WATCH POP

As a new Broad Arrow owner having problems after a few months, to say the least I am disappointed in Omega quality. I know that the movement is new, but I would expect after a year either all the watches would have been recalled, or changes would have been made. When I buy what I think is an expensive watch, I expect quality and reliability. To compare..I had a Rolex Sub for 16 years..never serviced..used in all temperature extremes and all sports. It never stopped! I finally got sick of it and sold it! My second Rolex is 10 years old, never serviced and keeps perfect time. I would submit that they may not be the prettiest...but they are the most reliable. I would think twice about getting another Omega. Just had to vent because dont want to send my baby away!!! Thanks for all herers who have given me advice and help..love the forum. Rolex Day Date Omega Speedmaster Moon Omega Broad Arrow Omega Seamaster Chrono As both a Rolex and Omega fan, IMHO, I tend to agree with you and share your feelings, hopefully not to the aghast of Omegans here. I spent $2500 for my Omega Chrono Pro Ti, when it first
came out. A big amount of money at that time. It was hyped and
I bought it. After one year it start to lose time and after
3 adjustments it it acceptable. Well it runs, tolerable but not
quite as accurate as my older and newer Rolexes. Well, you might
say it's hard to compare diff. movements but as a general rule
my 3 Rolexes irregardless of age are more precised and predictable. My vintage Omegas are very good though!!
Well, as they say, you get what you pay for! Cheers. OMEGA QUALITY As a new Broad Arrow owner having problems after a few months, to say the least I am disappointed in Omega quality. I know that the movement is new, but I would expect after a year either all the watches would have been recalled, or changes would have been made. Far be it to fall to me to defend Omega or the Broad Arrow movement. I think it can be safely said that I have been one of the most strident, incessant and loud voices urging caution when contemplating the purchase of new and unproven movements. And I've been on the receiving end more than my share of scorn, name-calling and nastygrams because of my reluctance to jump on the movement of the week bandwagon with a lot of other people around here. Frankly, while I sympathize with your situation, I am not at all surprised... Anyone who has visited the forum since the introduction of the 33x3 movements knows that there has been a spate of problems reported by owners of these movements. This has been discussed as recently as two weeks ago... You said earlier today “ I thought I was taking a chance.. and I did.”... I'm assuming something here, but I would hope and guess that you asked or at least searched the forum for opinions on the movement before committing to it, didn't you? If so, you have my sympathy, but at some point I shrug my shoulders and say "what did you expect?"... If you didn't, you probably wish you had. I have been pointing out the dicey nature of being an "early adopter" in here in the forum since these movements were first announced and noting the problems with this movement for the past couple of years... Still people roll the dice. In the informal poll taken last fall 25%-33% of these movements had problems. When I buy what I think is an expensive watch, I expect quality and reliability. Expense is not necessarily a guarantee of reliability, nor quality or value for the money. Ask any 1970's Jaguar, Ferrary, or Porsche owner... You don't think the Japanese automakers got a beachhead in the US market by producing a product that was only just as reliable as the competition I trust... That's why the Datsun 240-280z series was the Sports Car of the Decade... Performance of a Jaguar, reliability of a Ford Pickup Truck, price of an MG.Expecting reliability from a movement that is new is not necessarily a rewarding experience. In other words, people who insist on living on the bleeding edge are going to get cut or at the very least razor burn from time to time. Ask the first couple thousand New Daytona owners who had to send them back... To compare..I had a Rolex Sub for 16 years..never serviced..used in all temperature extremes and all sports. It never stopped! I finally got sick of it and sold it! There are a lot of people who love their Rolei for just this durability and reliability. My second Rolex is 10 years old, never serviced and keeps perfect time. If there is one knock about Rolex that I hear fairly often it is that they aren't necessarily great timekeepers. I'm pleased you have a good one. On the other hand, I know of many Omega owners, who get phenomenal results with their Omega's. In fact my first Omega, a non-COSC Speedmaster Mark II bought in a pawnshop over 20 years ago, has always kept time within +/- 1 second a day and usually better. But that was an older well established movement. I am a strong believer in "Old Tech that works is Good Tech"... I would submit that they may not be the prettiest...but they are the most reliable. I don't know that Rolex are ,,ugly,,... Most are utilitarian and functional... I don't know that I can say that they are the most reliable either... I believe they can be very reliable as long as they are serviced as needed by technicians that know their way around them. I would think twice about getting another Omega. I'd have plenty of second thoughts about buying a new movement regardless of the pedigree of the makers. Even the most reliable of products often have teething problems. I do not know what's the cause of the issue... Be it:

design flaw engineering issue (part(s) made out of wrong materials) assembly problem adjustment problem quality control issue susceptible to shocks/wear issue (i.e. real life) combination of several of the above something I haven't considered etc.

I can tell you that I've seen documents that "ordinary customers" are typically not privy too, and Omega has been making many efforts to address the problems with these movements. However, their efforts do not seem to be having much effect on the number or frequency of people reporting issues. Apparently there are many many people out there who are not having any problems at all, unfortunately the reverse is true too (there are many people who are). Regardless of their efforts, there are likely plenty of product already in the channels that having had the remedy applied to them, and short of calling them all back to Bienne, and calling in every movement that has been sold (regardless if the owner has experienced problems or not) there is still the chance of a purchaser getting a problematic watch. Just had to vent because dont want to send my baby away!!! No problem, but you have to let me vent a little bit too. For the past two or three years I've been saying the same thing I've been saying in this message (and the other's I've referenced in this post). My reluctance to purchase a new movement and be a real-world guinea pig for Swatch Group/Omega/Bruget. I've expressed concerns about how long Omega will stand by this movement before dropping it for another (replacement) movement. Omega has a great record of faithfulness to manual wind chronograph movements and a "love 'em and leave 'em" record when it comes to automatic wind chronograph movements. And people seem to think I have an ulterior motive for saying so when I'm just trying to be even keeled about the topic at hand. This frustrates me. People ignore my advice and the problem reports that are made here in the forum and buy these movements. That's their choice, and that doesn't bother me as long as they are willing to live with their choice. When some of these people later report back in the forum that their new Omega 33x3 Chronograph has fails and act disappointed / shocked / surprised / angry and get real negative about the brand. This frustrates me. When some of the regulars, regulars who know better, parse words or make it sound like there aren't any problems, when there most certainly are. That frustrates me, greatly. I reread an article on the F. Bruget movement over the weekend... And frankly I remember how interesting and exciting the prospects this movement seemed to have at introduction, until common sense kicked in for me and said... ‘I'll let everyone else be the product tester's for this movement for me...’. It frustrates me most of all that Omega/Bruget/Swatch Group can't seem to quash the bugs in this movement. Lemania seems to be able to come out with trouble free movements. So did/does Valjoux, ETA, Zenith, hell even Dubois-Depraz/ETA movements don't have these rates of problems from what I see. Thanks for all herers who have given me advice and help..love the forum. My advice... Don't screw around with this one. Either take the watch back to your dealer and insist that it be sent back to Bienne for immediate remediation or ask for a full and complete refund. Or send it directly to Bienne along with a full and "pointy" letter to the effect of your extreme displeasure and disappointment at the situation with this watch your previous stalwart experience with Rolex and ask politely for a detailed accounting what will be done to remedy the situation. I hope you've stuck around this long to get to this point. Again you have my sympathies about the issues with this movement that you are experiencing. I have been pretty harsh towards Omega/Bruget in the forum about this issue. So far, their efforts at remediation of the issue(s) at hand have been ineffective at best. It's high time that they take more drastic action be it recall or cessation of production until the problem can be resolved or better yet both. However, as long as people leap before asking or consider the peril of purchasing bleeding edge products, I expect to continue to see more and more of these types of posts. Respectfully, But reading all the posts, it seems that there are problems with older omega's as well. Very dissapointed but will address the issue with omega. Rolex Day Date Omega Speedmaster Moon Omega Broad Arrow Omega Seamaster Chrono What you (and Chuck and others) point out is an example of a wider spread problem. Due to the competition rat-race and the subsequent pressure on developers many products are let loose on the public that are still more or less in beta-test stage (or maybe even not even that).
This does not only apply to watch manufacturing, what about software? (Microsoft is a great example).
Last year the Chief editor of the leading German car magazine (auto motor und sport) got stuck on the roadside with a non functional, brand new BMW 750i twice on a single day (with two different cars!) The current Mercedes E-class has problems in 2-3 out of ten cars I was told by my dealer (I admit it is an Audi dealer, but I've read it in other places too) In most cases it is the state of the art technology (with all the electronics) that gives in. As for Audi: I've driven my previous A6 for 11 months, then I dumped it on the doorstep of the dealer (it felt more at home there). It had a new problem every two or three weeks, varying from consuming more oil than a 30 year old Camaro, brakes that woke up the neighbourhod in the morning by sqealing like a pig, shuddering at certain speeds etc. etc. etc.
Fortunately the one I have now is better..

As long as the pressure on devolopers remains the same these problems are here to stay I'm afraid. The best way to avoid this is to buy products that have at least a year of experience on the market.
With watches you have an extra handicap: it may be difficult to figure out how long a watch has been asleep at the jewelers shop.
It may well be you buy a watch a year or more after introduction and find out it has been one of the first production runs.

The last watch I've bought new was a Speedmaster Cal 1861 (861 in fancy dress), movement has been around for decades, no problems at all.

Jaap

Jaap Uithof Perfection lies in small things but perfection is no small thing Henry Royce Well spoken.... I guess I expected the problem to be remedied by now. But reading all the posts, it seems that there are problems with older omega's as well. Very dissapointed but will address the issue with omega. Rolex Day Date Omega Speedmaster Moon Omega Broad Arrow Omega Seamaster Chrono Quite informative posts, thanks guys.
I'm crossing my fingers on my DeVille CoAxial. As one who has spent a fair amount of dollars on past and current Omegas, I hope to have accuracy & reliability as prime considerations upon purchasing. When unproven engineering takes precedence over marketing ploys, we all lose. Heres hoping that companies recognize that product admiration has short wallet chains when the ball is dropped. Rapunzel, let down your hair, the crocs are coming and my Vacheron will get eaten. Reading your post it made me realize how fortunate I was to select the AT as my first nice watch. I did know the watch was a relatively new model, but it was the one that "spoke" to me when I saw it. It was pretty much love at first sight. I have had no problems. I consider myself lucky...I picked a good watch.

I was stunned when Keith had problems with his watch. It's such a beautiful piece and I'm sure he did his research...still, if he has problems...I guess it serves to remind us that watches are little machines and no machine is perfect or lasts forever.

In the end, it's not so much about whether the watch is perfect or not, but how the corporation deals with the issue and treats their customers. I was reassured to read that Keith had no problems with service and his watch came back in a reasonable time running as it should.

There have been several threads recently on the various watch forums about equating the warranty to the quality of the watch. While I don't agree that these two are directly linkable, they clearly have some relationship. For most large companies, it's all about money. Companies can skimp and skimp, but it eventually catches up with them. Look what happened to Ford and Firestone regarding the Ford Explorer. They skimped too far and it really cost them.

In the end, the free market seems to be self-adjusting. Omega is willing to tolerate some percentage of return/service. They plan for it and can still make money. It may be cost prohibitive to increase the quality (driving the returns down), but it can really get out of control if it goes the other way too. It's a balance.

I think sitting on the sidelines and giving a new product time to prove itself is smart advice indeed.

All this is really hitting home to me this week as I have been addressing similar issues at work. I have responsibility for a computer system that is used 24x7. Talking with management, they want "high availability" but they don't want to pay for it (for each place we add to the availability percent, the cost is increased by a factor of 10). Trying to get them to understand that it is a compromise between cost and risk has been challenging.

I think the same is true for watches in this context. Happily for us, most of the folks here are watch-geeks...just the kind of folks who manage their warranty information, return their watches for service and talk to each other..we get our money's worth. Fortunately for Omega (and others), we are in the minority.

I completely agree with your advice to jump on the service issue right now and stay camped on it until it is resolved. A company can sell a product that still needs work and be profitable overall, but they aren't making any money on me! I'm sending it back and getting it serviced...I'm exercising every bit of my warranty.

Geeshh....this almost counts as a rant!

cheers,
Joe

although I have had these types of problems with my Rolex's. I dumped a datejust just about 2 months ago, took a $800.00 hit just to get rid of it and bought an Aqua Terra. Now I have had one problem with my BA, I took a shower with it on just for fun and ended up with a slight bit of condensation under the crystal. I took the watch to my local Omega Dealer and I also emailed Omega in Switzerland and lo and behold, it was fixed by the next day and it has been perfect ever since as it was before I did my stupid stunt. Now I didn't buy my watch here in the states, I bought it from Peschiera Jewelry in Bolonga, Italy, and for some reason it seems that the people in Europe are seeing far fewer problems with their new Omega's from what I know. Good lord. I just ordered my SMPACC after wrestling with the decision for literally a year. I thought the 3303 problems would be fleshed out by now and thought I'd take the gamble before a price increase (weak dollar, this time it's real). I was going to hold off to see the new models, but tossed in the towel.

You guys are giving me second thoughts! If a new SMPCh comes out...it will probably have the same movement as the ACC, so I'm stuck there.

I don't know if I want an Omega at all any more. Frankly their designs are starting to blur into fossil territory and are increasingly grotesque. 49MM on the new Railmaster? Is this a joke? It looks like something you'd see on a school girl that's going for the humorously large watch look (think Cindy Lauper in 1984)....wonder if they'll make it with a hot pink dial! Argh!

I think I might just pay the premium for the sea dweller.

PS- The new "legend" looks great. They should have called it the Legend of Paul Newman. Looks to me like Omega is joining the ranks of Tag Heuer and other total fashion brands. I don't want to buy a $3,000 Tag Heur, and I expect more than this trendy swill water from a brand like Omega. Someone should be fired. I believe the large watch trend is actually a pretty widely spread one. Of course, it's all personal preference. If the Omega lines have stopped calling to you, then by all means you should find a watch that does! There's no rule saying you have to remain an Omega fan just because you started out as one.

Good luck in your quest for the perfect brand for you. My Homepage