Oysterquartz pick-up and great work from Rik Dietel/Timecare

[HiBoost]

My AD took this in on trade. 1987 ref 17013. One owner, never serviced, sold as-is for a fair price. I couldn't pass it up but immediately noticed it was losing 10 minutes a day. Not bad for quartz, right?

I sent it to RSC and their estimate was $3188 (and 16 weeks) and they said it needed a new dial, hands and case, not to mention the full movement service. That sounded more like a watch replacement than a watch repair so I asked them to just send it back.

I reached out to Rik and he said no problem, send it in. He had it back to me one week later for less than 1/3 the price and it's running like a champ. Somewhere along the way I thought I saw a post on here suggesting Rik had retired, but he's still very much in business and a great resource for independent repair work.

[PMO]

And I’ll bet a dollar to a donut that the dial and hands did not have to be replaced!!

[Andad]

11/10.

Nice model.

[cjcarter134]

Nice pick-up OP. It looks quite nice for never having a service.

[AJMarcus]

Outstanding in every way! A TT Oyster Quartz is indeed a special timepiece. Looks like a perfect fit. Enjoy

[cop414]

Love the OQ, congrats!

[zak98]

love the OQ. looks super!

[travisb]

Looks great!
Rik does amazing work. Not to mention, he's a great guy.

[ashla]

This is a great pick. Nice work OP.

[ronricks]

The OQ is such an underrated watch and most people don’t understand how over engineered it is and it’s not your typical ‘quartz’ movement. What all was done at service?

[padi56]

In its day the OQ was a great watch with a unusual case for the time frame, but not the most accurate even for a quartz movement around +- 60 seconds a year. While some of the high end Japanese quartz like Seiko Grand around +-2 seconds a year,and now we have the Land dweller with a very similar case design.

[1William]

Very nice.

[etp095]

That’s beautiful watch, enjoy!

[watchwatcher]

Good looking watch.

And a heck of a lot cheaper than a Land Dweller..

New dial and hands, indeed.

[HiBoost]

Originally Posted by padi56

In its day the OQ was a great watch with a unusual case for the time frame, but not the most accurate even for a quartz movement around +- 60 seconds a year. While some of the high end Japanese quartz like Seiko Grand around +-2 seconds a year,and now we have the Land dweller with a very similar case design.

Not sure where you got the 60 sec/year stat, but the COSC cert for the 5035 movement requires +/- 0.07 sec/day which is 25.5 sec/year, worst case. That said, a guy once told me there's 86400 seconds in a day so none of this matters anyway.

[HiBoost]

Originally Posted by ronricks

The OQ is such an underrated watch and most people don’t understand how over engineered it is and it’s not your typical ‘quartz’ movement. What all was done at service?

As I'm sure you know the 5035 is basically a mechanical movement driven by a quartz-powered palette fork. The mechanical movement was completely serviced like normal and then the interface between the two modules required some restoration to reduce friction. The canon pinion was also too lose which was the original issue with losing 10 minutes a day per the minute hand, whilst the seconds hand was tracking perfectly. Oh, and he also replaced the crown and tube and did some minimal internal case restoration to ensure proper sealing. RSC wasn't completely off base that the case had some minor internal corrosion (Rik thinks from the previous owner's sweat, not a normal water ingress) but fully replacing the case is obviously a bit heavy-handed

Rik was great to work with and did things exactly per my request (e.g. no external polishing, etc.). Highly recommended!

[ltmgeller]

[padi56]

Originally Posted by HiBoost

As I'm sure you know the 5035 is basically a mechanical movement driven by a quartz-powered palette fork. The mechanical movement was completely serviced like normal and then the interface between the two modules required some restoration to reduce friction. The canon pinion was also too lose which was the original issue with losing 10 minutes a day per the minute hand, whilst the seconds hand was tracking perfectly. Oh, and he also replaced the crown and tube and did some minimal internal case restoration to ensure proper sealing. RSC wasn't completely off base that the case had some minor internal corrosion (Rik thinks from the previous owner's sweat, not a normal water ingress) but fully replacing the case is obviously a bit heavy-handed

Rik was great to work with and did things exactly per my request (e.g. no external polishing, etc.). Highly recommended!

Yes the mechanical drive chain is from the cal 3035,and quartz movement was more expensive to replace, over the fully mechanical watches with the cal 3035,wear it in good health for many years to come.

[Mystro]

Rikki is the man.

[PandaLover]

Very nice

[rossi46]

Fantastic pickup. Thanks for sharing those pics.

[Harry-57]

Nice Land Dweller, sorry Oysterquartz. Sorry, get them mixed up. I like yours more. Congratulations.

[subtona]

Congratulations looks great.

Curios what is the thickness of your watch?

[padi56]

Originally Posted by HiBoost

Not sure where you got the 60 sec/year stat, but the COSC cert for the 5035 movement requires +/- 0.07 sec/day which is 25.5 sec/year, worst case. That said, a guy once told me there's 86400 seconds in a day so none of this matters anyway.

Quite true but early OQ watches with the cal 5035 were not COSC tested, later ones were with the modified movement the DD version were always tested.

[Little machines]

Good news ! Looks great! Enjoy for many years !!

[alllexandru]

Thats a cool looking watch.
Love it, congratulations !

[Knappo 1307]

Rik is the best! Nice pick up.

[suligeo]

Nice case


https://www.instagram.com/vintage_georgex/

[t65tampa]

Beautiful watch! Enjoy it. I've always loved Oysterquartz models.

Rik does a fantastic job.

[Chloe&Harley]

Very nice looks good on your wrist