A rebirth

A few years after I started looking into watches, I started to want to have a birth year watch. However, this is not an easy task for several reasons. First of all, I was born in 1972, so my birth watch would fall into the vintage watch category, which could be very expensive, and might be hard to find. Secondly, most of the people would determine the “birthday” of a watch by the stamp date of the warranty card. However, the stamped date on the card is the date the watch was sold, but not the manufacture date of the piece, so you could have a watch that was out of the factory by the end of the previous year but was sold and dated by the following year. Lastly, I don’t just want any watch that was manufactured/dated in 1972, I want a watch that I like and would wear it for many years, or even pass it down to my son/daughter.

At the very beginning of my watch collecting journey, or I should say watch hobby journey, I liked watches with chronography function a lot, so I decided a chronography piece that from 1972 would be a perfect birth year watch for me. I googled and researched over internet for a few months and had my eyes on the Seiko Speedtimer line. I wanted that because Seiko is one of the few watch brands that stamps the manufacture date on the case back and also the line was one of the first few automatic chronographs. On top of these, one of the models was worn by William Pogue, a US astronaut, in the space mission. Unfortunately, after months of searching, I was not able to find a one with good condition and was manufactured in 1972 (I did find two NOS ones that came out in 1971 and bought both, but that is another story……), so I switched my target to finding an Omega Flightmaster instead.

Flightmaster is one of those “odd pieces” put out by Omega in late 60s and early 70s. The strange looking cushion case and color coded pushers makes it look funky for even today’s standard. It has the chronography function I like and also a GMT hand, which is very usable for a frequent traveler like me. I have heard it was designed for pilots in the airlines but I have no way to proof it. It was only manufactured for about 6 years and a good condition one with a steel bracelet is hard to find. Besides all these, I wanted the one with the original tritium dial. Tritium is a radioactive material and has been banned from using on the watches for many years. Most of the watch brand service centers would replace the dials with applied tritium without even asking for safety reasons, so having the watch with tritium dial from 50 years ago are virtually impossible unless the Flightmaster was never sent back to the Omega for service. I did find one on Chrono24 with a faded tritium dial after a few weeks of search and it has the steel bracelet. The best part of that watch is, it has the certificate from Omega saying that particular piece was manufactured in March 1972 and was shipping to US market. Even though from the pictures shown, it seems the dial has been faded badly, but it does come with all the color pushers. So, after a few hours of considering, I pulled the trigger and bought it.

After the watch came in to my hand, I noticed other than the dial, it has a few problems. First of all, it seems all the hands are bend. Secondly, the clasp get loose easily when wearing it. Lastly, other than the scratches on case, the case line is not correct. All these things implied this watch was not maintained properly by previous owner(s). Since I am not an expert on the Flightmaster line, I started to asking questions on the watch forums, seeking the proper way to restore this watch. Most of the responses I got is that I should not bring it back to Omega because they will just replace the parts, which is the taboo for the vintage watch collectors. Some also pointed to me they are a few reputable watchmakers in North America and UK who specialized Omega restoration. Based on these, I did additional research and trying to figure out where I am gonna send my watch in. I was thinking send my watch to this guy in Canada since he has gotten very good reviews on the subject of Omega restoration. However, because of the pandemic, his projects were backlogged and sending/receiving watch in and out of the country would be a nightmare logistically with tax authorities. For these reasons, I decided to bring it back to Omega, knowing they are going to replace my parts and dial for sure. My rational behind is that I have no emotional attachment for this piece before it got to my hand, so for my 50th birthday coming up, I wanted to have a “brand new” birth year watch that I would keep forever. I know this decision would not be popular in the vintage watch community. But, hey, it is my watch, ain’t it?

I brought my watch to the local Omega service center a few days prior to my 50th birthday, they ran a test and checked the watch for like 30 minutes. The result shows it needed an overhaul badly, which is not a surprise. The real issue is that because there are rusts and holes in the case, the watch can’t no longer be waterproofed and needs a new case. However, Omega no longer produces the case so even after the overhaul done in Switzerland, I have to make sure don’t bring it anywhere close to the water. Oh, well, it is what it is, I made the decision on the spot and sent it back to it mother land, thinking I would take care rest of the issues when it comes back.

Six months later, Omega contacted me and saying my watch is back now. I went in as quickly as possible to pick my watch up. At the first glance, Omega Switzerland did a very good job to bring the case line back and I was happy about that. In terms of dial and hands, of course they replaced everything and that makes the watch looks brand new. The only problem is that I noticed a chuck of case on the bottom left was “rubbed off” and there seems to be a few additional scratches that were not there when I sent it in. To be honest with you, I could not remember clearly if that big chuck of metal was there or not since I did not wear the watch that much. Because of that, I did not want to blame it on Omega so I just left and thinking I must have to figure out a way to fix that. On top of that, I still need to resolve the issue with waterproof anyway. So, I went back to the search mode again thinking what my options are to further improve the overall look and condition of the watch.

After a few months of search, I found this Horology Institute of Taiwan, where seems to be a reputable place to bring in odd and rare time pieces for restoration. There are not much information on line about this place and I read a few articles and reviews saying it was established by this old watchmaker who wanted to bring the watch restoration skills back, so he basically set the place up to pass down his knowledge. On their homepage, they showed a few examples of they restored/fixed watches like PP, Lange and of course, Rolex. I was telling myself “hey, it is not going to hurt to bring my watch in and asked them to take a look at least.” So, I brought my watch in a few weeks ago, on a sunny Tuesday afternoon.

The place was on a third floor of this incredibly old and dirty building. When I walked in, I immediately saw this bright and clean working area in the back, which is definitely the opposite of the condition of the building. There is this old lady in the front and I told her they asked me to bring the watch in for assessment and she holla a young guy from the back to talk to me. This person is probably in his late 20s or 30s with a baby face, I explained to him that I need, mainly restoring the case and also seeking to resolve the issue with rusts and holes on the case. He took a few pictures of my watch and record my case in the computer. He said they need to run a check on the watch first and would contact me in a few days to let me know how they gonna do about it and also let me know the price.

A few days later, the guy called up and told me they should be able to fix all the issues and the price would be NTD 4,800. I replied saying I was ok and let them go ahead. About two weeks later, my watch was done. The case looks brand new now and all the scratches, dents and the missing chunk of steel were all gone. On top of that, the watch has passed the water/pressure test, meaning I can now swim with it. Well, not that I am going to do so, but knowing I don’t need to worry about my watch getting wet makes me feel relieve. Now, if I don’t tell you this watch is 50 years old, you would think it is a brand new one just freshly out of the box.

That is the journey I have with my birth year Omega Flightmaster. For me, it is a very important time piece, even though the monetary value of it is not even close to my other pieces, but after the ups and downs I went through for the past few years, I feel it is a rebirth, not only the watch, but also my personal life.

A rebirth for sure.