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Disappointed with Omega QC and Swatch Group Support - Misaligned Hand Brushed Off

TheChosen1!
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502 to right 502 to right
I suspect this isn't the only thing in life you're disgruntled about.
Funny—you said "I suspect this isn’t the only thing in life you’re disgruntled about."

That’s an interesting take, because the way I see it, the way you do one thing is the way you do everything. So if you’re okay with obvious flaws in a high-end product and brush off valid criticism as “disgruntled,” I’d guess you apply that same “good enough” attitude to plenty of other areas in your life.

Personally, I hold things—products, brands, and myself—to a higher standard. If that bothers you, maybe the issue isn’t my expectations… maybe it’s your comfort with settling.

But hey, enjoy your “within spec” mindset. Just don’t get too upset when others expect more.
 
502 to right
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TheChosen1! TheChosen1!
Funny—you said "I suspect this isn’t the only thing in life you’re disgruntled about."

That’s an interesting take, because the way I see it, the way you do one thing is the way you do everything. So if you’re okay with obvious flaws in a high-end product and brush off valid criticism as “disgruntled,” I’d guess you apply that same “good enough” attitude to plenty of other areas in your life.

Personally, I hold things—products, brands, and myself—to a higher standard. If that bothers you, maybe the issue isn’t my expectations… maybe it’s your comfort with settling.

But hey, enjoy your “within spec” mindset. Just don’t get too upset when others expect more.

Omega offered to address your complaint. But here you are, continuing to argue with everyone.

And I can clearly see you are not the kind of person to let any response go without argument, so I'll go make some popcorn and come back later to see what else you've posted.
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TheChosen1!
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Omega offered to address your complaint. But here you are, continuing to argue with everyone.

And I can clearly see you are not the kind of person to let any response go without argument, so I'll go make some popcorn and come back later to see what else you've posted.
Omega offered a vague adjustment after I challenged their initial response, which was to dismiss the issue outright as parallax and “within spec.” My post was about the broader point - the standard itself, and the dismissiveness of the interaction, especially at this price point. That’s a valid discussion to have, whether or not someone offers a partial fix after the fact.

As for “arguing with everyone” - I’ve responded to people who replied directly to me, many of them with condescension, sarcasm, or snark. If having a measured response to that is now called “arguing,” then we’ve got pretty different definitions of what discussion looks like.

Enjoy your popcorn - seems like you're more interested in the drama than the actual topic.
 
YVR785
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This is a non-issue. The trolling is also unnecessary.

My advice: do not take this to a service centre. The intervention will likely cause more micro problems that would frustrate you even further. I repeat, do not intervene on this watch.

If you want perfection from the factory, try Patek or Lange.
 
TheChosen1!
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YVR785 YVR785
This is a non-issue. The trolling is also unnecessary.

My advice: do not take this to a service centre. The intervention will likely cause more micro problems that would frustrate you even further. I repeat, do not intervene on this watch.

If you want perfection from the factory, try Patek or Lange.
So just to get this straight - your advice is never to service a watch, because opening it might introduce more problems? By that logic, we shouldn’t touch cars, computers, or literally anything mechanical, because servicing could make things worse.

That’s not a solution - that’s surrender.

No one’s asking for Patek or Lange levels of perfection. I’m asking for a chronograph hand to line up correctly on a watch that costs almost $8K. If even that is seen as nitpicking now, we’ve officially moved from “enthusiast” territory into “make excuses for anything as long as there’s a logo on it.”

Appreciate the concern - but expecting competent service and basic precision isn’t trolling. It’s just… the baseline.
 
Felix_La_PuBelle
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TheChosen1! TheChosen1!
Has anyone else experienced this kind of issue with Swatch/Omega? Curious to hear if this is a one-off or part of a broader pattern.
I don’t have direct experience with Omega servicing, but my experience with watchmakers generally is that they usually don’t give me a definitive answer about a mechanical issue until they’ve inspected the watch themselves.

Also car mechanics.
 
YVR785
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TheChosen1! TheChosen1!
So just to get this straight - your advice is never to service a watch, because opening it might introduce more problems? By that logic, we shouldn’t touch cars, computers, or literally anything mechanical, because servicing could make things worse.

That’s not a solution - that’s surrender.

No one’s asking for Patek or Lange levels of perfection. I’m asking for a chronograph hand to line up correctly on a watch that costs almost $8K. If even that is seen as nitpicking now, we’ve officially moved from “enthusiast” territory into “make excuses for anything as long as there’s a logo on it.”

Appreciate the concern - but expecting competent service and basic precision isn’t trolling. It’s just… the baseline.
No, I’m saying this because I’ve been there and done that and anytime you open a watch there’s a chance of more problems occurring.

In your situation, they’d need to open it up, take the hands off and reinstall them. This introduces scratching (especially on hands and dial), dust, and a potentially larger misalignment because a human being is installing them.

This is the reality of the situation.

Your misalignment is probably well within normal bounds and does not warrant an intervention. It honestly looks like a parallax error and even if there is a minor misalignment, functionally, it looks totally fine.
 
TheChosen1!
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YVR785 YVR785
No, I’m saying this because I’ve been there and done that and anytime you open a watch there’s a chance of more problems occurring.

In your situation, they’d need to open it up, take the hands off and reinstall them. This introduces scratching (especially on hands and dial), dust, and a potentially larger misalignment because a human being is installing them.

This is the reality of the situation.

Your misalignment is probably well within normal bounds and does not warrant an intervention. It honestly looks like a parallax error and even if there is a minor misalignment, functionally, it looks totally fine.
I understand the risks you’re pointing out—opening a watch and removing hands always carries some chance of introducing scratches, dust, or even making the alignment worse. That makes sense.

But just so I’m clear—are you saying it’s essentially impossible for a trained watchmaker to reset the hands cleanly without damaging the dial or hands? If that’s the case, then it seems like Omega is admitting they don’t have the capability to perform a fairly basic adjustment at their own standard.

I’m not expecting perfection, but I do expect that a brand like Omega should be able to both acknowledge a visible misalignment and correct it properly without creating new issues.
 
Foo2rama
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TexOmega TexOmega
1-Series F52?

Have you noticed your steering wheel isn’t parallel to your seat back?

Or the gap between the top of your front driver tire and fender is not the same as the passenger tire?
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pdxleaf
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Mr. @TheChosen1! Just speaking for myself here. I don't see the problem based off of your photos. If there is a difference it is so miniscule that I cannot see it. What's more, even when the chronograph hand is dead center, a slight twist of the hand to the right or left will make the hand appear off center.

If the hand were even half a second off I would agree with you. It might bother me. However, it really doesn't matter what I think. If it bothers you, then you're right to want it corrected (although I still think that's over the top.)

To me, I don't see an issue with Omega's response. It seems that they offered to have you bring/ship it to a service center. Your annoyance appears to be that they failed to see that this was a big issue and failure on their part. Honestly, I can sympathize with Omega.

There seems to be a lot more going on here than this slight adjustment. It is an easy fix. It shouldn't be causing you this much distress. My experience with Omega customer service is that they bend over backwards to make people happy. You haven't dissuaded me from that opinion. But neither do I think any person, much less a company, is perfect. Perhaps they could have responded differently.

At this point you probably should just sell the watch and move on.
 
YVR785
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TheChosen1! TheChosen1!
But just so I’m clear—are you saying it’s essentially impossible for a trained watchmaker to reset the hands cleanly without damaging the dial or hands? If that’s the case, then it seems like Omega is admitting they don’t have the capability to perform a fairly basic adjustment at their own standard.
Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. Especially with high polish hands.
 
Canuck
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When the sweep seconds hand reaches the 60 second spot in traversing the dial, another thing for you to fret about! Does the minute recorder hand advance to the next minute, DEAD ON? What are you doing expecting digital watch split second performance out of a mechanical watch. Buy a digital, or better yet, a Smart Watch. How are you able to tolerate the poor timekeeping of a mechanical watch?
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R
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I've had Chronographs from other brands (Brand-new watches) which were off by a largely similar way to yours OP and they too told me it was "within spec" and told me to fix it when I send the watch in for servicing which in my opinion is about 5 years away. The brands are T, R and the big boy from La Brassus. Now whenever I buy Chronographs, I look at it VERY closely to make sure it's something I can accept before paying for it
 
spacemission
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I've gotten the same answer from rolex, and I didn't sell my watches. It's true that, if you speak with them again, they usually agree to do it.

I remember a small service of hands. They did a great job and not a trace of dust inside. However, I got a scratched case. I told them this detail and they quickly got to work and fix it. Buut, the bezel was not removed and they polished it a bit. I took the watch, thanked them and left. 0€.

All brands make mistakes.
 
M
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I don't blame the OP for wanting the chrono hand centered, but I do blame him for having an opportunity to get the problem resolved by Omega service and choosing to do nothing about it. Should it have been perfect from the factory? Maybe. I have a Seagull movement chrono with perfectly aligned hands for what it's worth. But $$#@ happens and I feel you should give Omega the opportunity to fix the issue before complaining loudly.

I have an AT that kept perfect time when new, then 6 months after I took it home it started dropping time by about 45 sec a day. Instead of posting to the forum, I just returned it to the AD and they sent it in to Omega for service. I got the watch back with no visible damage and it runs better than new, keeping the most accurate time of any what that I currently own. If it came back trashed or keeping worse time, then maybe I would have complained on the forum to vent my frustrations.

I also purchased a Speedmaster a couple of months back, and the hands are aligned perfectly. If it was a concern and if my watch had a misaligned hand, I would have seen it at the dealer and chosen not to purchase that particular watch or selected a different one. That being said, the first week I wore it to work I slammed it on a sliding steel door frame and dinged the case under the pusher...first battle scar. I also realized that the chrono hand occasionally jumps ahead 1.5 seconds or so on the initial push of the pusher to start counting. From what I read it's a characteristic of a horizontal clutch chronograph movement. I have no intent to complain about Omega quality, or send it in for repair due to the issue. I look at small flaws as a characteristic of a mechanical watch.
 
DougPhx
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hen hen
All depends of how you look at it.
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😆
hen hen
All depends of how you look at it.
hq720.webp
this post made my day, I cannot stop laughing! 😆
 
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