Omega 166.032 Vintage Restoration Story

Renerod shares a deeply personal and inspiring story of restoring a vintage Omega 166.032, transforming it from a rusted, forgotten timepiece into a cherished 'war horse.' This narrative highlights the profound connection collectors can forge with watches, especially those rescued from disrepair. Renerod's journey, sparked by JLC Master Classes, illustrates how a passion for horology can lead to hands-on restoration and a renewed appreciation for a watch's resilience and history.

Hello purist friends. I started collecting vintage watches because of this particular watch: Omega 166.032

Here is where two of my favorite brands interwind: Jaeger-LeCoultre and Omega.

You'll see, I've attended to several JLC Master Classes, and I love the oportunity JLC's watchmakers give you to know the beauty of a movement that usually you never see, and also have a little taste of their wonderful art. To make this story short, this is where I discovered I liked to disassemble watches

I live in Mexico, and because of my job, I have to travel to rural towns in the beautiful countryside. It was in one of those travels thas I walked past an old watch shop in a town named Chignahuapan, home to several apple cider distilleries and glass christmas crafts. Suddenly I felt the urge to enter the old shop, so in I went. As I entered, the old man in charge asked if I was looking for someting special, so I said: "I'm looking for old wrist watches, maybe a rolex or omega". The man then showed me two beautiful elgin rail road pocket watches. Now I wonder why I didn't buy one, but in that moment I said: "No thanks". As I started to open the door in my way out, the man said: "wait! I think I now remember I got something you may like". The man dissapeared in the back of the store. It was like a 20 minutes wait. When he finally came out, he showed me this and said: "I bought it for piece scavenging, but if you want it I might sell it to you. It has all it's pieces, some of them in very bad shape, but I'm pretty sure you can get all the pieces you need at the big Mexico City". When I looked down, man I felt so sorry for that poor watch, but also I could see it was a beautiful watch that deserved a better life if It was up to me. I could imagine that someone took it into swimming, hit it against a river rock, and put it away in a drawer maybe tinking "I'll fix it latter". So this poor watch maybe spent 30 or 40 years rusting in the dark waiting...

Case full of rust and no crown at all. Cristal shattered. Rusted dial, no hands

Sooo...as you might have imagined, I took this old gentleman home, continued to disassemble it, and spent some of the most daring vacation of my life cleaning it piece by piece with a toothbrush, a toothpick and a needle. Don't worry, I also went rappeling down some canyon, did some mountaineering and cave diving, did some reading and some maintenance at my parent's house. But those blank nights...pick pick, brush brush...he he...

Until some day the magical slight breath blow and... Since my beginner skills didn't allow me to re do a dial, I tried to get a clean one but...no luck at all. So it had to be re dialed, not much to my likes but it was the best the re-dialer could do. He he, nice person the dialer, old and grumpy, he had to re do it three times until it nearly satisfied me.

I'm sorry I didn't ask my watchmaker to take some pictures of the restoration process. New glass, some oil and fine tunning, new crown, stem and tube. I don't know well what else was needed, but at the end, this is what came out:

Well, at least until a new generation arrives

This is a long dued post and I dedicate it to all of you who love the beautiful science and art of watches.

Greetings from Mexico and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing.

Best

René

P.S. Thanks JLC for the wonderful idea of master class