zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

: Yeah, any question is a legit question. I'm not
: sure "Is that the question" has
: any condescending tone in it. No?

: "Is that the reply?", there is no
: condescending tone in it either. If you feel
: in anyway I offended you, I'm sorry. My
: reply is actually discussing watch related
: issues. Your reply is your feeling against
: my reply, if I read correctly. Sounded like
: a judge.

: My reply was: "A watch is just a

: Explaination: In terms of keeping time, water
: resistance, and other functional aspects of
: a time piece, Rolex/Omega/etc prestigeous
: brands are not significantly better than
: lesser brands. It's not hard to find much
: less expensive watches that keep better
: time, more robust than expensive ones. A
: watch is really just a watch.

: Then, why people choose to buy Rolex/Omega?
: It's about styling (looks), workmanship
: (quality, including bracelets), and brand
: name prestige. So this can be considered
: "attack" to Omega/Rolex?

: Back to the crown issue. As long as the watch
: is rated at 300m (or certain meters), there
: is not much difference what type of
: technology (if we can call it technology)
: was used. It's really cheap and simple to
: buy/make any type of crown. No?

: Next time, we need to compare who's polish
: cloth is better, like that has anything to
: with the watch itself.

This Post among the others fascinated me in terms of its focus. Dr. Laura (love her or not) has only a limited amount of time to answer any caller. So she tries to focus each caller and herself by asking them to boil down their call to "the" question she wants answered.

If, mjb, your answer to the original Post is from the stand point of "keeping time, water resistance, and other functional aspects of a time piece," I think most Rolex and Omega watches aren't even on the field. I have a Casio G-Shock, which I like very much, that is far more accurate vis-a-vis time keeping than any of my Rolex and Omega mechanicals. If I wanted even greater precision, there's a G-Shock that gets atomic clock updates via signals from the source.

Casio supposedly released an ultra version of that this month, as a matter of fact ($1300 MSRP).

But if we're talking about a precision mechanical piece, which I believe was Joey's question (focus), there are absolutely ways to compare and rank. Harder metal can mean longer life; precision tolerances in machining mean more expensive production costs.

It seems to me that Joey was quite clear in that her question was made in the context of a particular style of watch. It might have read, "given that I value a mechanical, I'd like to know ~."

You seem to be asking a different question, which is fine. "As long as the watch is rated at 300m (or certain meters), there is not much difference what type of technology (if we can call it technology) was used. It's really cheap and simple to buy/make any type of crown. No?"

My answer: No.

The higher grade the steel, the more expensive the tooling required to machine it. Higher grade steel can equate to longer wear both in terms of "use" life (eg, wear due to screwing crown in and out) and "exposure" life (eg, action of environmental elements upon it).

Engineering is also an issue. Differing thread counts in the screw and engineering related to seating can vary. How gaskets are incorporated (along w/ materials used, function).

As one Rolex techician told me yesterday, the marking on my 14060M Submariner that says, "1000ft = 300m" means that the watch must perform to that when bought. (By extension, the marking on my 2531.80 Seamaster that says, "300m/1000ft" means that watch must perform to that when bought.) He went on to say that the Rolex name and crown on the dial of my 14060M Sub means that watch is backed to perform to its stated "1000ft = 300m" specification for the next 5 to 7 years, w/out any further interaction between Rolex and me between now and then.

If you are further concerned about value for price paid, this is certainly another legitimate question - and a good point to add to Joey's original. As I crunch specific numbers in the coming months, I'll share them here and you're comments will be certainly welcome to there.