Is it normal or a manufacturing defect for an omega to have off centered date wheel? What causes it?

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Time for kittens, and send in the Clowns, there's got to Clowns, or maybe they're here......
 
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I think there may be something wrong with the date window on one of my cats tbh

 
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A Apurba
are these tolerances across all brands? Have you owned any rolex, iwc etc etc. Do they have the same tolerances?
Each brand has their own tolerances and each brand offers a warranty for a reason… no brand is perfect. You seemed to have been well equipped enough to find a number of QC issues with Omega but couldn’t be bothered to look for the same with others brands. So, here are a few examples for you. These are all images you could have found if you did the search yourself 👍

Tudor misaligned date wheel





Misaligned hands. The proper way to see how “off” the hands are is to line up the hour hand with the hour marker… not the minute hand with the hour marker.




Bezel that wouldn’t line up precisely at 12




Engraving that doesn’t line up precisely at 12




There are loads more examples across other brands, but I’ll leave you to do the rest of the work.


My own personal Sub had misaligned hands

 
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Each brand has their own tolerances and each brand offers a warranty for a reason… no brand is perfect. You seemed to have been well equipped enough to find a number of QC issues with Omega but couldn’t be bothered to look for the same with others brands. So, here are a few examples for you. These are all images you could have found if you did the search yourself 👍

Tudor misaligned date wheel





Misaligned hour hand




Bezel that wouldn’t line up precisely at 12




Engraving that doesn’t line up precisely at 12




There are loads more examples, even across other brands, but I’ll leave you to do the rest of the work.

Ironically when I did a Google search for these issues with omega, that same search came up with a whole bunch of Rolex examples, including unaligned text and non-rotating bezels that weren't straight. Oh, and they were real watches, not "reps."
 
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I think there may be something wrong with the date window on one of my cats tbh

What??

 
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Hi Apurba sorry if I am late to the discussion, but maybe what you are are experiencing is parallax. It is very common in watch fotografi. Please view a Omega in real life, and I guarantee you will be a fan forever. Welcome to Omega Forum.
 
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Each brand has their own tolerances and each brand offers a warranty for a reason… no brand is perfect. You seemed to have been well equipped enough to find a number of QC issues with Omega but couldn’t be bothered to look for the same with others brands. So, here are a few examples for you. These are all images you could have found if you did the search yourself 👍

Tudor misaligned date wheel





Misaligned hands. The proper way to see how “off” the hands are is to line up the hour hand with the hour marker… not the minute hand with the hour marker.




Bezel that wouldn’t line up precisely at 12




Engraving that doesn’t line up precisely at 12




There are loads more examples across other brands, but I’ll leave you to do the rest of the work.


My own personal Sub had misaligned hands

Thanks for the reply. I did mention that I have seen post of misalignment happening to other brands as well. Maybe you just didn't read my comment(which is fine). I got to know about omega's tolerance only because i read the constellation thread where it had misalignment as well. Otherwise I wouldn't know about it. Are these the norm? How many watches out of 10 watches would have such "imperfections"? Are bezel, seconds hand misalignment common? Or a rare case? If you could clear that up for me. And would you be ok with "misaligned" watches personally?(I AM TALKING ABOUT ENTRY TO MID LEVEL LUXURY WATCHES, NOT JUST OMEGA)

Because I see people to have a polarised stance on this. On one hand, some say that it costs a lot of money, it better be perfect(specially on reddit). Others say that it is just entry level l, can't expect much.
 
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It never ceases to amaze me how some people can obsess over something thing as trivial as the bloody date display! if it bothers them that much they should perhaps go for a watch without that particular complication
 
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It never ceases to amaze me how some people can obsess over something thing as trivial as the bloody date display! if it bothers them that much they should perhaps go for a watch without that particular complication
Devil is in the detail, my friend. I am happy to know that these things don't bother you. Enjoy your watch anyway.
 
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A Apurba
Hey! Thanks for replying. Sorry if I sounded aggressive, it was immature of me.
Since you have been in this hobby, as you stated for quite some time; are these tolerances across all brands? Have you owned any rolex, iwc etc etc. Do they have the same tolerances?

A tolerance, as I'm referring to it, means an acceptable error rate, let's call it. Every brand has their own tolerances. I've no idea what each brand sets their tolerances at, maybe a little of Omega's since we have multiple certified service providers who've discussed things like the date window, hour and minute hand alignments, time keeping, etc. I've seen all manner of misalignments and only a very, very, very few were totally bothersome and even fewer where I obtained or pursued correction. I don't pore over hyper-macro photos, draw lines in Photoshop, or inspect each watch with a 10x loupe. Be less critical. The watches offered now by haute horology, "luxury" brands, and even the tiny companies making their watches in China are TONS better than anything of the past. Enjoy them.
 
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A Apurba
How many watches out of 10 watches would have such "imperfections"? Are bezel, seconds hand misalignment common? Or a rare case? If you could clear that up for me
Let me just pop into HQ to retrieve this data for you 🙄
 
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Let me just pop into HQ to retrieve this data for you 🙄
Thanks for doing that, Aaron. Apparently there is a controversy on Reddit. 😲
 
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Thanks for doing that, Aaron. Apparently there is a controversy on Reddit. 😲

Controversy on Reddit?

images

Surely you can't be serious, Dan!
 
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Let me just pop into HQ to retrieve this data for you 🙄
I didn't exactly ask for the stats, it should be obvious. I was asking more or less for a guesstimate. But nevermind.
 
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A Apurba
I didn't exactly ask for the stats, it should be obvious

😲 Gosh, with as much research as you were able to do and with as obvious as this should be I'm shocked you can't figure it out for yourself.

Could it be that figuring it out was never the point?



But seriously if I've gotten every single thing in this entire thread wrong, I'm sure you can spend some time around here figuring out for yourself just how uncommon these issues actually are.

Right?
 
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It never ceases to amaze me how some people can obsess over something thing as trivial as the bloody date display! if it bothers them that much they should perhaps go for a watch without that particular complication

👍

I spent 25 years in the retail jewellery business, selling Rolex, Omega, Longines, Tag, B & M, Rado, Cartier, and many other more pedestrian brands. Never in all those year was I aware or the obsessive, compulsive disorder (and a disorder is what it is IMO). I got out of the jewellery business before people succumbed to such a condition.
Edited:
 
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OP, my only recommendation would be to buy your watches in person, no matter the brand. Seems like you are very OCD about all the details, so buying online might cause some headaches. There are great examples and there are lemons in every industry and every brand. $5K is no pocket change so I can understand the question, but those expectations in the current world of mass-produced things are hard to live with.