Agree that Omega is a manufacturer, which means they have to sell new product to continue to be a going concern. They aren't a museum. Also, their heritage is a large part of their brand marketing.
But hopefully it isn't as stark as you made it sound. The company is large enough to support a heritage department. Whether they do, will, or won't I don't know. But it's difficult for me to agree that Omega has no regard for their heritage pieces except as marketing material.
Perhaps what the vintage watch world is lacking are private companies that remanufacture vintage parts, similar to the vintage collector car market. Of course, that would change our obsession with fully original pieces. Maybe it's like others have said, we have entered a period of diverging paths whereby a person has to choose either to have a museum piece or a functioning watch without 100% original parts. It is unreasonable for us to expect a company to continue to provide new components for 50 to 70 year old products. It's not done in the automotive industry so we probably aren't realistic expecting the watch industry to do so.
But it's not the same as saying they only care about their heritage inasmuch as it allows them to sell watches. Maybe we're saying the same thing. It just sounds harsher the way you put it.
(Lucky you're on the East side of Canada. Crazy flooding in BC. All just from a rain storm. We're thinking about our neighbors to the North.)
I understand people don't want to think this way of a company they love the products from. It's a common thing for people on forums to romanticize the watch business, but it's just a business like any other.
This is not to say that there aren't very passionate vintage enthusiasts working at the brand, but in the end the entire drive of the company is to increase shareholder value (like any other corporation), and every decision made has to be looked at in that light, or the company is not meeting it's responsibilities.
I probably shouldn't have lumped Omega together with Rolex though. Omega is different...
Omega has a museum, which Rolex does not to my knowledge.
Omega has a heritage department, which Rolex does not to my knowledge.
Omega has published a book about the history of it's watches, which Rolex has not to my knowledge.
Omega will, for a price, issue rather dubious extracts from their archives, which Rolex does not.
Rolex wants people to have an idea of it's long history, but not too much of an idea, because what they were (a good quality, reasonably priced tool watch) doesn't fit with the "crown for every achievement" mentality and marketing they use to sell watches today. So Omega does look back to their history more than some brands at this level do, but I have no doubt it's all done to bolster new watch sales by creating a certain aura around the brand. They play on their history by also releasing the various re-issues of older watches, so that is a direct example of them using that history to sell new watches.
If we turn back to parts and what must be serviced at Bienne, the list of calibers is in large part very simple watches. There are a few more complex calibers listed, such as the split seconds chronographs that require specialized training and tools, but for the most part the vast majority of Bienne only watches are on this list not because of complexity, but because of limited spare parts supplies. There's nothing particularly difficult in servicing a 321, or even more so some of the other calibers on this list, like simple 3 hand movements such as the 30T2 family. So these decisions aren't because of the complexity of the movement, as any competent watchmaker can service these watches.
The fact that Omega has started making the 321 parts again (they were being made all along really, as Breguet used a version of this caliber up until recently and both Omega and Breguet they needed their own supplies for service) and have still restricted the parts is for a couple of reasons. One is that they make money on servicing the vintage watches, much more than they do the modern watches. Second is that the "new 321" (same as the old 321) is somewhat of a mythical creature built up of specialized scans and all that other hokey marketing that was put out at the time of the release. They don't want to take the shine off that by allowing just anyone to service these watches that they have built up to be something that they most certainly are not.
Cheers, Al
PS - yes weather out West has been painful.
