A question for Omega experts...

Charmed & Dangerous

I’ve had a Seamaster 300m for about 15 years or so. A pin fell out of the bracelet a couple of days ago, so I took it into my nearest Omega dealer today who replaced it. However I was told that the bracelet is quite worn (I wear the watch every day) and a little loose and needs replacing, because they usually only last about 15 years.

Can I ask our experts here - is this usual? What price would a new Seamaster bracelet normally cost?

Thanks in advance for any info. -{

Higgins

The curse of the friction pins.
I‘ve been criticizing them for years, everybody keeps on telling me that it‘s not an issue. But it is.

Sorry that this has also happened to you, I‘d guess that a new bracelet will be between £500 and 1000.

Asp9mm

What the idiot said ^^^

Charmed & Dangerous

Oh. thank you for the info gents. -{

MML

Yikes. My Brosnan-master has been my daily watch since 1999. Now I'm a tad worried.

Matt S

I was told the same thing when I took my 16-year-old Omega for servicing at the Omega boutique. The bracelet is still good almost two years later, and a jeweller recently told me it still has life. He said if it does break he may be able to fix it. If it breaks, I'm putting it on a leather or nato strap. I'm not buying another bracelet because it's not worth it to me. And after 18+ years I think I'd like a change.

Chriscoop

Higgins is right, friction pins have a limited life span, the later bracelets on some models have threaded screw pins. I wouldn't worry though, you may find more pins in a particular area of the bracelet working out which should be replaced, but I personally would be rushing to replace it.

Charmed & Dangerous

Thanks again all... Chriscoop when you say you 'personally would be rushing to replace it' - did you mean to say you wouldn't be rushing to replace it?

Matt- I'm not a big fan of the NATO strap on a 300, although they look great on the Spectre LE, but I do understand that after 18 years you'd like a change.

Higgins

The best advise how to increase the lifespan of a metalstrap is to clean it as often as possible with an ultrasonic cleaner.

Chriscoop

Charmed & Dangerous wrote:

Thanks again all... Chriscoop when you say you 'personally would be rushing to replace it' - did you mean to say you wouldn't be rushing to replace it?

Matt- I'm not a big fan of the NATO strap on a 300, although they look great on the Spectre LE, but I do understand that after 18 years you'd like a change.

bloody new fangled keyboard and autocorrect!
I personally would NOT be rushing to replace it. Again Higgins makes a good point about cleaning them, I have always lubricated my straps with anchor watch oil and a needle oiling tool into the pins.

Higgins

Lubricating is not a good idea in an open environment imo.

Oil is a dust/dirt magnet and will keep and mix up with dirt particles even more and transform into a nice grinding paste.

It‘s a similar effect like a fresh lubricated bicycle chain. As long as it‘s wet from oil - not good.
Keep it dry.

Charmed & Dangerous

I've just looked into Ultrasonic Cleaners on Amazon.

The bad news is that they're fairly expensive. The good news, though, is that they can evidently also be used on dentures. So if I can't afford my dentist's bills due to the high cost of having an aging Seamaster, I should at least be sorted with alternatives.

Thanks again all for your advice. -{

Higgins

Actually, you should be able to get an ultrasonic cleaner below EUR 20,--

Not sure about the UK, but here Aldi has them at least once a year in their weekly offer.

VERY IMPORTANT:

You should never put the entire watch into the cleaning fluid, only the bracelet part.
That's what these curved plastic bits are for, if you don't want to remove the bracelet.

Jancik

Guys, I have a question about my Omega 300 Master Co-Axial. Bought in August 2016 and have been worn daily, it had kept steady time +5s/day until today.

At 9:30am it suddenly stopped on my wrist, altough nearly fully wind - which I noticed only after several minutes later. I became puzzled, but after I gave it several twists on my wrist, it started again. Then a few seconds later - stopped again.

I repeated the process a few times with the same result, so I tought I give manual winding a try, but that's when I got scared. I didn't feel my watch reacting in any way - and needless to say - it didn't result in winding - the rotor was resting only too peacefully.
I kept on twisting the watch i my hand for several minutes and it seems like I have managed to wake the watch up - it has been working for half an hour now.

However, as I got pretty scared with it. More so that I am in Cuba for three months and no AD to show my timepiece if everything's all right. I hope it didn't get wet inside or something, altough I always check if the crown is screwed properly before swimming and rinsing it with fresh water afterwards everytime.

Do you have an idea what could it be? One other thing comes in mind - at around the same time (9:30) I accidentally bumped my watch to the wall (on nato strap, so you can guess how thick it is overall). Could this have caused the 'mischief'? Or should I be worried?

Sorry for the elaborate writing, but got really frightened.
Thanks

Update: It seems like the watch keeps time for longer periods of time now after winding, but stops randomly nevertheless.