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Opinions on out of center Omega crystal logo stamps

kaplan
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I think this is a relatively common issue as I've seen it before, I've recently got a small batch of crystals for a very good price, upon inspecting the first crystal, it was puzzling why someone would discard a silver ring crystal like this, not like the steel was melted, and the crystal was flawless

Than I noticed that the logo is nearly 2mm up and nearly 2mm left of where it should be, when you overlay this crystal on a dial it's more apparent, but I tried to draw the red lines to reflect how it appeared on an actual dial

Screenshot 2024-05-25 at 22.27.53.png


I'm a bit torn myself, on one hand it's a flawless crystal, on the other hand the logo is so out of place that it's confusing mentally
 
X350 XJR
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Made specifically for poorly redialed watches so the misaligned printing wouldn't be so apparent.
 
studeb
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X350 XJR X350 XJR
Made specifically for poorly redialed watches so the misaligned printing wouldn't be so apparent.

ouch!
 
gbesq
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Most people wouldn’t even notice, but technically, aren’t they defective?
 
kaplan
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Turns out this wasn't the reason why it rejected - it was mispressed earlier and widened 😀

Otherwise I was going to turn it so that the logo would at least be horizontally centered and leaning downwards so when you look at the watch it was going to be centered-ish

gbesq gbesq
Most people wouldn’t even notice, but technically, aren’t they defective?

I'd say, but most "NOS" crystals in the market are defective - definitely 50%+
 
Archer
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I’m guessing these are aftermarket. I’ve installed hundreds of genuine Omega crystals and I’ve never seen one that was off centre like this...
 
kaplan
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Aftermarket crystals have a tell, this is genuine, I doubt you installed many vintage crystals?
 
Archer
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kaplan kaplan
Aftermarket crystals have a tell, this is genuine, I doubt you installed many vintage crystals?

No, but again I’ve seen hundreds, and none were off centre...
 
kaplan
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Maybe it's more common for C-Case crystals but I've seen at least 3 so far, this one was a 5118
 
kaplan
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Another 5118, this from one from US, the first one was from UK, this one is more to the right

Screenshot 2024-05-26 at 01.37.56.png
 
Pvt-Public
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kaplan kaplan
Aftermarket crystals have a tell, this is genuine, I doubt you installed many vintage crystals?
LOL I cant believe you would doubt @Archer. he is one of the foremost Omega authorities here.
 
kaplan
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He's sometimes too shielded by his Omega parts account in my opinion, vintage parts world is more cruel, usually what we currently buy as NOS is stuff his predecessors rejected through their own QC

If off-center crystals are aftermarket I'll gladly forfeit all my collection and quit, but I doubt he can back his guess similarly. In this instance it's unimportant since I bought these from another collector, it was implicit I was taking the risk. But if this was a serious purchase, it would implicate an innocent person with selling an aftermarket part. So in my opinion best be more careful to not hurt others

All this effort because Omega doesn't sell simple wear parts to anyone ... I'd also like to enjoy easily discarding small defects as "aftermarket" 😁
 
Archer
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kaplan kaplan
He's sometimes too shielded by his Omega parts account in my opinion, vintage parts world is more cruel, usually what we currently buy as NOS is stuff his predecessors rejected through their own QC

If off-center crystals are aftermarket I'll gladly forfeit all my collection and quit, but I doubt he can back his guess similarly. In this instance it's unimportant since I bought these from another collector, it was implicit I was taking the risk. But if this was a serious purchase, it would implicate an innocent person with selling an aftermarket part. So in my opinion best be more careful to not hurt others

All this effort because Omega doesn't sell simple wear parts to anyone ... I'd also like to enjoy easily discarding small defects as "aftermarket" 😁

You posted these asking for opinions, and I gave mine. If you don't want any opinions that vary from your beliefs, maybe say that up front and save us all the trouble. Please don't try to spin this that I am attacking someone else, just because I answered your post - that sort of mentality will allow all kinds of shady stuff here, which no one wants.

If you think of how molds for these are made, how the heck does one produce a crystal with the mark in the center, then one out as far as what you are showing? It doesn't is the simple answer...so unless we are to believe that Omega used a series of defective molds and produced all these and released them into the market, then there's only one answer for me...
 
Dan S
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The crystal is authentic because I want it to be authentic, and because nobody has proven they aren't authentic, and because I bought it from someone who I believe to be trustworthy.

Notice any logical fallacies here?
 
kaplan
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Archer Archer
You posted these asking for opinions, and I gave mine. If you don't want any opinions that vary from your beliefs, maybe say that up front and save us all the trouble. Please don't try to spin this that I am attacking someone else, just because I answered your post - that sort of mentality will allow all kinds of shady stuff here, which no one wants.

If you think of how molds for these are made, how the heck does one produce a crystal with the mark in the center, then one out as far as what you are showing? It doesn't is the simple answer...so unless we are to believe that Omega used a series of defective molds and produced all these and released them into the market, then there's only one answer for me...

Thanks for your opinion, I guess even if someone like you thinks they are aftermarket, it's very safe to conclude that an outsider will assume they are aftermarket as well, so from this aspect it's very useful, as it will clearly reduce the value of the watch

When it comes to crystals Omega itself didn't made them like they didn't make most things, I've observed many different crystals, and many different defects, maybe one of the crystal producers was more susceptible to mistakes like these in their own process

Even if they were "aftermarket / fake" - those fakers assumably used a similar process as well, so one way or the other the process for making this specific crystal was susceptible to logo centering errors. By Occam's razor it's more likely these are original, rather than someone making fake crystals with 1:1 armor rings 30-40 years ago when crystals were cheap and available to anyone
 
Dan S
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kaplan kaplan
Even if they were "aftermarket / fake" - those fakers assumably used a similar process as well, so one way or the other the process for making this specific crystal was susceptible to logo centering errors. By Occam's razor it's more likely these are original, rather than someone making fake crystals with 1:1 armor rings 30-40 years ago when crystals were cheap and available to anyone
By Occam's razor, a sloppy defective part is authentic? Do you hear yourself? Logic twisted into a pretzel.
 
JwRosenthal
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Archer Archer
Ah yes, the P word...😁
These are the very rare Strabismus crystals, designed to read as centered for those with ocular impairments.
 
Archer
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kaplan kaplan
Even if they were "aftermarket / fake" - those fakers assumably used a similar process as well, so one way or the other the process for making this specific crystal was susceptible to logo centering errors.

That is a big assumption. Personally it would seem more likely that some faker is using generic crystals and trying to stamp an Omega logo in them after the fact, which is a process that would be more prone to such centering errors. The originals would have been made by producing the crystal from the start with the logo as part of the casting process.
 
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