[montilier]

Hello together
I wonder, if Omega has ever produced a quartz wrist watch with a frequency of 4.19 Mhz? As far as I know the highest frequency was 2.4 Mhz (Cal. 1500 family) for wrist watches. Am I right?

Does anybody know?

Greetings from Omega country
Monti

 

[webvan]

2.4.mhz for wristwatches yes, 4.19Mh in the calibre 1525 and calibre 1526. I compiled all the available info on these watches here : Omega 2.4Mhz Megaquartz - Collected Pictures and Facts « BestofWatch

Have you come across a weird prototype ?

 

[montilier]

Thanks for your link. Yes I aquired a strange watch: Dial is marked with "automatic", Movement seems to be based on the caliber 1342, number of the movement has only 4 digits, bridge which usually shows the caliber number has no markings, cover plate of electronics says Omega 4.2 MHz. Movement works although the mechanism to set the hands does not work ("winding stem" is lose).

Regards Monti

 

[webvan]

Thanks for the pics, any chance of some larger ones ?

Could be a prototype although although I've never read of any attempt to cram in a 4.2 Mhz crystal in a watch at Omega although Citizen did it so why not. Did you try to look to see what's under that bridge marked 4.2 Mhz?

 

[montilier]

At the moment i'm on the road, so i can't provide better pictures (the actual pictures from the watch are from the guy, who sold me the watch). Untill now i haven't looked under the plate, i'm afraid of screwing up the movement.

I've contacted OMEGA. They will investigate with their museum. I will keep you posted as soon as i have news and/or better pictures.

Regards Monti

 

[webvan]

Hey was wondering if you'd heard back from Omega and had been able to make some better pics? Still intrigued!

 

[montilier]

The watch ist still with Omega. For what i know for the moment is, that they have no records on this type of watch. But they assured me that the watch is genuine, the assembly has a very high standard although not serial quality. They assume it is a prototype. In the 70s they gave prototypes the their employers for testing. At that time they didn't keep track very stringently of the final whereabout of their prototypes.

They will disassemble the watch and make pictures of the pertinent parts. I by myself was afraid of taking the watch apart.

I've read in the book "Die Elektrifizierung der Armbanduhr" by Lucien F. Trueb a short hint that Omega did some development work for a 4.2 Mhz wristwatch. It says on page 86 that the quartz module used for the caliber 1525 "Vega" was originally a development for a 4.19 Mhz wristwatch caliber.

Maybe i should write to L. Trueb to ask what source his information is based on.

I'll let you know when i know more.

Monti

 

[Eeeb]

Most interesting! Please do keep us posted.

 

[webvan]

Great info indeed, so they had you ship it back, I know that others here who have prototypes have not wanted to do that in case Omega claim the watch as theirs ;-)

I'm not really sure how they could have fitted the huge AT cut 4.19Mhz crystal of the 1525 in a wristwatch but the pictures will probably give some clues. Yes maybe Lucien Trueb can tell you where he got that info originally. I'm still waiting for the English version of his book impatiently!

 

[montilier]

On Wednesday i've got the watch repaired back from Omega. So nothing to fear of Omega retaining prototypes (Omega has today in my opinion in any way one of the highest standings in business ethics of all swiss watch companies).

They had to replace the so called tirette; now the handsettimg works again. While doing the repair they made pictures of the movement to show what's under the plate with the marking 4.2 MHz.

Actually it is really a 4.19 MHz quartz built into the movement. Omega keeps its opinion, that is must be a prototype. So we have a strong verification of Lucien Trüebs statement, that Omega was working on a 4.19 MHz wrist watch.

Here are the pictures

Regards Monti

 

[webvan]

Excellent pictures and now I understand how they managed to accommodate the large quartz inside the case! A prototype it is for sure because no one apart from LT seemed to know about it. He must have heard that info from someone who worked on it. It's amazing that Omega have no records of anyone working on it, it really shows in what state they were in at the end of the 70s...or was it subcontracted outside Omega somehow?

Would be great if you could check the accuracy now, did they run some timing tests? Did you have a specific contact at Omega or did you just send it in/stop by? I'm not sure what would have happened if someone had dropped it off at an AD/Boutique in some random country ;-)

Thanks again for sharing, the beauty of the internet...again !

 

[montilier]

Well, I think we have to live with some unanswerable questions.
I'm checking the accuracy at the moment very roughly by comparing the time with a radio signal.
To have the work on the watch done i contacted the Omega Boutique in Zurich, Bahnhofstrasse personally. These people are really helpful, even with customers like me with such weird problems; highly recommended! Unfortunately they didn't have a suitable timing test equipment. Maybe an old Deltatest timing device could be useful; but i don't have one at hand.

Regards Monti

 

[webvan]

Yes that's a good way for some preliminary testing, if it's spot on like that you can then move to the stopwatch or video methods to get a more precise idea (see sticky).

You've got a great AD there and Omega were kind to send you the pictures. I guess it got special treatment as a prototype. It's too bad people like John Diethelm or Marco Rincon are no longer around to take questions concerning Omega Vintage pieces. Now you need to submit a request through the website and you get a canned reply telling you to order an Extract from the Archives for CHF 75 (or something like that)...

So far you have the only known example of such a prototype...maybe someone working at Omega at the time will pop up here one day to tell us more about that watch and that project!

 

[webvan]

So how accurately is your watch ticking ? ;-) I suspect it might be going through batteries rather quickly since the 1342 with a 32Khz is already quite a "guzzler", so with a 4.19Mhz !

 

[dickstar]

Monti

For information your watch was part of a collection bought by a chap called Rene from John Othenin Girard who developed the Megaquartz 2400! I know because I bought the rest of the collection, the Elephant now resides in the museum collection at Swiss Time Services in the UK, if you want any more information please contact me

Here is the only shot (not mine) I have of the whole collection, your watch can be seen in the middle on bracelet

Best wishes Tom

 

[webvan]

Very interesting, wonder what happened to the bracelet ;-)

I've heard from another source that the 4.2Mhz crystals used for that prototype were in fact leftovers from the Vega (Cal. 1525 - Boxed Omega Marine Chronometer) project and that they indeed burnt through batteries! Apparently there is at least one other prototype in circulation, maybe it will show up here one day!

 

[dickstar]

Very interesting, wonder what happened to the bracelet ;-)

I've heard from another source that the 4.2Mhz crystals used for that prototype were in fact leftovers from the Vega (Cal. 1525 - Boxed Omega Marine Chronometer) project and that they indeed burnt through batteries! Apparently there is at least one other prototype in circulation, maybe it will show up here one day!

Indeed Webvan! All of the above where owned by John, I guess being the developer of the Megaquartz he got to take a few pieces home for 'testing'! I have never seen another 4.19Mhz wrist watch but TBH it wouldn't be a massive adaptation as you can see to convert, I guess the timing was simply wrong otherwise it would probably have gone through to production, as you say consumption would be scary

Before it went in to the display at STS my Elephant burned through a pair of monster batteries every 3-4 weeks!

Cheers Tom

 

[webvan]

Yes I think a year is a minimum for the lifetime of a battery ;-)

I was flipping through AVTT last night and bumped into a picture of the 1525 movement and it doesn't seem like the 4.19Mhz crystal was reused in the same packaging for the Elan (134x) version shown here as it seems to be quite a bit larger :

vs (sorry it's a bit small) :

 

[Hans Moleman]

Are those 4.1 mHz crystals these days a little sheet of quartz?
File:Crystal Packages.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What they were in the early days, I don't know.

 

[montilier]

Hi together

Excellent forum which generates excellent information and insights! Thanks!

@ webvan: the watch is running quite accurate. In did some adjustments using the trimmer in February 2013. Since then the watch shôws the time spot-on compared to a radio controlled watch. Non discernable deviation since three months. For me that's ok. By the way: it is running still on the first battery since i bought it.

@ dickstar: your hints a very valuable! For the moment i can trace the watch back to a second hand stuff dealer in Biel-Bienne, who sold the watch to a fellow. The later one auctionned it of to me last fall. In the mean time i located John Othenin-Girard. He is still living in Biel. I will get in touch with him to see what information i can collect about the watch.

I will keep you posted.

Monti