It’s been my experience that once a new collector “gets the bug” for mechanical watches, soon they lose all interest in quartz watches. However, eventually their growing knowledge of horological history and interest peaks their curiosity and, to their own surprise, they add a few vintage quartz watches and perhaps a modern complicated quartz watch to their collection. While the collector focus is, and should be in my opinion, on the longer and richer history of mechanical timekeeping, understanding the history and significance of these quartz watches is well in-scope. Here I am fully servicing a 1973 Omega Calibre 1310 quartz watch— the Omega Megaquartz. The Megaquartz was impressive and the suffix “Mega” was justified in my opinion. Despite the economic pressure brought-on by the quartz crisis, Omega stuck to their guns and stayed focused on innovation and quality. The 1310 was Omega’s first in-house quartz movement. It was released in 1973 and the watch shown here was also manufactured in 1973. When fully disassembling and servicing the Omega 1310, you come to a few conclusions: (1) Omega did not see this purely as a cost reduction exercise— while the 1310 lacks some of the finishing you see on the mechanical movement, it is high quality and (2) Omega set-out to be better and more accurate with their quartz movements, not to strictly compete on price. Looking at the pictures, you will see a complex array of wheels and plates that you do not see as commonly in today’s cheap quartz movements. And you will also see the extraordinary accuracy that can be attained after proper servicing 45 years later— .08 seconds/day. Properly servicing quartz watches, especially vintage ones, requires specific knowledge and tools. When you service these, just as you do with mechanical watches, you see the footprints of poor and failed past service attempts such as the permanent plate discoloration shown in the picture caused by exposure to incorrect cleaners or cleaning attempts (perhaps aerosol spraying directly into the movement) and other gremlins requiring correction. After being fully serviced, this watch is beautiful and an important part of Omega’s history and Swiss quartz movement development.
