zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

I'm going to include my thoughts at the bottom, here's a key for the rest of these comments I'm bringing forward. Text in this color: Posted By: Peter, text which looks like this: Posted By: CajunMike ...

I'm not going to get into the details of the discussion until towards the bottom.

: Re: And some more comments Posted By: Peter Date: 12/1/07 00:05:50 GMT

: That is my point. Why defend? You have a nice

: watch. Nobody is attacking it (them).

Re: And some more comments

Posted By: CajunMike (ip68-226-161-57.lf.br.cox.net)

Date: 12/1/07 16:14:00 GMT

Of course, nobody outright attacks it, but ive gotten several comments from people that don't know squat about watches along the lines of "For that money, you should have just bought a Rolex" and again still more comments when I tell them the price difference, like the Rolex name alone is somehow justification for the price difference. I know I have a great watch. I don't do as much defending as I do educating people about the brand and about watches in general. Here on the forums, them's fighting words, unfortunately. And you, yourself felt the need to come here to an Omega fourm and justify the prices of Rolex by saying they have "better" service than Omega. Might not be bashing the watch, but certainly bashing the company

: Isn't that kind of what you just said in your

: last sentence? "I will continue to

: defend my Omega against any comparable

: Rolex..."

Yes, defend it does not mean that I will trash Rolex and say that the comparable Rolex is inferior. More like that they have similar qualities with vast price differences

: I don't either, but they charge a premium for

: their products. I will try to quantify in

: that I believe at least compared to the SMP

: series (excluding the PO) that Rolex Subs

: are roughly 15-20% better. Don't ask me how

: I get to that number, it is just my opinion.

Exactly, its your opinion. Hence the defensive stance I take some times. I happen to believe its not 15-20% better and certainly not 3x better(And there are several objective reviews out there comparing the watches). You followed that percentage with "don't ask me how I get to that number". I think personally that many believe that the Rolex name alone accounts for the additional percentage.

: Some of us want to keep our watches as

: heirlooms, not dispose of them like razers.

I plan to keep mine and pass them down to my children. As I said below, if I have a service problem where my watch comes back scratched, I will be disappointed, but I can replace every single part on the watch and still have many$$ left over from the original price difference. Yes it would tick me off, but I would never even think to suggest that I should have bought the Rolex because I MIGHT have had a good service experience.

: I specifically asked for similarities of

: negative experiences from Rolex in terms of

: scratched or abused watches

Again, why ask this on an Omega forum? You want customer feedback, go to the Rolex forums, as I doubt that there are enough Rolex owners here to give any kind of objective comments, and even fewer that actually post

: Not giving

: parts back is their way of controlling after

: market mods to protect the brand. I can

: respect that.

: No, it won't bother me at all, as I don't plan

: on selling the watch - again see heirloom

: comment.

: See disposable razer comment.

I too am keeping my watches as heirlooms, and it would bother me if they kept my original parts because like it or not, the people that end up with your watch may not want to keep it and a vintage watch with new parts is bad for resale.

Peter, I do appreciate your participation to this forum as it encourages and promotes watches of all kinds. I only stepped in with my two cents because you say you own both brands and don't like the brand bashing, but thats exactly what you did, bash Omega and tout Rolex. Even if it wasn't your meaning, the undertone was there and continued with the responses to my remarks, ie, the Sub is 15-20% better than the SMP.

You seem like a genuine person and probably meant nothing by your comments, but I felt it deserved a reply. Again, the "defending my brand/watch" thing, nothing personal, just a different opinion/perspective. Personally, I would be much more interested in the "negative" service experiences you had with your Omega's and how they were dealt with than the single good experience you had with Rolex. Did you ever have a positive service experience with your Omega's, and was this experience a service issue or an "Overhaul". Ive heard a lot of outstanding "overhaul" experiences with Omega too. This would have been a much more appropriate discussion for this forum.

Happy Holidays to you and your family.

OK, everyone got their points in before I commented at all. I usually don't do that...

Omega and Rolex are great rivals. Omega and Heuer were [and Omega and TAG-Heuer ARE] are great rivals. Omega and Breitling are great rivals. Tag-Heuer and Breitling are great rivals.

Here's a clip I culled from one of the favorite movies of the Heuer and TAG-Heuer faithful about Rivals:

The key words spoken here are said by the Erich Stahler character [Seigfried Rauch]:

"He's fast, I'm fast, so we're always together!"

And so it is with: Omega and Rolex, Omega and Heuer, etc. They are always competing with similar watches for the same customer's money. So as a result, they are rivals, great rivals.

I have no problem with rivalry. I feel that strong rivalry [unless it gets out of hand] causes all parties to improve themselves in order to compete, to win.

I expect there to be rivalry between Omega owners and Rolex owners, Heuer owners and Omega owners. I expect there to be PASSION for I expect people to be passionate about things that are important to them. And I expect such passion to be expressed and displayed in watch enthusiast forums.

It's a lot easier to wear two wrist watches than to drive two cars at the same time [especially Porsche 917k/Ferrari 512S's...]. People can choose to own one brand of watch or the other, or both. It's a personal decision, best made by each individual by themselves.

So I don't have any problems with folks discussing their opinions about various watches either within or between brands.

It is my goal here to prevent what could easily become a heated and nasty flame war before it gets out of hand. I'm not speaking with my moderator's cap on, yet... I'm currently speaking with my Chicagoland Chuck Maddox Chronograph Enthusiast cap on. OK?

Peter, I have said in reply to you and you've chosen not to reply to my thoughts: I do not see the logic in:

a: asking for Rolex owner's experiences in a Omega forum,

b: Desiring to, and I am quoting you: "make an imprint in folks' minds" about facts about Rolex watches because of Omega owners bashing Rolex and Rolexes when such bashing has not occurred here in this forum recently [if at all!].

I've stated that previously, and you have chosen not to reply to me when I brought up those points.

You have stated that the supposed ,,Omega owner bashing Rolex and Rolexes,, probably occurred at WUS, not here, and happened some time ago.

It has been and remains my belief that the time and place to post your thoughts in reply is Where and When those events happened, and not in an unrelated forum some days, weeks or months later. Because this is sort of thing that has sparked flame wars in the past and is considered by many in the Internet forum and watch discussion community as indistinguishable from troll-ish behaviour. I'm sorry, but that is the way it is.

No one here has so much as mentioned Rolex, much less bashed the firm or their products. So we do not need nor are we especially resceptive of your desire to imprint upon our minds.

Peter, if you feel slighted or impugned by folks over at WUS, the place to deal with it is WUS, not start something up here.

This is coming from me as a fellow watch enthusiast not as Chuck Maddox moderator at Chronocentric.com. At least not for the time being. I hope it doesn't come to that. Hopefully my meaning is clear, to all parties in this thread.

Let's all celebrate the rivalries, exult in the rivalries, for it would be a far more boring world if there were no rivals, no choice, no decisions to be made in this regard. Let's not go back and forth over the same old tired rutted ground.

Fair enough?

Please don't make me put on my moderator's cap and type in red text. I hate it when I have to do that.

Sincerely,

-- Chuck

Chuck Maddox

Watch Article Index: http://www.xnet.com/~cmaddox/cm3articles.html,

Watch Links Page: http://www.xnet.com/~cmaddox/watch.html,

Watch Blog: http://chuckmaddoxwatch.blogspot.com/.

Chronographs, like most finer things in life, only improve with time...