zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

: 1)ok. Will copy paste the reply from Omega as
: soon as I have it.
: I like things that are verified by many
: experienced people.

That would be great. I always thought 3303 was uni-direction winding because of that incident a couple of years ago. An official answer will clear things up.

: 4)....but I will
: always value a product made with better or
: the best quality/price components than a
: product using middle of the range quality
: components and built in billions of numbers
: and seen everywhere.
Me too, except I don't care the prices of the components and the numbers being produced. Only quality counts.

Both Omega and Rolex make quality watches, but neither are perfect. Here are my opinions on some of the aspects of Rolex and Omega:
(1) Omega:
Dial: How about better workmanship of the dials? especially their Seamaster and Speedmaster lines. The dials of more recent Aqua Terras, and Planet Oceans, including Broad Arrow, are very good. Rolex is more careful on all of their dials (near perfect).

(2) Rolex:
Bracelet: How about some improvements? When so many comfortable designs available on the market, at leat Rolex should do something. Omega's bracelets are better.

Movement finish: It shouldn't cost Rolex too much to add beautiful finishes to the movements. They can pass the added cost to the customers. This fact alone shows "market dominance is not a good thing to customers". Rolex's movement finish maybe very good functionally, but it's definitely not a looker. They should realize people care inside beauty too.

With the 2 most obvious less than perfect aspects in mind, I guess it's too premature to even think Rolex uses the best materials and workmanship.

: Once again it depends of who made the review.
: The calibre 3000 was depicted by walt odets
: as not very good.
IMHO, Explorer I is probably the most classy watch made by Rolex (or by anyone else). It's a great watch. Walt Odets's review picked out some flaws with detailed pictures. Many people on Rolex board was outraged by his review. That's ridiculous. I seldom (if ever) browse Rolex board, simply because to some people there, Rolex is not watch anymore, it's their god.

The other reason is: There are not much new things to talk about. After making the same stuff for so many years, Rolex getting boring day by day. On a Rolex board, you can find all sorts of people, all sorts of posts (some are very stupid posts). That's why I mostly hanging around on Omega boards, there are some true gentleman and knowledgable people and very informative posts.

The 2892-2 in its non
: modified form costs us$175 and eta 2824-2
: us$50 who even if they are definitely far to
: be the same thing than a 100% inhouse
: movement qualitatively speaking.
: IWC use an eta valjoux 7750 base for its iwc
: ingenieur calibre but which is very widely
: modified. It also uses a 7750 in the
: spitfire chrono and in the protuguese chrono
: too.
: The onlyinhouse movements are IWC are the cal
: 5000 and the one in the florentine aristo
: jones.
I mostly agree with you. Generally, ETA movements are not very well finished (or unfinished). But an ETA 2892-A2 inside Omega, RGM, IWC, etc are very different, and can be very beautiful to the eyes, very solid performance too. Many components are modified using better quality stuff. In the case of 2500, it's not exactly a simple modification. ETA 2824-2 inside Ventura, ML, etc are also very well finished and with chronometer grade parts. It's amazing that a mass produced calibre is adopted by so many manufacturers with outstanding performance.

: 5) a) Count yourself lucky because not all the
: people have as much as luck with the 33xx.
Yeah, maybe I'm lucky, but not that lucky. Because I know several people having the same watch, there hasn't been a problem yet. Given the problem reports online, people tend to think 3303 is a problematic calibre. I don't know how big the percentage of the problem, but I won't hesitate to recommend 3303 to anyone. Besides the looks of Broad Arrow, the time keeping performance is simply superb.

: 9)Well I mainly buy vintage watches with an
: inhouse movement, having a proven
: reliability and accuracy record and offering
: and original design. I am not buying modern
: watches because many are powered with the
: same movements and offer nothing
: special.Before buying I always ask what is
: the movement inside the watch, I prefer
: tritium dials in very good condition and
: unusual watchcases.

I love vintage watches too. There is something prevent me to go vintage: finding a trusty local watchmaker. I can live with dings and scratches, even imperfection on the dial, but the watch has to keep good time.

cu around.