Omega Parts - Restrictive Practice

tad · Jan 20, 2022

I’m sure that this topic has been covered previously but I recently enquired about some watch parts at OFREI and received the response below…

At the end of 2015, the Swatch Group which owns Omega stopped all distributions worldwide to independent watch parts suppliers and watch repair material persons. Since 1930 we have been able to get Omega parts. Now after 85 years we are no longer able to get more Omega parts. You will need to contact the Swatch service center for help.

Both the justice department and the federal trade commission would also be interested in hearing your complaints. When contacting the Justice Department refer to Civil action 96-170 and your rights to free trade and consumer rights to parts.

The watch companies restrictive trade practices results in reduced business income and consumers can no longer decide who works on their watches and choose what work to have done on their watch.

tad · Jan 20, 2022

I wonder whether petitioning against such restrictive practices would make any difference? Personally I think it’s outrageous.

JwRosenthal · Jan 20, 2022

It’s been covered here before many times- many share the outrage, but swatch is not the only company that has done this, nor the only industry. Just look up the right to repair movement and the shit-storm John Deer has created.

dmtowl · Jan 20, 2022

Yes, my watchmaker said the same thing. Extremely frustrating

Braindrain · Jan 20, 2022

Up in Canada, this snippet was in the recently released (Dec 2021) mandate letters of federal Ministers. This was from the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry's letter.

Work with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change to implement a ‘right to repair’ to extend the life of home appliances, particularly electronics, by requiring manufacturers to supply repair manuals and spare parts, and by amending the Copyright Act to allow for the repair of digital devices and systems.

Maybe time for the watchmakers in Canada to write to these Ministers to expand on the definition of "home appliances"?

gatorcpa · Jan 20, 2022

Here is a similar movement in the US:

https://www.repair.org/stand-up

However, I don’t think the Swiss care. They will do what they will do when they want and will employ an army of lawyers if you try to stop them.
gatorcpa

SkunkPrince · Jan 20, 2022

Note that independent watchmakers can get Omega parts if they choose to conform to Omega's requirements. I do not know in detail what these requirements are, but I do know that the local Rolex dealer, with two watchmakers on staff to do authorized Rolex service, decided that it would not be worth their while to conform to Omega's requirements.

JwRosenthal · Jan 20, 2022

SkunkPrince
Note that independent watchmakers can get Omega parts if they choose to conform to Omega's requirements. I do not know in detail what these requirements are, but I do know that the local Rolex dealer, with two watchmakers on staff to do authorized Rolex service, decided that it would not be worth their while to conform to Omega's requirements.

Glad that dealer was comfortable sending weekly stool samples to Switzerland and pledging complete fealty to the crown 😉

Archer · Jan 20, 2022

SkunkPrince
Note that independent watchmakers can get Omega parts if they choose to conform to Omega's requirements. I do not know in detail what these requirements are, but I do know that the local Rolex dealer, with two watchmakers on staff to do authorized Rolex service, decided that it would not be worth their while to conform to Omega's requirements.

Yes, Omega still sells parts to watchmakers - they have all along and no watchmakers were cut off back in 2015, although many will claim to have been cut off certainly. The only people who were cut off were the middle men, the people who would buy from Omega, mark them up (in the case of Otto Frei often to exceedingly high levels) and then sell them to both watchmakers and watch owners. So the only watchmakers who were "cut off" didn't buy from Omega, they bought from third parties.

Omega's requirements are not much different from Rolex, so you need to be competent, have the right equipment (much of it is the same between brands, with some differences), and attend some training. Note that because they didn't deem it worthwhile to pursue, shouldn't be construed as Omega being difficult to deal with, because honestly they are not.

SkunkPrince · Jan 20, 2022

Archer
Note that because they didn't deem it worthwhile to pursue, shouldn't be construed as Omega being difficult to deal with, because honestly they are not.

Agreed. It was more, "We get as much work as we can handle already, accepting Omega work would just put us farther behind."

Archer · Jan 20, 2022

Braindrain
Up in Canada, this snippet was in the recently released (Dec 2021) mandate letters of federal Ministers. This was from the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry's letter.

Work with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change to implement a ‘right to repair’ to extend the life of home appliances, particularly electronics, by requiring manufacturers to supply repair manuals and spare parts, and by amending the Copyright Act to allow for the repair of digital devices and systems.

Maybe time for the watchmakers in Canada to write to these Ministers to expand on the definition of "home appliances"?

If you look at this issue for everything from cell phones to farm equipment, the people making noise are not in the repair industry necessarily, but the end users. A handful of watchmakers in Canada writing letters will have zero effect. The power here lies with the watch consumers, because they are the people who will be most affected by this long term. If anyone should be writing letters, it's the watch owners, because you far outnumber watchmakers.

ArmbandUhr69 · Jan 20, 2022

As an engineer, I completely accept the need for appropriate special tools, accredited training and so on. Where it does fall down is this counterfeiting concern and for example my local Omega watchmaker refusing to work on a movement. You present the complete watch or nothing. Way back this was not a problem and one cannot but think that the "limited editions", collect-ability and over heated market has a great deal to do with their position.

Dan S · Jan 20, 2022

A ArmbandUhr69
Where it does fall down is this counterfeiting concern and for example my local Omega watchmaker refusing to work on a movement. You present the complete watch or nothing. Way back this was not a problem and one cannot but think that the "limited editions", collect-ability and over heated market has a great deal to do with their position.

I suspect that this is your local watchmaker's choice.

Archer
Omega's requirements are not much different from Rolex, so you need to be competent, have the right equipment (much of it is the same between brands, with some differences), and attend some training. Note that because they didn't deem it worthwhile to pursue, shouldn't be construed as Omega being difficult to deal with, because honestly they are not.

This was exactly the scenario for my friend and watchmaker. He used to run a retail store and also do repairs, so it was important for him to have parts accounts with several of the major brands. This required having the required equipment and getting training for some brands, undergoing inspections by some brands, etc. When he closed down his retail store and switched to doing repairs only, he decided to let some of those accounts go, including Omega. He will still service Omega watches to the extent he can, but he doesn't maintain a parts account. He has worked hard to maintain his Rolex account, since it means a lot to him for various reasons. But nearly every year they introduce new requirements. Often he's excited to get the new tools they introduce, but they can be pretty expensive for a small one-person shop, especially since he is trying to scale back the number of jobs that he takes. I think he worries that one of these years they may require him to make such a large investment that it will no longer be worth his while.

Braindrain · Jan 20, 2022

Archer
If you look at this issue for everything from cell phones to farm equipment, the people making noise are not in the repair industry necessarily, but the end users. A handful of watchmakers in Canada writing letters will have zero effect. The power here lies with the watch consumers, because they are the people who will be most affected by this long term. If anyone should be writing letters, it's the watch owners, because you far outnumber watchmakers.

Of course. But in the development of this policy, they want to hear from *everybody*. Consumers, manufacturers and the people involved in the repairs itself.

Archer · Jan 20, 2022

Braindrain
Of course. But in the development of this policy, they want to hear from *everybody*. Consumers, manufacturers and the people involved in the repairs itself.

Sure...

Braindrain
Maybe time for the watchmakers, watch owners, retailers, and anyone with an interest in Canada to write to these Ministers to expand on the definition of "home appliances"?

FIFY...

SkunkPrince · Jan 20, 2022

@Archer are there more or fewer aftermarket parts today than back in the day? For watches, I mean. 😀

Archer · Jan 20, 2022

Dan S
I suspect that this is your local watchmaker's choice.

Agreed, there’s no policy from Omega dictating that you cannot service just a bare movement that I am aware of.

For me personally, the idea that I would service a movement only, and let someone else fiddle with it to install dial, hands, and case it, is not appealing. There’s no way I would offer any warranty on it, that’s for sure.

Dan S
This was exactly the scenario for my friend and watchmaker. He used to run a retail store and also do repairs, so it was important for him to have parts accounts with several of the major brands. This required having the required equipment and getting training for some brands, undergoing inspections by some brands, etc. When he closed down his retail store and switched to doing repairs only, he decided to let some of those accounts go, including Omega. He will still service Omega watches to the extent he can, but he doesn't maintain a parts account. He has worked hard to maintain his Rolex account, since it means a lot to him for various reasons. But nearly every year they introduce new requirements. Often he's excited to get the new tools they introduce, but they can be pretty expensive for a small one-person shop, especially since he is trying to scale back the number of jobs that he takes. I think he worries that one of these years they may require him to make such a large investment that it will no longer be worth his while.

Interesting, as Omega doesn’t really require you to keep buying additional equipment to keep your account.

ArmbandUhr69 · Jan 20, 2022

Archer
Agreed, there’s no policy from Omega dictating that you cannot service just a bare movement that I am aware of.

For me personally, the idea that I would service a movement only, and let someone else fiddle with it to install dial, hands, and case it, is not appealing. There’s no way I would offer any warranty on it, that’s for sure.
..............................

All boiled down to the Watchmaker telling me that Omega would not allow him to install one of the sapphire crystals from TM. Nor a display back, which I can do myself anyway. We walked throuygh the options and not even removing the movement assembly (face hands complete) to be serviced was acceptable. Understand the warranty issues and accept that, I wouldn't even have to ask if Omega was less pedantic about items that have no bearing on the watch function. As this watchmaker has just received accreditation, he is paranoid about a confrontation with Omega on anything. Just to be clear, it was the entire movement assembly and I would have been delighted for him to remove and re-install it. It may be something where you are located, but it is this where I am.

Archer · Jan 20, 2022

A ArmbandUhr69
All boiled down to the Watchmaker telling me that Omega would not allow him to install one of the sapphire crystals from TM. Nor a display back, which I can do myself anyway. We walked throuygh the options and not even removing the movement assembly (face hands complete) to be serviced was acceptable. Understand the warranty issues and accept that, I wouldn't even have to ask if Omega was less pedantic about items that have no bearing on the watch function. As this watchmaker has just received accreditation, he is paranoid about a confrontation with Omega on anything. Just to be clear, it was the entire movement assembly and I would have been delighted for him to remove and re-install it. It may be something where you are located, but it is this where I am.

Hard to understand some of that, but it appears you were asking him to install parts on the watch that aren’t for that watch. If so, then that was a good move on his part. No one should be pressured into putting their parts account at risk.

Archer · Jan 20, 2022

SkunkPrince
@Archer are there more or fewer aftermarket parts today than back in the day? For watches, I mean. 😀

Generally fewer I think. Back in the day there were several “parts systems” from makers like Bestfit, Marshal, and many others. I think Bestfit is the only one still active.

These were wide ranging on what they supplied, so there would be spares for pretty much every brand you could imagine, of all kinds of parts. Movement parts, case parts, etc.

Now you may have “aftermarket” parts for some brands and movements, but no where near what these older systems provided.

Omega Parts - Restrictive Practice

tad

tad

JwRosenthal

dmtowl

Braindrain

gatorcpa

SkunkPrince

JwRosenthal

Archer

SkunkPrince

Archer

ArmbandUhr69

Dan S

Braindrain

Archer

SkunkPrince

Archer

ArmbandUhr69

Archer

Archer

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