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Lewis watchco website down

T
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So much speculation on this thread. Let me share from an email I received from LWC when I made initial enquiries about servicing my Speedie last year:

“Please note, if your message is about buying parts, modifying your OMEGA watch or about sourcing a vintage style SM300, LWC cannot help you with this and due to the number of similar enquiries, will not reply. Thank you for your understanding!”

Adam serviced my watch and provided fantastic service.
 
Evitzee
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T THEByleDuct
So much speculation on this thread. Let me share from an email I received from LWC when I made initial enquiries about servicing my Speedie last year:

“Please note, if your message is about buying parts, modifying your OMEGA watch or about sourcing a vintage style SM300, LWC cannot help you with this and due to the number of similar enquiries, will not reply. Thank you for your understanding!”

Adam serviced my watch and provided fantastic service.
This is correct. Adam made it clear that he did NOT modify any watch from outside sources, so you couldn't expect him to put a different dial, set of hands or make other modifications on your watch. It didn't matter if you provided the part or he was asked to provide the Omega part, he wouldn't do it. Adam did modify some watches that he sourced, some were new and some were used. Back in 2020 I bought a NIB Speedmaster from him, he bought it from the AD in Perth in Dec 2019 and Adam modified it with an Apollo 11 35th panda dial, straight writing back, Apollo 11 50th crown and pushers, and a Snoopy 45th cordura strap and deployant buckle, a tasteful mod. All parts were new and genuine Omega. But that sort of modification goes against Omega policy and it seems they are really cracking down on any Omega certified repairer that does anything along those lines. I did notice that the last mailout or two from Adam had watches for sale that were sole updates of vintage watches, no mods. There were a few Flightmasters that had replacement dials and hands, movements overhauled, and cases refinished so everything was back to original Omega spec. Perhaps he had an inkling he was in the crosshairs, or had been told so.

What is disappointing is the industry needs talented, competent, certified repairers to service the millions of watches that eventually need intervention. Adam's work was always impeccable, no corners cut. Driving them out because of their use of new, Omega parts sourced through their system, in a form different from stock seems counterproductive. Instead watches will need to be sent to their service centers which often have spotty reputations. Wrong headed in my view, but the Swiss industry has always been a weird, insular affair.
 
sheepdoll
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Good thing I have been stocking up on rusty vintage parts.

The post mid 1990s watches on the other hand ...

As far as I know there are no certified Omega independent Watchmakers in the North San Francisco Bay area. Does not seem like there are any in the state, or even the country. The standards are too high, and the rents and liability too great.

The Swiss of course are swiss. They have their own ideas. Not sure they ever recovered from Napoleons invasion. Or Hannibal for that matter. In some ways they are a mirror of the U.S. A country of immigrants in denial. As far as I know the Confederation Hevetique only dates to the 1880 and their constitution a copy of the U.S. one.

What they really liked was the patent office, and the idea of corporations to limit the liability. So it really comes down to corporate culture in the modern world.

Sometimes it seems like the net and access to a lot of information is like a second byte of the apple of awareness. We do remain aware in a way that our actions have consequence. One study I saw said that those pristine looking alpine valleys no one lives in, have extreme mercury and heavy metal contamination.

Watchmaking may not be all that environmentally friendly. Someone may have to pay the price. Best one does not know how the sausage gets made.
 
S
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JimInOz JimInOz
Yep, just got it too. Sad news.
Hope he can return as an non-aligned independent, we can't afford to lose watchmakers here.

I hope so too, but Omega will take a leaf out of Rolex's (and other Swiss watch manufacturers), kill the parts supply and the watch the watchmakers die off.
 
Jakeys
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I recall right around the start of the year I made an offer on a custom Speedmaster made by LWC, mostly because I valued the albino dial. First I had heard of LWC. The rest of the watch was a bit of a franken and had no serial number on the case or paperwork, other than an invoice referring to it as a "Lewis Watch Co Speedmaster" so I couldn't agree on a price with the seller, who I felt was significantly overvaluing it.

Frankly, I'm surprised to learn that the guy was selling custom watches using Omega parts while also being an Omega authorised watchmaker. I would think it was obvious that the brand would not look kindly on that, and I assume that's why this has happened. Not having a crack at him myself at all because I personally don't have much of a problem with modded watches (Hence wanting the dial) and he was not advertising them as anything they were not, but yeah, I'm surprised he is surprised. Omega would not be the first brand to crack the shits over something like this.
 
Archer
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S sensei_
I hope so too, but Omega will take a leaf out of Rolex's (and other Swiss watch manufacturers), kill the parts supply and the watch the watchmakers die off.

People have been saying that as long as I have been a watchmaker. Omega invests a lot of money to train watchmakers and set up the distribution system for parts for those watchmakers. There's zero indication that they are planning on eliminating that system, and one watchmaker getting the boot for presumably not following the rules, is no reason to cry wolf.
 
Archer
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Evitzee Evitzee
Driving them out because of their use of new, Omega parts sourced through their system, in a form different from stock seems counterproductive.

As much as I am a believer that once you buy a watch, you should be able to do whatever you want to it, I do see Omega's point. For one thing I'm quite sure there are more modified Mitsukoshi Speedmasters and Mauri Reduced models out there then there are real ones. I get requests to check serial number for people by PM all the time - both from people wanting to buy LE's to some dealers who want to make sure they aren't buying something to resell that isn't genuine.

You know that at some point in time, some of these mods are going to head to an Omega service center, and someone there is going to have to tell the person who thought they bought a genuine LE that they have a franken, and now need to pay a lot of extra money to have it converted back to the original model. Or someone is going to send some other mod in for service, not realizing that Omega doesn't allow this, and will have to deal with the fallout from that, Why would Omega want to deal with that sort of hassle and headache?

For collectors this all about the freedom to do what you want with your watch, but for Omega this is just good business sense to restrict this activity. This isn't some huge crackdown and mass loss of watchmakers, because not a lot of certified watchmakers are willing to risk this exact outcome for a few extra bucks.
 
blubarb
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S sensei_
I hope so too, but Omega will take a leaf out of Rolex's (and other Swiss watch manufacturers), kill the parts supply and the watch the watchmakers die off.
Especially when Swatch Group Australia is about to open a new store and service point in a small city known for housing only one certified Omega service watchmaker (can you guess who that might be?) . Gotta make me wonder why now and not then...??
 
duc
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When it comes to Rolex service, they are pretty fast (at least for some models). I recently had a 4 week turn around on a full service for a 16013. I've never heard of an Omega service done in as quick a time (other than Omega certified independent Watchmakers).
 
padders
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duc duc
When it comes to Rolex service, they are pretty fast (at least for some models). I recently had a 4 week turn around on a full service for a 16013. I've never heard of an Omega service done in as quick a time (other than Omega certified independent Watchmakers).
Omega prioritise warranty servicing in my experience. I’ve had 2 recent models turned around inside 6 weeks, one in fact within 4 weeks. Both received a warranty service and were much quicker than paid for work. This was the UK OSC earlier this year.
Edited:
 
RevZMan123
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JwRosenthal JwRosenthal
This is really disappointing on several levels and smacks of Rolex behavior.

When I was researching the superdome mod for my sub, I read of several people who had approached their independent Rolex service providers asking if they could just replace the crystal with an aftermarket acrylic dome (Rolex does not offer acrylic anymore) and they were told that if it is not a sanctioned Rolex procedure/part then they couldn’t and would risk losing their certification and parts account.
So disappointing.

This is why Nick Hacko went independent several years ago, Rolex cut him off and he said, I'm building my own watches, F OFF.

Sad!
 
S
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Archer Archer
People have been saying that as long as I have been a watchmaker. Omega invests a lot of money to train watchmakers and set up the distribution system for parts for those watchmakers. There's zero indication that they are planning on eliminating that system, and one watchmaker getting the boot for presumably not following the rules, is no reason to cry wolf.

I hope for your livelihood sake and consumer's freedoms they do not. But I do remember reading quite a few years back (pre COVID) that Rolex and Swatch Group is restricting the flow of parts, granted this was from an Australian watchmaker (Nick Hacko).
 
Archer
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S sensei_
I hope for your livelihood sake and consumer's freedoms they do not. But I do remember reading quite a few years back (pre COVID) that Rolex and Swatch Group is restricting the flow of parts, granted this was from an Australian watchmaker (Nick Hacko).

I appreciate your concern, but it is unfounded. People love to extrapolate the policies and practices of Rolex to other brands, the way they treat their customers and even worse their business partners, but it is nothing like the relationship with Omega.

Rolex cut off vast numbers of watchmakers who had direct relationships with the company for decades (people with a parts account buying parts directly from Rolex), with no justification other than they could do so. It's upsetting and many of my friends in the US suffered this fate, and it ruined their businesses.

No matter how someone may try to spin it, Swatch/Omega has never done that. The only action that Swatch has taken, was to stop selling parts to third parties, who then resold them to watchmakers. That was back in 2015, and it had zero impact on watchmakers who had a direct relationship with Swatch. I know, because I had that relationship since before that time, and nothing changed for me, or anyone else who had a parts account.

There is a massive difference between the actions of Rolex, and those of Swatch. They are not even remotely comparable.
 
Jakeys
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Archer Archer
Rolex cut off vast numbers of watchmakers who had direct relationships with the company for decades (people with a parts account buying parts directly from Rolex), with no justification other than they could do so. It's upsetting and many of my friends in the US suffered this fate, and it ruined their businesses.

Where there any independents who Rolex didn't cut off, or is going direct to Rolex the only way to get servicing with spare parts available now?
 
dsio
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Jakeys Jakeys
Where there any independents who Rolex didn't cut off, or is going direct to Rolex the only way to get servicing with spare parts available now?
It’s been like that in Australia for as long as I can remember, only RSC Melbourne can get parts and they insist on things like replacing mistake dials like my brothers’ 116520 cream Daytona dial even though it ruins the watch’s value. I actually complained about it a few years ago in an Australian Rolex FB group and one of RSC’s watchmakers went on some abusive tirade at me about how nobody does it as well as them. Sucks because I love my Daytona but I’m only getting non-parts independent services locally for it at the moment.
 
chichi
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I just wanted to add that I hope Adam is doing alright. He for sure invested a lot of time and energy into Omega and I hope he lands on his feet.
 
Jakeys
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dsio dsio
It’s been like that in Australia for as long as I can remember, only RSC Melbourne can get parts and they insist on things like replacing mistake dials like my brothers’ 116520 cream Daytona dial even though it ruins the watch’s value. I actually complained about it a few years ago in an Australian Rolex FB group and one of RSC’s watchmakers went on some abusive tirade at me about how nobody does it as well as them. Sucks because I love my Daytona but I’m only getting non-parts independent services locally for it at the moment.

Thanks, I didn't know it was so tightly controlled, though not surprised either. Another plus for buying Omega I suppose, there are two Omega authorised service centres in South Australia, but nothing for Rolex.
 
Archer
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blubarb blubarb
Speculation is rife atm but their recent action has done nothing to assuage such thinking. .

So is this line of thinking that because Omega is going to possibly have a service center there, they don't want independent watchmakers in the same city with Omega accounts? If so, all I can say is there are cities all over the world where both exist in the same city - in fact in some cities you would have an Omega service center and multiple Omega certified independents, so I doubt this is the reason.
 
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