Omega Seamaster De Ville Automatic Restoration

Hans_jorgen_1968 shares the poignant story of his Omega Seamaster De Ville Automatic, a cherished family heirloom inherited from his grandfather. This post not only details the extensive restoration process required for the vintage timepiece but also highlights the immeasurable sentimental value that transcends monetary cost for collectors.

Hi there

This is the ONE Omega I inherited from my late granddad.

My granddad was a big guy, and somehow he destroyed this watch only by turning the crown to hard.

So when I inherited the watch in 2006, did I go directly to the local Omega watchmaker. They change the hesalite crystal, some (read many) parts in the movement and the crown. That operation took from early 2006 until mid 2007 due to the fact that they had search for many of the parts at Omega and official Omega repairs hops around Europe. On one occasion just before Christmas 2007, did they call me in to have the watch. it was running. When I came in it did run, until I had it on and wanted to adjust the date. the watch stopped and they had to change additional parts in the calibre.

The cost:                                              Don’t really (want to) remember

The watch value for me:                        Priceless

The watch

I have not myself opened the watch, but for me it looks like a (please correct me if I am wrong):

Reference ST 166.0020

International Collection: 1962-1972

Original sale price CHF 290.- on leather

Movement

Type:                            Automatic (mechanical)

Caliber number:            565

Cal. 565:                      Created in 1965, 24 jewels, date quickset, with central sweep-second hand

Functions:                     Date

Case:                            Stainless cap on stainless steel Case back

                                    Unishell (case opening on dial side)

                                    Full metal

                                    Case is round and 34,4mm in diameter)

Dial:                             With hand-rivetted gold hour markers and "stick" hands.

Crystal:                         Armoured hesalite

Bracelet:                       Leather

Water resistance:          30 meters

Some notes on the calibre (from Omega):

Series Automatic 550/560 and 750, designed in 1958

Designer: Marc Colomb (under the direction Henri Gerber)

Description:

A record quantity of 5.8 million of these calibres was produced from 1958 to 1969 (with their 600/610 self-winding versions) and they are among the brand's most precise, most reliable and most renowned movements. However, the success of this family is not attributable to the perfection of its self-winding mechanism alone, but also to its extreme reliability, ease of assembly and maintenance, as well as highly ingenious improvements such as the mobile balance spring stud holder invented by Jacques Ziegler in 1959.

The performances were also due to the use of ultramodern machines such as the Omegametric (invented by Pierre-Luc Gagnebin in 1962), an unprecedented system for measuring the torque of the balance-spring, which would from this point be adopted by all high-precision watch manufacturers.

The calibre existed in different version (the series 56x)

All of the calibres were: Ø27,90x4,50

19800 beats per hour  

 Thank you for reading ;-)

Best regards

Hans