Omega Complete Maintenance service: Experiences?

[Fireblade69]

Hi, I'm almost at a point of picking up a previously loved, (albeit not very much and possibly the kind of love that involves angry sex), Omega Planet Ocean from a pawn shop which is a good price but it does need to be properly serviced and polished as there are a few dinks in the bracelet and surface scratches on the strap buckle, the edges of the case etc. For £340 I can drop it into Omega Regent Street and they'll send it off to have the work done and from the descriptions and videos on t'web linky linky (to Omega) it all looks relatively painless. The cost of that plus the price of the watch and £100 for replacement documentation brings the total cost to around market value, with the bonus of being heavily rebuilt and practically as-new. It's for me anyway so I'm not interested in resale, but never say never.

However, given my experience with garages and cars, a service normally means 10 phone calls about parts that need to be replaced that ramp the bill up and whilst it's in bits at someone else's garage you don't really have much choice and have to stump up more cash to get it back together and home again. I don't mind fiver for a cog or a tenner for a replacement jewel but if they start hitting me with £200 for this and £150 for that I might as well buy a TVR.

So, to the actual question: Has anyone had any recent experience, good or bad, that they would like to share regarding the Omega Complete Maintenance service?

I'm particularly interested in whether they produced any requests for extra parts to replace broken ones and what sort of costs that added. To add to that, I'm not particularly interested in non-Omega craftsmen doing it; servicing the watch every couple of years is fine but I wouldn't be comfortable with this level of attention.

If I go ahead with the deal and service, I'll happily post the experience. I have searched & read all the appropriate posts on the subject on PH but none that I could find are later than 2012 or specific enough.

[gvij]

You shouldn't be hit with extras provided there's nothing like water damage inside.
Servicing on omega needed roughly every 7 or 8 years in my experience . After that it wont run or will be very slow or fast.

[Fireblade69]

Thanks for the reply, by a happy coincidence the PO is a 2008 model so looks like it's bang on time for it.

[Polome]

Don't know if you read my overhaul/service post listed May '14 . I think similar could suit you. I was very happy with outcome . If going that way again i would be more specific in what I wouldn't want doing i.e. Not changing hands for new. I suspect Omega has a standard format of producing an official spec watch when returning to customer . Judging by posts on here recommended in dependants could do a quality job at a lower cost. Good luck with choice.

[BrewsterBear]

As an aside (and not wishing to break forum selling rules) I have an 18 month old 46mm PO with the glass back that I could be tempted to move on at a very favourable rate. It has been used as my every day watch and as such is a bit scuffed on the links and bezel, but it comes with box and papers. Send me a PM if you're interested.

[mikeveal]

You do not need to send the watch to Omega for a service. My local watch guy charges ~£65 for a service and is perfectly competent. I can discuss exactly what gets done (and more importantly what doesn't) and I'm talking to the guy who does the work.
Finally I know I'm not getting my pride and joy serviced by some school kid that Omega took on last week, the work is consistently to a high standard.

Plenty of independents will offer equivalent service to Swatch at a much lower cost. Repair is a different matter as Swatch are starting to clamp done on the supply of parts.

There are three posters on PH who could do your watch for you, Variomatic, Eddie Cain (don't think Eddies taking on watches at the mo.) or Watchloony. Look up their post history and decide if you'd like them to help.

[Fireblade69]

Thanks for the reply but just to be clear this isn't a normal service, this is in effect a rebuild. The video shows the details of what is done and it is very involved.

[mikeveal]

They certainly do try at Omega. Looked at those 26 steps. Yes, that's a standard service. Nothing special there, just £300 dearer for going to Omega that's all.

[Fireblade69]

Okay, so for £65 i can have someone rebuild a highly advanced and accurate piece of horological technology to a condition that is almost as new with the backing and support network that only a main dealer can offer?

Without disrespecting what is no doubt an excellent and skilled service that these guys offer, unless that job takes an hour tops I wouldn't think £65 is a reasonable charge for any skilled work of this level. st, my company charge double that for my time - not that I get to see it mind - and I'm not that good.

In the same way that I wouldn't take a Ferrari to the local yet still very skilled and competent garage, it just wouldn't sit well with me or any future owner should I choose to re-sell it.

Thank you very much for the input but I'll stick with the original plan for now, if you have any more experiences - particularly with Omega - then I'll still like to hear them.

[mikeveal]

Fireblade69 said:

Okay, so for £65 i can have someone rebuild a highly advanced and accurate piece of horological technology to a condition that is almost as new with the backing and support network that only a main dealer can offer?

No. The independent may not be able to get hold of new parts should anything need replacing. But nothing should need replacing (except seals and those are available) on a watch of this age.
All you need is a strip, clean and oil. It is a skilled job yes, but once you have the mechanical skills and the knowledge it isn't that onerous. My guy charges from £65. I've not paid more than £140 and that included a repair and a £40 crystal.

Fireblade69 said:

Without disrespecting what is no doubt an excellent and skilled service that these guys offer, unless that job takes an hour tops I wouldn't think £65 is a reasonable charge for any skilled work of this level. st, my company charge double that for my time - not that I get to see it mind - and I'm not that good.

I've no idea how long it takes. I'd guess an hour probably isn't far off.

Fireblade69 said:

In the same way that I wouldn't take a Ferrari to the local yet still very skilled and competent garage, it just wouldn't sit well with me or any future owner should I choose to re-sell it.

Thank you very much for the input but I'll stick with the original plan for now, if you have any more experiences - particularly with Omega - then I'll still like to hear them.

A service will include a strip down, clean, rebuild and oil. A polish will probably cost extra.
I have experience of sending two Tissots (Swatch group, same service location as Omega, probably the same watchmaker on the same bench)and a Cartier off for "main dealer" service. All were agro, two out of three had to go back for the job to be done properly.

The Cartier was polished not at my request and they've polished the lines out of the case. They also left a scratch in the back. It had to go back three times before they fixed the issue and once more (within a month) because it leaked.

One Tissot went in for a service and came back scratched and running less accurately than it went in. The other Tissot went for a new strap and I had to escalate to the manager of the service department to get my old strap (my own property) back.

I'm sitting on a collection of just over 20 watches now (not literally, not comfortable), servicing is a regular outlay. I've been round the loop many times. I am convinced that a good indy is just as good if not better than a "main dealer" service.


But hey, what do I know? Your money, your choice.

[Zoon]

gvij said:

You shouldn't be hit with extras provided there's nothing like water damage inside.
Servicing on omega needed roughly every 7 or 8 years in my experience . After that it wont run or will be very slow or fast.

I have a 2003 seamaster that has never been serviced and runs perfectly. Should I be worried?

[Variomatic]

Fireblade69 said:

Thanks for the reply but just to be clear this isn't a normal service, this is in effect a rebuild. The video shows the details of what is done and it is very involved.

With the exception of the case work which, as Mike says, will usually be an extra if required from an indie, there's absolutely nothing in that video that falls outside "normal" servicing. Average time for a straight day / date auto would be around an hour to an hour and a half depending on the calibre.

That's not counting time in the cleaning machine. But that involves putting it in baskets, pushing a button, and going to do something else while it cleans and dries itself. So not really billable as time unless you're a multi-billing lawyer type.

Bear in mind that Omega will do it quicker than that because they're working on the same movements day-in, day-out rather than having to be familiar with anything that comes through the door. But they do have a great marketing department making videos that need to be paid for somehow

Given his collection, I suspect Mike gets slightly preferential rates from his local guy. Indies tend to value repeat customers because if you do the job right you won't see the guy with one watch. But his prices give you a fair idea of how much of the dealer's bill is "real world" work and how much is Posh Tax.


eta: For the moment virtually all parts for these are still available but, as Mike says, they really shouldn't be needed. You'd be understandably annoyed if your car regularly needed new rings and bearing shells on a routine service, and watch parts are under a LOT less stress than engines!

Edited by Variomatic on Monday 8th June 20:38

[Fireblade69]

mikeveal said:

But hey, what do I know?

Turns out, actually quite a bit.

Thanks to Mikeveal for the expanded explanation, I'm beginning to rethink the Omega main dealer rebuild since there is such a difference in price and previous customer's seem to be happy with the services. As ever with these things it's a case of trust so I think I'll do a little bit more research on this with some of the names he put forward; thanks for the pointer Mikeveal.

The shop I want to do the deal with is in the Midlands and I'm in Brighton and they have said that I must be present to purchase the item, (their rules I think, nothing shoddy like avoiding distance selling regulations). They have agreed a price that I'm happy with so I'm still on the fence seeing as I'm not up that way for a good few weeks. The service thing may be the clincher. If this can be done to the same standards or better for a lower cost then I'll be silly to be snobbish about Omega doing it given the (relative) bargain I'd end up with.

I'll have a hunt.

[mikeveal]

Generous of you to say so. It's rare that someone admits to changing their mind on here.
Please bear in mind that mine is just an opinion and judging from the reports on here I was unlucky with my "main dealer" servicing. Most people have no trouble.
Vario is right (again) I may well get preferential pricing from my local watch guy. Seems like I'm in his shop at least every other month.

The point I was trying to make is that you don't NEED to use Omega. Independents are just as capable of doing what you need. There are also larger independents like ryte time and STS who offer something between the one man watchmaker and the corporate manufacturer's bench. Not sure what they charge and I've never used them, but people say good things about both organisations.

But really, for a service, the one man independent, the larger independent and the corporate manufacturer are all selling the same product. It comes down to a man, a bench, some hand tools, an ultrasonic cleaner and a teeny pot of oil.

[PJ S]

STS are Omega's official UK servicing agent – they also now do Girard Perregaux.
They're not quite as free to charge what they like, as your chap, Ryte Time, and other true independents.

[mikeveal]

Standing correctedly.

[gcpeters]

I sent my speedmaster to Omega, cost a bit but literally came back like a new watch, the replaced loads of parts including the "glass" and it didn't cost me any extra.

plus you get a guarantee on the work so if anything goes wrong its covered...

you pay your money, you make your choice

GP

Edited by gcpeters on Tuesday 9th June 16:59

[Foliage]

I sent my 1996ish quartz omega seamaster that I got second hand away to omega for a service (£250ish at the time) came back with new hands and I think the only thing internally that they hadn't changed was the face which is a shame as the lumen is poor but I see why they didn't, it was like new, re-polished had clearly been completely stripped, new pins in the metal band the lot (some where broken and corroded), well worth the money, big list of parts replaced on the receipt, got it back in a nifty leather (well its probably plastic) case too, that is perfect for sunglasses, all in the price.

ETA - glass changed too as poster above.

Edited by Foliage on Tuesday 9th June 17:06

Edited by Foliage on Tuesday 9th June 17:08