zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

: I posted some days ago regarding my
: suddenly-stopped Seamaster. I took it to my
: AD, and before agreeing to order a
: replacement from one of their stores (I was
: lucky -- they only had one left in stock in
: the entire country, and Omega no longer
: ships them!), they insisted on having their
: watchmaker "take a look."

: The salesperson today told me that the
: watchmaker determined that the watch stopped
: running because the gears became bound as a
: result of overwinding. I did not pursue the
: point because the next sentence out of her
: mouth was that they ordered the sole
: remaining Seamaster in their inventory and
: that I would be able to pick it up Friday or
: Monday.

: However, the "watchmaker's" relayed
: message got me thinking. Aren't the
: Seamasters protected from overwinding by a
: ratchet mechanism of some sort? I remember
: reading this on the FAQ here, if not also in
: the manual.

: Moreover, even if it were possible, I certainly
: couldn't have overwound the watch manually,
: as I had only wound it manually twice: 10
: turns upon purchase, and another 10 turns
: about a week later. The week stopped a full
: week after my second "winding."

: Granted, I spent a few hours in the morning of
: the day that it stopped running errands, so
: it would have been self-winding
: continuously, but even if a self-winder did
: not possess a mechanism to prevent manual
: overwinding (and I doubt this is true), it
: would certainly have to have such a
: mechanism to prevent overwinding as a result
: of wrist motion, right? That's something the
: wearer really has no control over.

: In the end, maybe the "watchmaker"
: didn't know what he was talking about, maybe
: the message was relayed incorrectly.....or
: MAYBE we found exactly what went wrong with
: my watch. Maybe the anti-overwinding
: mechanism malfunctioned. But I would imagine
: that would lead to the mainspring breaking
: (I have no indication that this happened),
: and not the gears "binding up."

: In any event, I'm just happy that I'm getting a
: new Seamaster. But I thought I would throw
: this question out: can a Seamaster be
: overwound?

All Omega automatic watches are equipped with an overwind protection mechanism, so what you were told makes no sense. It takes 40-50 full revolutions of the crown to fully wind the watch, and you only gave it 10 turns on two separate occasions. 20 turns on a two week old watch caused "overwinding"? I don't think so.

When you turn the crown 40-50 full revolutions, you can hear a clicking noise as you continue to turn the crown. This is the overwind protection mechanism engaging, which lets you know that your watch is fully wound and has its full power reserve. So, if your gears became bound, it was not from overwinding unless the overwind protection mechanism was defective (and if this were the case the watchmaker certainly should have noticed this).

Anyway, it's good to hear that you will be getting a new watch and not be forced to wait for warranty repair.