OMF new Daytona (slim movement) - EDIT: beware of the movement...

[GenTLe 1,503]

EDIT: added some technical info over the movement at post nr. 6 or 7 below.

 

A bit of a technical question here.

So in these days OMF released a bunch of new Daytona(s) with "slim 7750" inside.

The good part is that they managed to have dial with proper sunburst (the subdials have their proper sunburst, and the rays aren't the same of the rest of the dial):

and that, differently from ARF, they didn't put any useless fake plate on top of the movement (which isn't visible anyway due to the closed caseback), making them thin like the gen or nearly as much.

The price is attractive, if you don't want to put in 800+$ for one of these with the clone movement (which also is expensive to replace if something goes bad).

 

Do you think this is the same movement that ARF used in their ones? The movement derived from the IWC Portuguese Chrono "slim" from ZF that, because if that, had not working hour/minute chrono subdials? That was a good movement, and also is available on AliExpress if something goes bad.

Comments from expert of Daytonas on the overall watch?

They are the first 10 here (Puretime is TD on the cousin forum and has better pics than Trusty, so using it here): https://puretimewatch.io/catalogsearch/result/?q=SS+OMF+Best+Edition+slim

Thanks,

GenTLe

[GenTLe 1,503]

I got an answer from Maryand she claims it's a good movement and it's fully functional... But you know, these things should be taken with a pinch of salt.
I may try one, just to see how it is And spare the "big money" for when they'd rep the new Le Mans edition,,,

[GenTLe 1,503]

By the way (thanks @Mary Watch) I did it. Let's see how it is, but I already liking it, my very 1st Daytona  (watch already approved and shipped):

[deju 1,875]

Yeah I was a fan of the ARF iwc 7750 model,  I had 2 and removed the deco plates and added eta rotors. The fact that these are pre modded is great.

Having had the noob version with working movement. I really do feel unless you franken the watch, there is no real benefit to having a full working movement.

[GenTLe 1,503]

So it's here

Thanks @Mary Watch  It is beautiful!

Fully working Chrono, a bit of small second hand stutter due to transfer gears (jewelled), and after a regulation it runs well and with healthy amplitude (I've seen up to 300°):

 

Also I measured it and we're good at a bit less than 13mm:

 

Finally a couple of pic showing the rehaut, a frontal image showing the various sunbursts, and one with his cousins Milgauss that I'm wearing this week (with proper green sapphire, not the one with green AR, modded from a Noob base):

 

Overall a good choice if you don't want to splurge 800$ on a rep with a great movement that, for now, has no spares around...

Edited August 31, 2023 by GenTLe

[GenTLe 1,503]

Ok so, after few days of wear (and I mean like 3 days) the hour chrono counter hand moved like 0.5 hours (chronograph was kept not running all the time). The chrono reset wasn't putting it back to 0 (also tried after I've left the chrono running few hours)...

 Opened the watch, taken out the hand and put it back right on 12 like in the pictures upper.

Fast fwd a couple of other days, it happened again... I suspect there is some transfer gear that, while having the watch on the wrist, make some other gears to jump a tooth...

This time I decided to properly open it up to see what's going on and how this new "slim movement with chrono fully working" has been made... And oh boy... It's bad.

Really bad.

Like "old style thick daytona with badly modified sec@6 movement that stops running after some time" bad...

@Mary Watch told me "good movement" (actually she told me just that it's not noisy...). Well "good movement" my balls! This shows how either she had wrong information or also those sellers that we consider "good" doesn't really care when it comes to get some money... It leaves some bad taste.

Let me show you some picture.

 

So, here it's how they managed to make it thin, together with a rather thin rotor and no stupid "fake decoration". You can see how they shaved down the calendar plate on this by replacing it with a different one containing the gears needed to transfer the motion from a 6/9/12 standard 7750 to a 9/6/3 daytona setting:

 

And this is a top view of the said plate with indicated the current functions and, in brackets, the 7750 standard positions. All the subdial hands pivots are jeweled (the big problem is below...)

 

Once you lift this top plate you can see the  "old school" bad 7750 mod that people around here from more than 5/7 years should remember. These idiots used a single transfer gear to move around the hour and minute counters, and 3 (three!!!) gears, one of which is gigantic and runs over the main hour hand cannon pinion, to move the running seconds @6!

 

Just look how big is the 3rd gear that runs around the cannon pinion to transfer the running seconds, and final kiss of death for this crappy movement, complete absence of lower jewel for the running second final gear...

 

For the rest is a pretty normal 7750, where they have replaced the pivot where normally are placed the minute and running second hands with press-on gears (that are not difficult to remove, letting me service the rest of the movement, if there's any reason for doing it, considering the rest...):

 

So beware, DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT buy OMF Daytona with "slim fully functional chrono 7750", because if you plan to use it often, it will die within a year or less.

My plans for this PoS are: service the base movement (just to keep myself trained, since it's a bit I'm not putting hands in one of these and I've a nice IWC Tribeca incoming from @wqleow and I'd like to service that one properly), remove all the crap to run the chrono hour hand and froze the last gear for it, so that it will not move the hand from 12 as it already did (at this point I really don't care to lose that functionality), and see how much it will last using it sparingly as I do having too many watches that are good, to wear already.

 

[GingerApple 7,285]

The gear just sits in a hole in the metal plate?

[GenTLe 1,503]

39 minutes ago, GingerHuw said:

The gear just sits in a hole in the metal plate?

Yes... Just like this (the "old time" bad sec @6 one): 

 

[wqleow 1]

gosh, thanks for dissecting the issue so clearly.

i had my eye on the IWC portugese chrono but after seeing the actual movement changes, definitely not worth it.

[GenTLe 1,503]

10 hours ago, wqleow said:

gosh, thanks for dissecting the issue so clearly.

i had my eye on the IWC portugese chrono but after seeing the actual movement changes, definitely not worth it.

Portuguese (especially the ZF, but the V6F too) isn't bad, totally different setting on those, don't worry  Like the frozen hour/minute chrono counter, running sec@6 ARF Daytona (same movement).