 

With all of this resolved, the movement can finally be re-assembled with automatic works and oscillating weight.

 

 

 

I turn my attention to the case, Richard wanted to have it polished as part of the service.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lugs looking much nicer now.

 

 

 

 

And with a new crystal to finish things off, the watch now looks fantastic, what a transformation.

I would like to sincerely thank Richard for giving me the opportunity to work on this beautiful watch and allowing me to feature it on the blog.

One Reply to “Omega Deville Seamaster (Omega Calibre 565) – Service”

Comments are closed.