Brand new Omega Rocket Line Desk Clock!

I've been keeping an eye on these for quite a while now, they seemed really interesting, and an office clock would be pretty nice.

I have however been unwilling to pay the going rate for one on Ebay.

I kept an eye out though, and found THIS one for sale on French Ebay, listed as 'doesn't work'. I submitted an insulting 'make an offer' figuring it would get rejected, and moved on with my evening. THEN, I got a message the next morning that my offer was accepted! It took a while to ship, but showed up today.

First impressions: The dial/glass/etc is in beautiful shape. The case itself is a little dirty/has some marks on it, but is otherwise pretty fantastic. I'm missing the 'rubber'-esque bottom on the body, but otherwise it seems complete (minus a 9v!).

Size wise, this is WAAAY smaller than I expected. It is about the size of a beer can, and about 2x as heavy. The base itself is a REALLY heavy guy.

Taking it out of the case shows that the movement is in fantastic shape by all appearances, and was barely used, with no corrosion to speak of. It sets easily, so I'm excited about that!

I haven't had a chance to figure out what was wrong (the google translate of the french just said 'doesnt work'), but I might have a task ahead of me!

I notice that my pictures don't do it justice 😀 The dial is a gorgeous matte gold color!

I DID just put it under some magnification and it looks perfect. However, when I put it under ~9v of power using a bench power supply, it drew zero amps at all. So I am thinking that the problem is electrical. WHICH, is a bit of a relief, since it is a bit more in my wheelhouse 😉

I wonder if you can wind it by hand just to check that the movement is ok.

Alright, I pulled it apart a bit and discovered at least 2 problems:

1- The top of the has a broken pivot. I was able to convince it to move, but it was really loud and wobbly. I had to move a different gear around that had a little spring to complete the circuit and it seems to intend to run the motor periodically, but I figured out how it works mostly. It is clutched to a different gear (so you can turn it independently, but also seems to be turned). It seems when replacing the 9v battery you might need to 'start' the motor if it died AND the clock itself stopped.

2- What I believe to be the mainspring is broken. I see something that LOOKS like the barrel, and the top of the motor spins its center arbor, but it free-spins with zero effort by hand. Im told this is a really weird mainspring, so I might have to figure out if I can make it.

I am also aware this is perhaps a somewhat common non-Omega-made movement that I might be able to steal parts from, but I've been completely unable to find enough info to figure out what it is.

I DID just find on ebay a similar looking dial on a desk clock by a no-name, so I did a 'make an offer' to see if I can get it to see if it is something I can scavange parts from. IF I hit a dead end, I might have to see about making my own mainspring PLUS picking up a small-enough lathe (mine is... orders of magnitude too large for watch stuff!) to make a new pivot for it.

Yeah, honestly, same. IT is TINY compared to my vision of it, beer-can sized is pretty darn accurate.

I've got some work to do... I might have to figure out how to make a new pivot-staff for the motor- part, and figure out how to make a mainspring, but otherwise this movement is a beauty.

I made an offer on a dunhill clock with a similar movement and style : https://www.ebay.com/itm/326581058206

I'm hopeful it is the same thing, or at least close enough I can steal the parts I need, else I have some work to do haha.

I actually JUST ordered what I am 99% sure is a 92EL3 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/305918437362), plus have a line on a broken movement from a person on facebook. I'm hoping that between this pile of parts I'll find what I need 😀

I pulled it apart a little more today, and confirmed:
I have a broken mainspring in addition to my busted pivot. I expected this of course, I could feel it while working with it.

That said, of particular interest: The mainspring is TINY.

First, it is 0.05mm thick! It is sooo tiny/fragile feeling that I can't help but feel like I'm going to tear it.

This actually made measuring width REALLY difficult. I was able to put it on my optical comparator and measure it to be ~0.046" wide, which would be 1.1684mm. Length a little more than 14", so ~360mm. It is an automatic so it has a bridle too.

I'd seen info online with searching that this confirms, though they all said this should be 1.1mm instead of taller. Not sure that it matters though. I might just steal the whole barrel from my replacement movement 😀

Speaking of which, I found someone on a facebook group from Switzerland that has a parts movement for this, so I might be able to get a clock that ISN'T working to tear apart for parts. Though he's been tough to get a hold of lately/isn't great at communication. He DOES have the motor with an in tact pivot though.

So I got both parts clocks in today! I opted to start by pulling apart the dunhill. It is marked 92el3, so it is the right movement!

All parts seem right, though the mainspring barrel has done green stuff I am going to have to clean up.

Additionally, the bottom plate of the motor likely has to go with the rotor, and it is is silver instead of brass colored. So I might have to figure out what I want to do here.

Part of me wants to just figure I got lucky and take my win, other part wants to open up the other clock and see if it has a "nicer" looking motor/mainspring.

Whew... OK did a bit more work over the past few hours.

Turns out BOTH clocks are the right movement! I pulled the Dunhill apart quite a bit, including dial side to help me re-assemble. IT seemed to have a good mainspring. It was quite a bit cheaper made in a few places, but nothing that really mattered. I tried getting the Relide (the 2nd one I bought that looked better) working, but even when manually powering the motor, it didn't seem to keep any power in the mainspring. So I suspect it might have a broken mainspring as well. As far as the movement o that one, it is all stainless color/looks just the same though with some somewhat improved parts from it (fits in the middle). I didn't bother taking it apart.

I stole the whole mainspring barrel from the Dunhill, plus the whole motor assembly. Unfortunately the center pivot on the Omega motor version is much smaller since it is a jewel, so I had to use BOTH stainless plates from the dunhill (which is Silver, plus doesn't have the big Omega logo on it anymore :/). It took a bit of trial and error, but it seems to be running otherwise.

I have it on a power supply to see if it'll run long enough, and figure I'll pick up a 9V battery next time I'm thinking about it to see if I can get it running that way!

So in the end, I think I might have a successful project + 2 broken clocks. But the omega one at least will hopefully work in the end.

The mainspring size means it is impossible to buy a replacement, and the few places I reached out to that had 0.002" spring sheet stock wouldn't sell it in less than 3/4" widths, so making one on my own seems like it would be an impossible challenge. So this one will run as long as this mainspring works.

I figured I'd update this 😀 I had forgotten to update here, but I started a new thread for my attempts, and Archer showed up and helped me talk through things😀. I have a functional Omega! However, BOTH of the motor plates ended up having to be the stolen ones, and the rear plate of the Omega is pretty ornate.

I've pushed the center bearing/jewel out of the Omega motor rear plate with the intent of replacing it with something that'd work with the replacement rotors, so I'd only be stuck with the non-Omega 'bottom' motor plate.

Jewels aren't available of course, since it is an awkward size. My attempts at getting an Alibaba manufacturer to do it resulted in some not-very-convincing discussions, and a 100 unit MOQ at $7 each.

SO I ordered a $20 jewel of the right ID, and I'm going to try to make a brass adapter bushing for the two sizes. It'll be a few weeks between things showing up and me having time to do it, but yeah, thats the current state 😀

As far as running, I left it hooked to the power supply for 2 days and it was running the whole time! The mainspring lasted about 45 minutes after I pulled off power, which seems about right.

SO as an update (I'll copy and paste this to the other thread too):

I got the 0.62mm jewels in today. HOWEVER, when I went to check them, they were too small center hole, so that was a waste of money (er, donation to the parts bin!).

I was able to finagle a way to get the pivot measured by my micrometer, and discovered it is a solid 0.63mm+, so I guess I ACTUALLY need a 0.64mm jewel. I'm a bit frustrated with my previous attempts to measure using the optical comparator, but I figured out that it is likely a tapered hole, so I was measuring a section that the pivot doesn't ride on.

HOWEVER, I ALSO decided to get brave and use my jewel setting tool to try to disassemble the other one, and to my surprised, it was 3 parts! AND, the inner jewel was a sensible 2.00+mm (just oversized 2.00mm, maybe 2.01 if rounding up). I ALSO see that 0.64mmx2.00mm is a common jewel size (https://www.hswalsh.com/product/064...-flat-flat-cylindrical-jewel-hole-mj110-64200).

THOUGH, that is the only source of them I can find. The profile matches too!

DOES anyone know of a good US seller for these? OR someone who at least I can get it a little cheaper from? Else I can just bite the bullet and buy those.