Horological Adventures: Finally, a Chronograph!

Ever since I began repairing watches, I have always wanted to repair a chronograph. On eBay, there are tens of movements that sell each week, but rarely movements with their cases and in non-working condition for me to fix. My time came, however, when this Omega chronograph came up for sale! The watch was in running/stopping condition, most likely because of dirt that had built up and the lack of oil. The escapement and basic time function of the watch was easy to repair - a simple cleaning and the watch was up and running - but there were numerous problems with the chronograph function.

First, there were small specks of dirt within the teeth of the chronograph wheels, jamming the gears and bringing the watch to a halt. That was easily fixed by using Rodico and cleaning the wheels. Second, a piece that is attached to the bottom of the central wheel was supposed to hit another gear once every rotation, effectively turning the hand on the 30-minute register. The piece was too short so I had to improvise and attached a minuscule piece of metal that worked as an extension so the part began hitting the gears as it should. Lastly, the sweep seconds hand was completely broken off. I actually enjoy fixing broken hands, something that I have done at least ten or so times in the past, so this was also fairly easy. After everything was in place, repaired, and polished (I tried my best to polish each piece to look as good as new), there was still some adjusting to do, which took a lot longer than I had expected, but resulted in a beautiful product!

Aside from the excitement I got from finally repairing a chronograph, it was also interesting to see that the watch underneath the chronograph plate (pictures below) is the exact same as any other watch, with the exception of an extended seconds wheel pinion.

Once again, thanks for reading!