Omega brand awarness as a luxury brand

Sorry I just saw this post. There is a separate building where the high complications are done, and the engraving and custom enamelling is also done in this area. It's not unusual for brands to have separate areas for this type of work. I believe in JLC's case it's the original farm house, and is small and somewhat isolated from the main factory (short walk outside required to get to it). It's far too small for any mass production or large production machinery...only two watchmakers were assembling the top end pieces, with the other rooms used for other artisanal work like the enameling. No real manufacturing of watch parts happens in this building that I saw, so all of the machine tools for making chips and turning raw stock into finished parts is done in the other buildings.

The larger factory is where everything else is done, as well as some base work required for the high complication pieces. Having been through several different factories producing high end watches (brands like PP, VC, Blancpain, and even Chopard) they are all very similar in how the components are produced. These are factories after all, just like factories that make any other product. I'm not sure what kind of cost cutting measures you are referring to, but if you can give specifics about what these are and how they contribute to this decline in quality you mention, I'll comment where I can.

I took the time in every factory I was in to speak with the production workers on the factory floor when possible. Coming from a production background (in the automotive parts manufacturing business, making precision components) I am always curious to observe various manufacturing techniques, and having put in many production lines in my career as a project engineer, I understand the challenges involved for the people who end up running that equipment. These are the people who you get the real story from, not the tour guides. The factory where the most discontent was expressed was actually at Patek Philippe. Speaking to one of the CNC operators I could sense his frustration. I arrived there at the start of his shift and the CNC machine that had been left to cycle overnight (they employ lights out machining there, as a cost cutting or efficiency measure) had not done well. The fixturing of the parts had not held, and he mentioned an ongoing problem with the glues they used for holding the parts in place during machining, and basically the whole batch was scrap. From what I saw it was the only watch factory I toured that employed statistical process control (or at least openly showed the data), and looking at the charts that had on the walls near each station, the numbers were pretty bad. I can't recall specifics, but I remember thinking that any company in the automotive world would not be in business long with the processes seemingly as out of control as these were. Having witnessed all that, if a particular PP appealed to me (not many do to be honest) I would not hesitate to buy one, because I know the company would stand behind it.

Back to JLC, I can speak for my own experience owning 2 modern JLC's that neither of them has ever given me a problem of any kind (I only have one remaining - other sold off but still never had a problem with it). The fact is every brand has problems and if you think a brand is immune to it you are mistaken. Problems with watches, and in particular after sales service. I have been quite critical of the Richemont service center here in Canada, because I have repaired some of their bad work. Work that I would not expect to see from any recent watch school graduate or apprentice it was that bad. But I doubt you could name any brand that hasn't had problems with after sales service, and if I go by what I see "littered on forums" Omega is one of the worst. But as we all know or should know, forums are probably not the best place to obtain reliable statistical data...😀

Cheers, Al