lillatroll
·Brilliant thread and very educational. It would be nice if there was someone from Omega who could add some clarification as to what the truth of the situation is.
Hello everyone,
Usually I don't write here, not because I don't like the forum but just because of a lack of time...
And I'm realizing that I'm wrong, because this forum is becoming (and has always been) more and more interesting.
I've read also the other post on the Seamaster FAP, with a lot of attention, but this is another story.
What I would like to do here (or try to do) is to establish a fair statement of this Apollo Soyuz issue, that I know quite well.
I've always loved this watch, maybe the most attractive Speedmaster limited series ever made by Omega (together with the Tribute to Astronauts 1969), and we have studied this case during the Moonwatch Only work sessions in Biel.
I know very well the story of our friend @Apollo-Soyuz, who is very disappointed with the fact that his watch has never been recognized by Omega as an official Apollo Soyuz one. To be honest, I don't remember whether he bought it new from an Italian dealer in the 70s or as a second hand watch later. But it doesn't have any importance at this stage.
My first statement is that I really understand his position... That's pretty fair: he bought a watch, being convinced that it was a 'standard' Apollo Soyuz model. Or better: he couldn't imagine that years after, someone, or something or ... who knows ... would have stated that this watch was not 'correct'. Trying to demonstrate that his watch is correct is nothing but a very natural reaction to this kind of situation.
But that is not reality.
First of all, I think that @Apollo-Soyuz is not updated with some information:
- Brandon Thomas is not the Director of the Omega Museum anymore, he left many years ago and has been replaced by Petros Protopapas.
- We all know that the Hartmann or Maddox tables are not correct. Those guys have done a huge work (and we all have to be very grateful for that... they just open the doors of our passion!) but it has been done many years ago and since that period we have been able to complete those data and to build up more reliable information. So please, with full respect for the work done, don't consider those tables anymore.
Going back to the De Marchi story, some information are correct, but some are not. It is true that Omega had an important agreement with the Italian family-owned De Marchi company in Turin. It was in fact a broad agreement whose main objective was the exclusive distribution of Omega watches in Italy. And it is true to say that this agreement provided for some other activity, like the local production of some accessories, or eventually the assembly of some watches. We know that De Marchi had an important activity on Omega Dynamics for instance. And we are touching here the real problem of the story.
You have 2 opposite ways of seeing things:
1) The De Marchi situation: I am quite comfortable in saying that both the period (1970s) and the country (Italy) are not synonymous with precise procedures and clear organizations... Just for those who don't know: I've been living and working in Italy for more than 20 years now, and I love this country and Italian people, no doubt about that. They are extremely efficient and smart in almost everything. But maybe such an agreement was not precise enough, and De Marchi had some room to be ... let's say ... more creative than expected.
2) From the Omega stand point, it is obvious that any local initiative from De Marchi that was not fully authorized and documented by the HQ in Biel can not be considered as a 'factory' product. That is 100% normal, logical and justified.
We have worked a lot on all Speedmasters series for the Moonwatch Only book, in collaboration with the museum and the archives, and here are the results of our research:
- It is commonly accepted that Omega produced 500 pieces of the Apollo-Soyuz series. Actually we found just 400 watches, invoiced to De Marchi (and listed as 'Apollo Soyuz' on the documents). All these 400 watches in the delivery invoices have movement numbers between 39.180. xxx and 39.181.xxx. Full stop.
- You have to know that the Apollo Soyuz model was anything but a success in 1976. For a simple reason: Italian collectors didn't like the fact that there was no 'Speedmaster' inscription on the dial... That could be a reason why Omega, who initially wanted to produce 500 watches, finally decided to sell only 400.
- For some reason, at some point, Omega may have sent Apollo Soyuz spare parts to De Marchi. That's pretty sure. But nobody knows if it was for a local production in Turin by De Marchi or not. Again, there were much less quality controls and procedures at that time, and it could be that Omega (or their suppliers), who had already manufactured dials, pushers, casebacks for let's say 500 watches, decided to send everything to De Marchi just in case Italian customers would need to change some part during a service. Anyway, the Apollo Soyuz model was only for the Italian market, so there was no need to keep the parts in Biel... Just think about it... Nothing special...
- The spare movements that have been sent by Omega to De Marchi are not listed as 'Apollo Soyuz'. Never. We have audited all the invoices during a very broad period of time in order to find some 'Apollo Soyuz' movements sent to Italy. There are not. Full stop. In particular, we have identified the serial numbers that are mentioned by our friend @Apollo-Soyuz on the invoices, and they are listed as standard 861 movements, nothing more.
- We know that after a first negative impact on the market, Italian people started to like the model and to buy it. And that could be the explanation of the problem...: 400 models sold out, and De Marchi decided to assembly other watches, just because they had the spare parts! Again, just think about it: nothing special...
- Well, that's not 100% true. Nothing special for De Marchi, because the Omega agreement was not restrictive enough and (theoretically) allowed them to assembly something locally. But maybe Omega didn't authorize this activity (or even didn't know it) for these Apollo Soyuz 'local' pieces. Who knows? De Marchi doesn't exist anymore and Omega has no evidence of such authorizations.
Conclusion
The only official Apollo Soyuz models are the factory ones. There is absolutely no doubt about it. And they are all in the 39.180. xxx and 39.181.xxx range.
The other watches have not been produced by Omega. This is absolutely certain, and this is a very fair reason to consider that they are not official and that they can not be recognized as official by Omega. They are the result of a local production, authorized or not (but at this stage there are no proof of any authorization, ..., or better: the only concrete information tell us that just spare parts and in particular standard 861 movements have been sent to De Marchi in Italy, nothing more).
Again, I fully understand the disappointment of a customer who brought the watch by an Italian dealer at that time, convinced to buy a factory watch (and probably the dealer didn't know anything about this story), and who realized years after that his watch is not recognized by the brand. I'm sorry for that. Bad luck. But that is just reality. There is no way, in my opinion, that Omega can consider these watches as original. The problem is not Omega. It is De Marchi.
Hope this explanation will be useful. Thanks for reading.
PS: I didn't talk about the watches sold during Omegamania by Antiquorum... just because there is nothing say... 😉
Wowww ...
Seems I have wasted my time writing a detailed answer ... since you insist talking about an Omega mistake.
There is no Omega mistake at all.
I am very sorry I was not clear enough.
I have no insider information on this matter whatsoever, I'm just a guy that doesn't understand one thing: how is it possible that most of these watches have very close movement numbers (around 39.1m, right ?) whilst others have very disparate movement numbers (31m, 45m, etc...) ?
@TsoloT
That watch in your picture appears to show the white halo tell tale of a sapphire crystal, not something you would expect on a watch of that time.
@Apollo-Soyuz
Yes, your watch could have been made with all correct parts in Italy, the issue is it’s falls outside the invoice of the 400 known.
I think your missing the point, it’s possible but there is at this time no way to verify. One way to do this would be to find box and papers for one that falls outside the known range.
As for Omega having to take legal action if a distributor did something like this... no they wouldn’t, they would have noted it if they knew, and brought it up, no reason to trash a relationship over 100 watches. More like don’t do this again... greay area blah blah.
I wouldn't go there so fast, but that's what I'm thinking... But I still don't get if the 400 where assembled by Omega or not.
Service parts! It's that easy. No conspiracy hiding the truth or whatever 😀
Think of vintage watchco 😀 Genuine Omega service parts
I have no insider information on this matter whatsoever, I'm just a guy that doesn't understand one thing: how is it possible that most of these watches have very close movement numbers (around 39.1m, right ?) whilst others have very disparate movement numbers (31m, 45m, etc...) ?
Does someone know if all of the 400 watches had 39.1m movements ?
I don't own a Soyuz, but if I were to buy one, I'm sure I would buy one with a 39.1m...
Not a sapphire it’s the light that’s being used and there is a point that’s being missed ....where’s the money ...surely a watch sold as a watch gives Omega a higher yield than just parts
“are not synonymous with precise procedures and clear organizations”
“They are extremely efficient and smart in almost everything”
apart from this statement not too good for Italians ...
I ask permission to reply:
Confessing that OMEGA entrusted their production to a local agent, I believe it is OMEGA duty to intervene in order to catalog these watches and not just leaving everything to chance.
all Apollo-Soyuz have been assembled and sold by the De Marchi Brothers for the Italian market.
Mr Brandon wrote to me: “We have no proof that your watch is one of them”
the Volkswagen builds the “Polo” cars in Brazil and sells this car all over the world. The owner, in case of "serious problems", will always refer to the Volkswagen or at car dealer?
the first to not be accurate and to prove to be little organized in my opinion it is OMEGA. entrusting the De marchi brothers the complete freedom to do what they wanted with the OMEGA brand this is the cause of this problem.
“- It is commonly accepted that Omega produced 500 pieces of the Apollo-Soyuz series. Actually we found just 400 watches, invoiced to De Marchi (and listed as 'Apollo Soyuz' on the documents). All these 400 watches in the delivery invoices have movement numbers between 39.180. xxx and 39.181.xxx “
This in not Correct! all invoiced to De-Marchi indicate the term only "Apollo" and not Apollo-Soyuz
, I have the documents!
In the specific case of this watch, it is useless to ask the extract from the archive, because it is authentic to the sequence number indicated outside of the bottom (bottoms were all numbered)
the European Official Journal contains some details about the local collaboration concerning that period stating that:
Translation:
The general agents Demarchi and Uhren-Handelsgesellschaft are shown to manufacture bracelet watch models and to perform the OMEGA brand watch movements
This is the proof that, only few movements of Apollo-Soyuz watches, have been cataloged like this, for the simple reason that the assembly was done in Italy.
OMEGA is the sole responsible and there are no justifications. the agreement in quegl years has been signed by OMEGA and Demarchi
apologize for the bad English ...
Mr. Lowen, do you speak Italian?
I would like to talk to you about this Apollo-soyuz watch. if this is possible ...
I have a lot of information about this watch ... and I've had a lot of work on it
to this discussion I add this "pearl" of Mr. Brandon to one of the dozens of e-mails exchanged with him
now, do you understand?