zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

: Are you sure...The genneral consensus on the
: boards is that this was not the same as the
: star used to show a different process...but
: is a attempt to fight fakes

If the stamping (laser etching..whatever) of a little globe on SOME watches is some sort of attempt to fight fakes, it's a very lame one. Omega is far too sophisticated to combat THAT problem with a tiny globe.

Omega's chief competition is other fine watch brands, not the fakers. Most fakes are bought by people trying to fool OTHERS. Only very fine, relatively uncommon fakes are made to fool the BUYER.

Why do it on some rather than ALL? Lack of an answer to this makes the "stop fakes" hypothesis weak.

If some of the fakers are good enough to put laser-etched serials numbers on the lug, how difficult could it be to put a less-detailed, larger emblem in an easier-to-work area (the outer region of the back)?

The star and globe are serving the same purpose.

I work with gas turbines (jet engines used to run electric power plants) and quality assurance procedures regarding their production and operational history. Nowadays, we do the same kind of thing on turbine blades. We use various codes "built in" to the serial numbers that tell all sorts of casting and tooling history. Databases can be built to do anything in this regard.

In the past (before lots of computer power was cheap), we would individually mark the serial number of test blades with an extra character that would act as a "flag". Only a few people within the company would be knowledgeable about what this means.

Omega could do the same thing (get rid of all globes/stars), but undoing their serial number process (case s/n = movement s/n, dealing with COSC etc.) to accomodate a SHORT TERM research project may be cost ineffective.

This is why I speculate that the globe and star serve the same purpose, to flag the watch as having some small part/process difference that is only meaningful to QA/QC people at Omega.