zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

: Hi,

: I have a Blue (James Bond) Automatic Seamaster
: Midsize that is 1 year old.

: About a month ago I noticed that when I shook
: my wrist I could hear something rattling in
: the watch. My feeling is that it is the auto
: winding mechanism since I have seen and
: heard them on other automatic watches.
: However, this did not occur for the first 11
: months that I have owned this watch and I am
: concerned that it is effecting the movement.

: The watch has gone from +1/sec/day to
: -2/sec/day in the same timeframe. I am not
: sure if these 2 issues are related but they
: seem to be.

: Is this normal?

It does not seem normal that your watch suddenly started losing time like that, but without inspecting it you can't really be sure if you've done any damage. The watch is still running within COSC spec, though, so I would give it a little while to see if it returns to its +1 time gain. The watch is still under warranty, but Omega won't fix it if it is within COSC spec.

: Finally, I have been playing golf with the
: watch on. I realize this is probably a bad
: idea to begin with but sometimes I just
: forget about it. My jewler said that this
: watch was made for sports and I see Ernie
: Els playing with his Omega on. Do you guys
: play with your watch on?

Omega conducts tests on their watches that are FAR more abusive than merely wearing a watch while golfing. Although I don't recall the exact name of the test, I know that the watch is dropped from a height of ten feet onto a hard surface and must not exhibit any signs of damage. I used a few physics and calculus formulas to come up with a value that proved that you couldn't possibly exert the same forces on the watch simply by playing golf. You'd do more damage to your wrist than you would the watch. I posted the exact value here a long time ago, when our former moderator was still with us. As I recall, I also found that you could throw the watch up against a wall at a certain speed and it wouldn't harm it, so, unless the laws of physics have changed, I can't see how simply swinging a golf club is going to damage your watch.

Bottom line - enjoy your watch and don't be afraid to wear it to play golf.