playing around with an omega 2254.50.00

[vlaletom]

Hey.

On of my first reps was an Omega SMP pro black with a 2824-2 . Got it from king just after i discovered RWGI.

I have been wearing it a lot, without any care, as real beatter ...

It was olso the first watch i tryed to lume.

But i have benn rather unlucky with it

While snowboarding in chamonix, i discovered at the bottom of "the grand montet" that the crystal had poped off the case.

Hopfully the crystal was still in my jacket hands, but i never found the plastic ring.

I then did a dirty fix with super glue, but the crystall was periodically falling off.

Then i lost the lume dot in the pearl.

And to finish the crown tube just broke, the rep one was made in cheap bronze.

So the watch just sat in my drawer for olmost a year.

Until i found a swiss watchmaker offering an original tube crown and escape valve plus a set of hand (for the blue version) on ebay, got the bid for around 40$ and was rather happy.

Just had to order some gens black hands from ofrei and i was ready to give life to that thing again.

So here are the pics of the whole process. (pics links to higher res ones)

first the watch while it wasn't boken

luming the dial

removing the bacelet is not so painfull but puting it back is really a [censored].

For the second work session i just opened it with my bracelt pin remover, but did not go into figthing with those endlink.

a little demagetization can't do bad ...

dial with original rep lume ...

dial ready to be lumed

The dial lumed ..

It was my first lume job, and the result is not so good, the border of the marker aren't as good as i whanted.

U can notice the little error on the 7 marker where i've gone too far. hopfully i was able to repaint the black part.

Hopfully the glow was as i expected, as you can see in this picture where the environement is still well lighted.

Now in the real dark ...

Second session : Fixing the whole mess

Here you can see the broken tube wich would not allow to screw the crown anymore, i first had to remove it, wich i did with a standard plier.

I then used my elaborated technique of "tearing the damn thing apart with a plier" on the rep escape valve.

Here you can see the genuine part that i used.

Now i was left with a hole that of course did not match the gen tube size.

It was rather too big in fact.

This is the gen crown and tube, as you can see the crown screw from the inside in the tube.

And the tube itself is not screwed to the the case.

So i had to attach this to the case.

I used some special epoxy ciment, made specially for steel part, and it worked vey well.

I then moved on the the valve.

Here are all the parts used in a gen valve.

I can tell you that at first, i was a little embarassed on how to assemble that puzle. And couldn't find an assembly plan on the net.

It finaly ended up like this. i supose it's how it is suposed to be done, but i am not 100% shure..

But after all i am not a professional diver, and it's not like i am ever going to really use the escape valve anyway ..

Of course the rep case hole wasn't the corect size

This time it was too small, so that were my precision dremel got a little action.

I dont know about the steel used in all replica, but i can tell you this one got drilled like butter, low spped, cutting oil, and it was done.

The escape valve unlike the crown tube is screwed to the case, so i just had to tap the new hole to the size of the escape valve screw.

Here you can see the valve tube screwed to the case.

And the process of screwing the valve crown from the inside.

After that i fixed one for all the crystal with the epoxy steel ciment.

Made a new lume dot on the bezel ...

Attached the genuine hand to the movement, it's really niceer now with corectly sized hands...

And here are some pics of the final result

Globaly i am happy with the overall felling of the watch.

But i think it would be better with gen dial, specially as i am not 100% happy with my lume job, the markers are not as well finished as they could have been.

And the case would really need a polishing, after all that beating.

The crystal being domed is olso really lacking the AR.

But the watch i now often back on my wrist and looks gently aged and used like somthing that has "seen a lot" wich make it looks much less like a rep.

[FxrAndy]

Impressed, all your own work is a great feeling.

[stilty]

Nice! Looks like you had some fun! Good deal on the parts too.

I wish I still have mine... it was a great rep.

[bosk]

That SMP is nice! The He valve seems to be in the correct position too (from OLD FACTORY). Is the He valve position a result for your mod or was it always off the 10 marker abit?

-bosk

[marrickvilleboy]

very nice job!!!

I also modded my black SMP heavily - with many genuine parts - including genuine movement.

wear it well! hard work pays off!

[RWG Technical]

Great work, it's always satisfying to do it yourself.

Thanks for sharing your work.

RG

[vlaletom]

@The Zigmeister thanks "master"

@bosk yes the HE valve was allready corectly positioned in the rep, just had to enlarge and tap it from the orginal hole postion.

@Marrickvilleboy your SMP is a must in franken, with gen movement!

i olso got myself an omega box set, but the movement that an other storry, did you got a fair deal for it ?