Omega Vintage Database

Sorry guys the 30 copies (yes 30) are gone except one that's damaged badly and not sellable.

Omega and Rolex and several watch companies are adopting the 25 year rule..

Don't want to be in the game of servicing or fixing watches over 25 years old.
The obsolete of anything sold now days has a date. Modern watches in the Omega price range is 25years.

The Patek " a watch is only on loan for a generation " is for the top end sales point.
Each brand has a category and price point that they market too and if you want top shelf after care your money is best spent on top shelf brands. As mentioned above with Vacheron.

I have seen the difference in many brands boutique store,s service and help at each price point and it is noticeable the higher the shelf the higher the everything.

Not according to the website.

I have received several emails for free, generally within 48 hours.

Has anything changed?
gatorcpa

Sorry but this is not true, at least for Omega. Omega are not refusing to service anything more than 25 years old, and there is no such policy or rule. They guarantee that parts will be available for 20 years after a particular watch ceases to be made, but they service watches until they no longer have the ability to continue servicing them. This is not based on any arbitrary time period, but on how quickly the parts for the watch are used up. And as we know, they will substitute parts in order to keep a watch running even if the part is not exactly the same as what was on the watch originally.

They are certainly no Patek or Vacheron when it comes to their commitment to keep watches running and those companies (as well as a few others) will service anything they have ever made. But of course Vacheron will sell maybe 50,000 watches in a year, where Omega will sell more than that in a month, so what is required for that level of support for Vacheron would be very different for a brand like Omega.

It is very true that Omega and Rolex are mid-levels brands, and offer mid-level service. I am often critical of them and will continue to be, but the rule you state just does not exist for Omega.

Cheers, Al

Not a rule in such Al, but just by the statement of available for 20 years.
That's why I said want. More of pointing out the difference between companies at a high higher price level that do sell less product at a higher price.

The Omega Spare Parts Policy states that they will guarantee that parts will be available for 20 years, but that is a minimum time frame and does not imply that after those 20 years they will simply stop making parts or selling those parts (in fact they state their goal is to keep them available well past the 20 year guarantee period when possible). If they were really not interested in servicing vintage watches, they would just cut off sales and production of parts after their 20 year guarantee, which is sort of what you seem to be suggesting will happen, but there is a lot of evidence here and on other forums that hasn't happened. People still (foolishly in many cases) send their vintage Omegas in that are far older than 20 years, and they still get serviced by Omega.

Parts continue to be made for watches that are 40+ years old. For example I just bought a bunch of sweep seconds pinions for the 55X and 56X movements that have a production date from 2013. I have rotor bushings for the 55X and 56X movements that were made in 08/15, so just last summer, and those movements haven't been made for much longer than 20 years...if they don't really want to service these, why would they keep making these parts?

I know the state of the vintage database is pretty poor, but I think Omega does a reasonable job keeping vintage parts around for the older watches when compared to other mid-level brands. Could they do better? Absolutely, but they could certainly do much worse.

Cheers, Al

Thanks for your examples and posts Al. All taken on board 👍Good to know this from a watchmaker that orders parts for vintage watches.

So long as Omega can make money selling these parts to certified watchmakers, they will do so. This is good for all of us.

Rolex could care less about watchmakers (unless you are one of the very, very few independents to whom they will sell) or customers. This is one of the reasons why bezels for some vintage Rolexes sell for five figure prices, if they can be found at all.

The odd thing is that Rolex isn't profiting at all from this.
gatorcpa