First vintage service completed! Long ago actually
I didn't run into any issues; thanks to the microscope, the tiny size wasn't a problem at all. Well the weird shaped pallet fork was a bit tricky. One of the shock springs came out on me, but it was easy to put back in (this is NOT the case with Chinese springs, which I'll get to some other time)
I didn't mention the condition when it came in, but it was in 'barely running' condition. Meaning the balance was not broken, but there was enough wrong with it that it wouldn't run for more than a few seconds. And when it did, obviously the timegrapher was a 'snowstorm' so it wasn't keeping time
As it turned out, all it needed was a full service. Teardown, full clean (scrub in naphtha with brush to dissolve all the caked up oil and grime, rinse in alcohol, placed in water based cleaning fluid, run through ultrasonic cleaner for 10 minutes, rinse in water, rinse in 99% alcohol, dry). Cleaned the balance and pallet fork and jewels separately in hexane. Also inspected the pivots and jewels to confirm nothing bent or broken or still dirty. I didn't touch the mainspring. There were a couple spots of rust, but nothing in a place that would affect performance
After that, and proper lubrication, it's running quite well. Small movements like this, even good quality ones, are not as accurate as larger ones. So with that in mind, this old Omega 485 keeps good time in all positions, with a delta of just 14 seconds. Maybe I should find the rest of a watch!
Next on the bench is a Rolex 3135 superclone, which I had to order parts for unfortunately (there's that Chinese spring issue, which has been a problem for me since day 1 starting out)
After that, I think I'll be ready to tackle the Tag Heuer quartz chronograph that a super awesome revscener donated to me quite a while ago. Having worked under the microscope for a while now, I think I'm ready to tackle that. I posted a screenshot from the technical manual a while ago, and you can see why I put it off until I got some more practice with smaller movements. It has similar issues to the Omega actually, where everything is just a bit sticky, including the pushers. I think a service and lubrication will be enough to bring it back.