zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

Question about movements

Posted By: manos

Hopefully not

Manos, The Hands Of Fate!

Date: 6/2/06 11:23 GMT

Hi everyone,

Hello Manos! I hope you don't mind my obscure pop culture references above. It's all in good fun!

I'm new to the forum and i recently discovered that watches interests my much more than i thought!

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here! This is likely the first big step to a much larger watch addiction.

I just graduated from university

Congratulations!

and my parents bought me a new Omega SMP chrono(2599.80).

Congradulations on both the watch and the cool parents!

My question is about the movements, mine has 1164 caliber but i saw an other model (2594.52) with the 3301 caliber.

Yup. The 2594.52 is a newer model with a different movement.

I think that there are some differences to chronograph.

The subdial layout is different, the movement is different and it has a different look to it, but the feature set is nearly identical and the operate nearly identically. You should have no reason to envy the newer model, in fact... You are nearly certainly better off with the movement/watch you have than the newer c.3301 movement.

Do you think 3301 caliber is so much better than the 1164 that i should go back to the dealer and take the other one instead??

No, absolutely not! In fact, I personally consider the c.3301, and it's c.33xx siblings, to be very troubled movement(s). The c.3301 is a very new movement compared to the Valjoux 7750 based c.1164. It has had lots of problems reported by owners. And while Omega has made changes to the production of this movement and this watch, the jury is still out as to if these changes have been effective, and to what degree they have been effective in addressing the reliability problems of the c.33xx movement. Certainly there are fewer problems being reported now a days compared to one two and three years ago, but problems are still being reported from time to time.

If you would like to read more about the c.33xx movement's problems, you may find this short list of c.33xx bookmarks which I have saved over the years to be a good jumping off point. Since I posted that list, I have added these entries that also may be of further interest to you:

• nickmtl Asks: 3303 or 3301 are they okay when fixed ???
• The topic is rugged chronographs made by Omega...
• Interesting comments in TZ Public Re: FP 1185 reliability... <-- The FP 1185 is a "ancestor" of the c.33xx series movements.

Apart from the movement i love the way my bond's SMPC looks...

You will also likely find the updated version of one of my earliest watch related articles to be of interest: Revisited... Of Seamasters, Speedmasters & uddah t'ings...

I think you experts can help me.

Hopefully, we have!

Thanks in advance!!

Congratulations again on all of the above. Personally I think your parents did an incredible job with your graduation gift, and I would not give a moment's thought towards trading in your SeMPC in for any other model.

Best of fortune and Good Hunting!

-- Chuck