zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

: It is almost a year now since Omega last raised
: their prices by 10%. Although this is well
: above inflation it appears to be quite
: conservative when compared with rivals like
: Omega and Breitling. This price gap is
: widening. As most luxury watch buyers are
: not very knowledgeable in movements etc they
: generally assume that price is directly
: proportional to quality. Do you believe
: therefore that Omega's value for money is
: detrimental to the prestige of the brand as
: they more likely to be perceived as equal to
: the similarly priced models made by the
: likes of Tag rather than more expensive
: manufacturers like Breitling. I appreciate
: that Rolex are a marketing exception. Its
: only a thought but my stir some debate.

I understand what you are saying, Myles. However, as Steve said, I do think that Omega is pricing its newer models higher in an effort to rebuild that brand prestige. Consider the Planet Ocean - it sells for $1200 more than the already popular Bond SMP, yet it seems that Omega can't make Planet Oceans fast enough to keep up with demand. Its MSRP brings it within $1000 or so of a comparable Rolex Submariner, so this is a step in the right direction from a marketing perspective.

Personally, I don't go by price increases as much as I go by the actual price. One important factor is that Omegas can be had at great discounts if you know where to look, while you'll have a hard time getting a dealer to budge from MSRP on a Rolex. So, if you directly compare MSRP on comparable Omega and Rolex models, some actually fall within $1000 or so of each other, which helps give Omega a higher level of "perceived prestige" in the marketplace.

When it comes to Breitlings, you can also get them at Omega discounts if you go to the right dealers (before I gave up on Breitling I was getting 30-35% off MSRP). So, even though they cost more than comparable Omegas, I don't see them as having a higher level of "prestige". In fact, I agree with Georges's comments 100% - they are greatly overpriced for the money and have some of the least modified ETA movements on the market. Panerai is a different story - their movements are also of marginal quality but their perceived prestige allows them to cost a lot and hold their value as well as Rolex (at least for now).

Just as an aside, over the weekend I was at a Mayors jewelry store in the mall looking at a Broad Arrow (just to get the feel of it in person). Another gentleman was looking at a Breitling Navitimer. I asked him to come over and take a look at the Broad Arrow and feel the difference in the pushers for the chronograph. Like me, he was immediately impressed with the crsip feel of the BA's pushers compared to the spongy feel of the Navitimer. We were both talking to the salesman about watches, and we got into the discussion of how the Valjoux 7750 in the Navitimer is not worthy of a $5000 watch, while the Piguet 1285 most certainly was worth the $4695 MSRP of the Broad Arrow (despite its teething problems, it is still a better quality movement). The salesman didn't argue with me at all, and the other guy left the store saying he "needed to do a little more homework".

We can't control how the public thinks, but with websites like this we can help them understand what makes Omegas such great timepieces.