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8800 and 8900: confirmed experiences

Yehoshua
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Hi. I've an 8900 in for repair. Almost immediately upon purchase it had a certain problem. (An irregular problem with the date change).

Sort of considering flipping it for a 8800 when it comes back. It may depend on the responses in this post.

From personal experience: how is it with your 8900 / with your 8800? Are things going smoothly? Criticism? Longterm praises?

Not interested in hearsay, because I've seen all those negative posts concerning the 8900, on the internet. As well as the positive ones that sometimes seem to be rehashed "reviews" inspired by YouTube. Personal observations of yours would be nice. Thanks in advance.
Edited:
 
scapa
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No issues to date (no pun intended) with any of my 8800- or 8900-based movements, and hadn't heard of any particularly negative views concerning the 8900. Mine have all run well within or exceeded their METAS spec, and my current 8900 is at .06 spd over 19 days.

IMHO, any mass-produced movement powering tens of millions of watches is likely to have some issues cropping up. But my understanding is that this family of movements is well-regarded as robust, accurate and reliable.
 
nicolamilton
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I've seen many 8500 as yours. With its successor 8900 it seems the quick hour setting issue doesn't show so frequently.
Anyway, I'd rather buy 8800 in the future.
 
R
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The 8900 in my ~2 year old AT has been running fine. I find the crown (winding action) to be quite stiff compared to the other watches I have.
 
scapa
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R richiv
The 8900 in my ~2 year old AT has been running fine. I find the crown (winding action) to be quite stiff compared to the other watches I have.

Yes, I've noticed that also. My SMP is a smoother winder, but the 8800's rotor noise can be pretty rollicking (looking at you, Trilogy SM300).
 
Leviathan
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I have a SMP Diver with the 8800. The one issue with the movement is the large delta (6 position tolerance). This means overnight resting positions can affect accuracy.

This is a double edged sword, nonetheless. As different positions have significant rate differences (e.g., dial up gains 4 secs, while 12 up loses 6), you can almost certainly find a way to self regulate the watch to where you’re neither gaining or losing time on the long term.

I went 36 days without gaining or losing a single second when I found the ideal overnight resting position that would offset the daily gain.
 
Tim Plains
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I bought a new 8800 in June 2021. No issues with the date, it's consistently +5 spd, more if I leave it face up overnight. If I let it power down, and don't give it a good wind, accuracy is way off.

This one time, I wound it just enough to get the seconds hand going, set the time at around 10am, put the watch on, drove for an hour, and the watch was showing around 5pm. It's fine if I give it the 30 - 50 winds everyone says to.
 
Yehoshua
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So despite a rough beginning, my reservations about having to deal with occasional 8900 havoc and periodic fixes--are probably unfounded.
Thanks.
 
jzra
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4 years with my 8900 (planet ocean) and no issues.
 
p4ul
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8800 April ‘19, no problems, worn 24/7 (nearly - take it off for gardening, diy etc. or if I want a dress watch night out) gains a couple of minutes a month.
 
Yehoshua
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jzra jzra
4 years with my 8900 (planet ocean) and no issues.[/QUO
Good to hear. Encouraging.
 
Leviathan
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Tim Plains Tim Plains
it's consistently +5 spd, more if I leave it face up overnight.
How much more if you leave it face up? Are you surpassing the 6-second daily tolerance?

Try experimenting with different overnight resting positions.
 
Caliber561
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Going on 1 year with an 8800, no issues whatsoever.
Have had an 8806 for 4 years now, and encountered a peculiar issue where the manual winding system stopped working. That said, seeing as how I've heard no mention of it anywhere, I'm pretty sure it was just a fluke.
 
Tim Plains
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Leviathan Leviathan
How much more if you leave it face up? Are you surpassing the 6-second daily tolerance?

Try experimenting with different overnight resting positions.
+8-10 second range, I don't leave it face up, just when I did or put it back in the box overnight it would gain 5 seconds or so by morning.
 
Rowdy
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I got a great deal from WatchBox on a Black Dial SMP with 8800 movement just before Christmas (2021). After receiving it, the watch was in great condition, but ran -1 to -2 s/p/d which is fine when it comes to accuracy, but a slow watch is annoying. WatchBox has a 2 year warranty, which coincidentally was also the remainder of Omega factory warranty. I sent the watch back to WB and asked them to regulate it. WB sent it to OSC and they completely overhauled it. I thought that to be unusual for a 3 year old watch? When I got it back, I couldn’t believe all the parts that were replaced. Spare parts returned included the rotor, mainspring barrel and lots of tiny screws and gaskets. At any rate, she seems to be running great now.
 
Caliber561
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Rowdy Rowdy
I got a great deal from WatchBox on a Black Dial SMP with 8800 movement just before Christmas (2021). After receiving it, the watch was in great condition, but ran -1 to -2 s/p/d which is fine when it comes to accuracy, but a slow watch is annoying. WatchBox has a 2 year warranty, which coincidentally was also the remainder of Omega factory warranty. I sent the watch back to WB and asked them to regulate it. WB sent it to OSC and they completely overhauled it. I thought that to be unusual for a 3 year old watch? When I got it back, I couldn’t believe all the parts that were replaced. Spare parts returned included the rotor, mainspring barrel and lots of tiny screws and gaskets. At any rate, she seems to be running great now.
Sometimes parts get replaced to make sure the watch doesn't come back under warranty. There isn't always something catastrophically wrong with them.
 
Leviathan
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Tim Plains Tim Plains
+8-10 second range, I don't leave it face up, just when I did or put it back in the box overnight it would gain 5 seconds or so by morning.
Unfortunately that’s probably still within tolerance since the 0-6 s/d is the daily average across all adjusted positions.

It is a bummer given how some examples get 0-1 s/d across all positions.

Will you request a regulation? +10 certainly warrants one.
 
padders
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The 2 movements aren't really like for like and are actually quite different. The 8800 can be thought of as a more advanced version of the 2500 (and thus the ETA 2892) whereas the 8900 is physically much bigger what with its twin mainsprings in series. It was developed from the 8500 which was a true full in house design with no predecessor AFAIK. IMO the double springs were a technical dead and as they add only 5 hours more reserve vs the 8800 and require a much larger and deeper watch case to house it. Note that Rolex/Tudor can get 70 hours from one spring.

I have owned Omegas with both movements and had no problems with either but much prefer the slimmer watches the 26mm 8800 single barrel design allows. I wouldn't choose either based solely on the movement spec though personally, I'd choose based on which watch I like.
 
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