Push the crown all the way in and turn it forward, toward 12 o'clock. A hand-wound Seamaster gets wound once a day until the crown stops. An automatic gets a few turns to start it, then your wrist does the rest. Everything below comes from Omega's own records and technical guides.
Quick answers
- Is my Seamaster hand-wound or automatic? Most vintage ones are automatic. Of the 244 mechanical Seamaster references Omega lists up to 1979, 176 are automatic and 68 are hand-wound. Your case reference tells you which.
- Can I overwind it? Not an automatic: its mainspring slips inside the barrel once it is full. A hand-wound one simply stops turning when it is full. Stop there.
- How long does a full wind last? Between 38 and 50 hours on the calibres Omega's guides give figures for. The table below lists them.
- What if it won't hold a wind? A full wind that runs well short of its figure is a service sign, not a winding problem.
Hand-wound or automatic? Find out first
The two wind differently, so know which you have before you turn the crown. There are three ways to tell, from easiest to surest.
- The case reference. It is stamped inside the caseback. Type it into our free reference lookup, and Omega's own records give the calibre and whether it winds by hand or by rotor.
- The dial. "Automatic" on the dial means a rotor. Dials get swapped and redone, though, so treat it as a hint, not proof.
- The calibre designation. Omega's GF 620 catalogue prints a designation line for every calibre, and RA in it means self-winding. The automatic 552 reads 27.90 RA SC PC AM 24p; the hand-wound 610 of the same size reads 27.90 SC PC CAL AM 17 pierres, with no RA. Our free calibre lookup shows the line for yours.
The Seamaster name spans both kinds. Early ones from 1949 to 1954 ran Omega's bumper automatics, such as the 351 and 354, and the 1960s brought the rotor automatics, such as the 552, 562 and 565. Alongside them came hand-wound calibres, such as the 601, 610 and 613, and in the 1970s the fast-beat 1010 family at 28,800 beats an hour.
Not sure the movement belongs in the case? The US$75 Movement ID Report checks the calibre against the reference.
How to wind it
Check the crown first. Technical Guide No. 18 (1960) describes the monocoque Seamaster's crown as a conventional waterproof crown with a gasket, pushed in rather than screwed down. The exception in our guides is the Seamaster 600 Professional, calibre 1002, whose double-sealed crown is drawn in by a bolt screw (Technical Guide No. 47, 1971). Know how yours locks before you turn it.
Know the positions. Pushed fully in is position 1, winding. Omega's 1972 guide for the calibre 1040 numbers them: 1 winding, 2 rapid date correction, 3 hand setting. Pull the crown out only to set the time or date.
A hand-wound Seamaster
- Push the crown fully in.
- Turn it forward, toward 12 o'clock. Turning it back winds nothing.
- Stop when the crown stiffens and won't go further. A hand-wound mainspring has no slipping attachment, so that stop means the spring is full. Never force past it.
- Wind once a day, at about the same time. A full wind runs about two days on these calibres, so a daily wind leaves time to spare.
An automatic Seamaster
- If it has stopped, push the crown fully in and turn it forward to start it. Omega's catalogues list a winding pinion on the stem of every automatic Seamaster calibre we hold, from the bumper 351 (330.1108) to the 565 (563.1108) and the 1012 (1010.1108), so hand winding is built in.
- Give it a short wind, set the time, and wear it. The rotor keeps it wound while you move.
- Don't worry about overwinding. An Omega automatic's mainspring sits on a slipping attachment, which the guides call a brace or brake spring. Technical Guide No. 1 (1954) says it must begin to slip only after at least five turns of winding, and watches left the factory set at five and a half. Past that point, extra turns from the crown or the rotor slip harmlessly.
- If you don't wear it every day, give it a short wind before you put it on.
Two special cases. On the calibre 980 automatic with alarm, position 1 winds both the movement and the alarm, and pressing the alarm pusher disconnects manual winding (Omega guide, 1972). On the calibre 1040 automatic chronograph, use position 2 only for the rapid date correction.
How long a full wind runs
Omega's guides give a running time for twelve Seamaster calibres, from 38 to 50 hours. Seamaster references are counted from Omega's own records, up to 1979.
| Calibre | Winds | Seamaster references | Full wind runs | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 565 | automatic | 22 | 38 h | Omega technical guide, 2013 |
| 1012 | automatic | 21 | 48 h | Omega technical guide, 1972 |
| 1010 | automatic | 11 | 48 h minimum | Omega technical guide, 1972 |
| 1020 | automatic | 7 | 48 h | Omega technical guide, 1972 |
| 1022 | automatic | 7 | 48 h | Omega technical guide, 1972 |
| 1040 | automatic chronograph | 4 | 45 h | Omega technical guide, 1972 |
| 591 | automatic | 3 | 48 h, seven-turn mainspring | Technical Guide No. 21, 1960 |
| 980 | automatic with alarm | 3 | 48 h | Omega technical guide, 1972 |
| 610 | hand-wound | 2 | 50 h, seven-turn mainspring | Technical Guide No. 17, 1960 |
| 910 | hand-wound chronograph | 2 | 50 h | Omega technical guide, 1970 |
| 1011 | automatic chronometer | 1 | 48 h | Omega technical guide, 1972 |
| 930 | hand-wound chronograph | 1 | 50 h | Omega technical guide, 1970 |
Not listed: the 552, 562, 601, 613 and the bumper calibres. The guides we hold for them print no running time, and we don't guess. A full wind that runs well short of its figure points to a tired mainspring or a movement due for service. Every calibre's mainspring has its own factory number in GF 620, and the parts finder gives it with eBay searches ready to go. More on what Omega's guides hold: Is there a service manual for your vintage Omega?
Questions owners ask
Can you overwind an automatic watch?
Not an Omega automatic. Its mainspring sits on a slipping attachment that lets go once the spring is full, set by Technical Guide No. 1 (1954) to slip after at least five turns of winding. A hand-wound watch is different: it stops turning when full, and forcing the crown past that stop is the one thing to avoid.
My automatic stops overnight. Is it broken?
Not always. A watch worn for a few hours may never get fully wound. Wind it well by hand, note the time, and let it run down off the wrist, then compare the hours with the table above. If it falls well short, Technical Guide No. 1 names one cause: a slipping attachment that lets go before five turns, which needs a thicker one fitted.
Do I need to wind an automatic I wear every day?
Only to start it after it has stopped. The rotor winds it as you move.
What does RA mean in my calibre's designation?
Self-winding. The rest of the line describes the movement: SC is centre seconds, PC is shock protection, CAL is a date, AM is antimagnetic, and the last figure is the jewel count. The 552's line, 27.90 RA SC PC AM 24p, reads as a 27.90 mm self-winding movement with centre seconds, shock protection, antimagnetic, 24 jewels.
Which calibre is in my Seamaster?
Read the reference inside the caseback and type it into the free reference lookup. If you can't open it, or the movement doesn't match, the US$75 Movement ID Report checks it from photos.
Where can I see the winding parts?
The 565 is the most common Seamaster calibre in Omega's records up to 1979, in 22 references. Our 565 films take it apart and put it back together in bench order, with the factory number on every part of the keyless works.
Not sure what you have? Start with the free reference lookup, serial lookup and calibre lookup. For it in writing, checked against the catalogues, the Movement ID report is US$75, and nothing to pay until I confirm the photos can answer it.