A complete misrepresentation of my post. I never said that the behavior should be condoned. I simply implied that they are two, intelligent adults who both contribute a lot of helpful material here, who got a bit hot-headed and went after each other.
Please don't equate the two of us. Only one person is going after the other with ad hominem personal attacks and name-calling.
I’m not equating anyone. Thought I recall you accusing him of selling items that were not described accurately, which is very bold unless you’re entirely certain. Nonetheless, if you feel yourself unimpeachable here, fine. Settle it between you two, don’t, or have the moderators step in. I’m out.
With all these said, another perspective from me, probably Cousins is the most major fake parts seller today
Did anyone else miss the part where you casually drop that one of the largest sellers of OEM parts is selling fakes.with zero proor or follow-up of said accusations?
Odd.
There were even fake dogleg Constellation kits on the market with crown, dial, case, and Omega signed crystal over a decade ago and they looked very close.
Just searched "Omega" on the Cousins website, and it's crystal clear (no pun intended). They all clearly say generic on the non-OEM parts.
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https://www.cousinsuk.com/search?searchTerm=omega
You will find the occasional odd OEM part there left over from when they did have a parts account, but those are fairly esoteric parts for watches that most people don’t collect.
Interesting. As a diehard Seiko collector as well, their Seiko parts/movements stock is fantastic.
Yeah- and Cousins hasn’t had an Omega parts account in years! They sell aftermarket parts for Omega- but none are branded in any way to deceive.
I've had many positive experiences buying from cousins and all the parts I've received have been legit, but I will note one thing. When I first started buying from Cousins I recall they used to have "Generic Omega crystals" advertised as "with and without logo." I don't see them on the site anymore, but It struck me as odd at the time. They had a similar crown section. They didn't have a ton of crystal/crown inventory when I placed my order, so I never bought any to test out. I know they have a ton of NOS Omega inventory, but these sub 10 GBP omega crystals didn't seem to be that considering I purchased some sealed crystals from them for 40+ GBP. I'm not calling out Cousins or making any accusations--just sharing a discrete observation.
Assuming these are improperly branded generics, such parts weren't outside the norm in the US from otherwise legit sellers in the last decade or so. For a while, some watch parts sites would sell "generic" Rolex crowns that conveniently had Rolex logos on them. Seems like Rolex quickly caught on and put an end to the practice.
I don't mean to unnecessary extend this debate about fake vs defective parts, but I've come across plenty of apparently vintage parts that appear to be obvious production errors, so I am now hesitant to immedately rule anything out. I make no comment about the preceeding conversation, but I just share this tidbit. I have a few friends that travel around the US buying up watchmaker estates and old stock houses. I sometimes get asked to help them identify unlabeled stuff. Just last year, one of these friends bought a large inventory of Omega parts from a deceased watchmaker's family. I think the watchmaker had retired in the 90s after having his own shop for a few decades, so all the parts were old. Many came with original order slips attached or envelopes marked "Norman Morris Corporation" so I didn't have reason to doubt their authenticity (I'll leave it an open question). I found both NOS mismarked endlinks (Ie. stamped 570 instead of 511, or some endlinks stamped and some not at all), and some seemingly defective crystals (ie. light logos, optical aberrations, sizing discrepancies). This may cetainly be an anamoly but it got me thinking about QC back in the day. Admittedly, I never considered looking for misaligned logos.
When I was collecting hi-fi, vintage tubes were always a minefield. 50-60 years ago, a service tech would get a preamp/amp on their bench for service and as a matter of SOP, they would replace all the tubes. They would pull the old- some working fine and some toast (perhaps a reason for the service), put the new tubes into the amp and put the old tubes back into the boxes the new ones came from. If they even tested the tubes it would be a GO/NO GO tester and not actually grading them for any QC (they didn’t care back then- it worked or it didn’t). They weren’t listening for angels and fairy dust-comparing the nuances of a RCA Black plate to a Telefunken- it was part of a circuit. Then they would typically stash the sleeves of tubes in a box under their bench to either use later if they needed spares or trash them if they were spent when they got around to it.
Flash forward 50 years and after they are long dead, someone buys their storage locker at an auction and comes across cases of “NOS” tubes….you see where that is going.
