Watchdog
October 17th, 2007, 04:33
I wore my Seamaster Cosmic that was given to me by my father a few years ago. It was not functioning properly at the time with a loose baton and the 11 and 2 o’clock positions. I had this treasure overhauled by a local watchrepair man a couple of years ago in a midtown jewelry store which was an Omega AD at the time.
http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/7643/dscn0443lh1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Its been a while since I wore this watch as I don’t want to put too much wear on it and I’ve been wearing my SMP 2254.50 pretty much every workday since I bought it in April of this year. Anyhow, I wore this today because I wanted to test the length of the power reserve on the watch after a wind-up and a full-day’s wear. Actually I wore two watches today, the Cosmic on my right and my SMP on my left. Just call me the poor-man or human watchwinder.
The bracelet has always been a little loose on me as I have thin wrists (6 to 6 1/8 inch) and the sliding up the wrist bothered me a bit on my subway ride into work. When I got into the office, I decided after breakfast at my desk to try to make some adjustments to the sizing. I’ve never adjusted the bracelet before but I’ve seen my brothers do it with pins when I was younger and my brother in-law adjust a bracelet within the past few years. I said to myself, it can’t be that hard to do. The 1098 steel bracelet on my Cosmic was fitted with a clasp that allowed for micro-adjustments. Why Omega doesn’t include this feature in their modern day watch bracelets is beyond me.
I didn’t have any pins on me so I looked into my drawer to take out a push pin tack. Well after fiddling with the adjustment feature a few seconds, I figured it was a just a spring bar and I would need a second push pin. Within less than 10 seconds I had the bracelet loose and was able to adjust the bracelet three notches in less than a minute. That was easy! :-!
I tried on the watch on both wrist and while it fit, I thought it could be a bit looser, so I decided to adjust the bracelet again and loosen it one notch. I unfastened the bracelet from the clasp the same way as before and was attempting to put the bracelet back in the clasp when the bar holding the bracelet to the bar when flying. Shoot! They don’t call these things spring bars for nothing! :oops: o|
I managed to track the flight of the spring bar and it flew across my face to the right and saw it hit the back corner of my cubicle wall and then drop. I didn’t hear a sound of anything dropping so it must have hit my desk pad or fell on a stack of papers. As I look around, I can’t find the spring bar at all. I go through my stack of papers…nothing. Boy my desk gets dusty and needs a cleaning! I flip and twirled around my rolodex a couple of times to see if the spring bar might have fallen into one of the slots….no luck. Oh no!...the spring bar must have fallen behind the desk or got stuck somewhere between the cubicle wall padding either to the back or side my desk. I thought to myself, I’ve got to retrieve it if that’s the only thing I do the whole day. I pull out my computer from under my desk and can’t see anything. I then pull out the bottom file drawer on my desk as far a it will go. Can’t see the darn thing..its dark back there. Ah ha…let me whip out the flash light my company gave us in our emergency preparedness go bag. Look around under the desk where I pulled out my drawer. Oh..thats where this envelope went..oh..there goes some loose change and paper clips….what’s this flat fedex box doing under here. I decided to empty the bottom drawer and try to pull out the entire drawer. Boy this thing is too heavy…let me take out all the stuff in the drawer first. Lets just say there’s a lot of stuff in that drawer I don’t need. After I emptied out the drawer and took it out I looked again and I though I spotted something shiny…no..just a loose staple. Looked around some more and saw…might it be…could it be.. the spring bar! Yes, that might be it..in the furthers corner behind one of the legs in the desk. Now that I located the spring bar I decided it would be best if I try to retrieve it at the end of the day when there are less people in the office. As I sat at my desk attempting to do some work, it kept eating away at me to get the springbar back. Well…I can’t concentrate on work if I keep thinking about the springbar! I empty out the bottom drawer and take out the entire drawer again. Let me put some file folders and a spare bag on the floor so I can get down and try to reach in there and not get too dirty. Ughh…can’t reach it…I will need to use some kind of tool the cave man in me told myself. Don’t have a wire hanger around which I typically use in these situations. Let me look in my desk drawer again. MacGyver time! I need something that will give me reach. Ah ha!...a spare chopstick from a take-out lunch I kept around. Well..probably won’t do by itself..what if I accidentally poke the spring bar further in out of reach!? I untwisted part of a paper clip and used some scotch tape to tape the paperclip to the chopstick and wallah my hook on a stick. Nah that won’t do, I’ll have to open the hook a little wider and ended up with this contraption you see here.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/5180/dscn0438wo6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Got down on my hands and knees again…hope my co-workers don’t see me and wonder what the heck I am doing. Rolled up my right sleeve..kept my left sleeve down as I didn’t want to add any scratches to my beloved SMP! Reached in with my new instrument and after a few times was able to hook and slide the spring bar within grasping distance. Got it! Mission accomplished! I said to myself, even if I don’t get anything else done today at work, I’ve felt I’ve accomplished something. Time to put the spring bar back into the bracelet and clasp. This time I lined the cubicle wall with some manila file folders just in case the spring bar goes flying again. Luckily for me it didn’t and I adjusted the bracelet to the position I wanted it. Now it fits fine..just a bit loose to give it some wiggle room and not too tight. All this before 11AM!
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/3372/dscn0450bg6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Sorry for the long post, but thought I would share this story with my fellow Omega ethusiast. :-d
-Watchdog
http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/7643/dscn0443lh1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Its been a while since I wore this watch as I don’t want to put too much wear on it and I’ve been wearing my SMP 2254.50 pretty much every workday since I bought it in April of this year. Anyhow, I wore this today because I wanted to test the length of the power reserve on the watch after a wind-up and a full-day’s wear. Actually I wore two watches today, the Cosmic on my right and my SMP on my left. Just call me the poor-man or human watchwinder.
The bracelet has always been a little loose on me as I have thin wrists (6 to 6 1/8 inch) and the sliding up the wrist bothered me a bit on my subway ride into work. When I got into the office, I decided after breakfast at my desk to try to make some adjustments to the sizing. I’ve never adjusted the bracelet before but I’ve seen my brothers do it with pins when I was younger and my brother in-law adjust a bracelet within the past few years. I said to myself, it can’t be that hard to do. The 1098 steel bracelet on my Cosmic was fitted with a clasp that allowed for micro-adjustments. Why Omega doesn’t include this feature in their modern day watch bracelets is beyond me.
I didn’t have any pins on me so I looked into my drawer to take out a push pin tack. Well after fiddling with the adjustment feature a few seconds, I figured it was a just a spring bar and I would need a second push pin. Within less than 10 seconds I had the bracelet loose and was able to adjust the bracelet three notches in less than a minute. That was easy! :-!
I tried on the watch on both wrist and while it fit, I thought it could be a bit looser, so I decided to adjust the bracelet again and loosen it one notch. I unfastened the bracelet from the clasp the same way as before and was attempting to put the bracelet back in the clasp when the bar holding the bracelet to the bar when flying. Shoot! They don’t call these things spring bars for nothing! :oops: o|
I managed to track the flight of the spring bar and it flew across my face to the right and saw it hit the back corner of my cubicle wall and then drop. I didn’t hear a sound of anything dropping so it must have hit my desk pad or fell on a stack of papers. As I look around, I can’t find the spring bar at all. I go through my stack of papers…nothing. Boy my desk gets dusty and needs a cleaning! I flip and twirled around my rolodex a couple of times to see if the spring bar might have fallen into one of the slots….no luck. Oh no!...the spring bar must have fallen behind the desk or got stuck somewhere between the cubicle wall padding either to the back or side my desk. I thought to myself, I’ve got to retrieve it if that’s the only thing I do the whole day. I pull out my computer from under my desk and can’t see anything. I then pull out the bottom file drawer on my desk as far a it will go. Can’t see the darn thing..its dark back there. Ah ha…let me whip out the flash light my company gave us in our emergency preparedness go bag. Look around under the desk where I pulled out my drawer. Oh..thats where this envelope went..oh..there goes some loose change and paper clips….what’s this flat fedex box doing under here. I decided to empty the bottom drawer and try to pull out the entire drawer. Boy this thing is too heavy…let me take out all the stuff in the drawer first. Lets just say there’s a lot of stuff in that drawer I don’t need. After I emptied out the drawer and took it out I looked again and I though I spotted something shiny…no..just a loose staple. Looked around some more and saw…might it be…could it be.. the spring bar! Yes, that might be it..in the furthers corner behind one of the legs in the desk. Now that I located the spring bar I decided it would be best if I try to retrieve it at the end of the day when there are less people in the office. As I sat at my desk attempting to do some work, it kept eating away at me to get the springbar back. Well…I can’t concentrate on work if I keep thinking about the springbar! I empty out the bottom drawer and take out the entire drawer again. Let me put some file folders and a spare bag on the floor so I can get down and try to reach in there and not get too dirty. Ughh…can’t reach it…I will need to use some kind of tool the cave man in me told myself. Don’t have a wire hanger around which I typically use in these situations. Let me look in my desk drawer again. MacGyver time! I need something that will give me reach. Ah ha!...a spare chopstick from a take-out lunch I kept around. Well..probably won’t do by itself..what if I accidentally poke the spring bar further in out of reach!? I untwisted part of a paper clip and used some scotch tape to tape the paperclip to the chopstick and wallah my hook on a stick. Nah that won’t do, I’ll have to open the hook a little wider and ended up with this contraption you see here.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/5180/dscn0438wo6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Got down on my hands and knees again…hope my co-workers don’t see me and wonder what the heck I am doing. Rolled up my right sleeve..kept my left sleeve down as I didn’t want to add any scratches to my beloved SMP! Reached in with my new instrument and after a few times was able to hook and slide the spring bar within grasping distance. Got it! Mission accomplished! I said to myself, even if I don’t get anything else done today at work, I’ve felt I’ve accomplished something. Time to put the spring bar back into the bracelet and clasp. This time I lined the cubicle wall with some manila file folders just in case the spring bar goes flying again. Luckily for me it didn’t and I adjusted the bracelet to the position I wanted it. Now it fits fine..just a bit loose to give it some wiggle room and not too tight. All this before 11AM!
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/3372/dscn0450bg6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Sorry for the long post, but thought I would share this story with my fellow Omega ethusiast. :-d
-Watchdog