Recently I inquired about an Omega part from OFrei and received the following response:

“Our website contains all the Omega items we can still supply.

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 local business income and employment across the USA and around the world.

Consumers, no longer can decide who works on their watches and choose what work to have done on their watch.

The results are higher cost for the watch owners and reduced income and jobs for local USA workers, while the bulk of the money leaves the USA and ends up in Switzerland. “

Have any of our US members considered filing complaints with FTC and/or Justice Dept? As watch collectors unless action is taken, we’ll eventually become fully beholden to the manufacturers for parts and repairs while independent watchmakers fall off the vine. We’ve already discussed how some Rolex ADs can essentially dictate how we buy, sell, and service OUR watches. I don’t see this restriction on parts and service occurring in other areas, at least in the US. It’s only a matter of time before our beloved hobby becomes next to impossible to pursue.

 

wait till your watch hits 100... then see how much fun it can be to find parts. Those of us into the really old stuff have been dealing with this for ages, you get used to it.

 

Old news discussed here adnasuem.

 

I haven't read about any concerted action to try to put a stop to this on this forum. Just a bunch of bellyaching...

 

And thus we should start anticipating accepting customized or aftermarkets parts for more modern watches sooner than necessary.

 

I haven't had to resort to customized or aftermarket parts yet and my most recent purchases were a regulator for a 1901 Waltham and a clutch for a 1947 Tudor, both secured inside 24 hours.

 

Your point is there's no potential problem here for watch collectors and independent watchmakers?

 

This is certainly an unfortunate situation but the dollars of lost business by independent parts suppliers and watchmakers wouldn’t even register to the US government.

 

Sad but likely true. However, in principle, restriction of free trade flies in the face of what we stand for in the US and if there's a country that might potentially put a stop to this it would be the US.

 

Parts availability has always been a problem for collectors of any old machinery. Be it one of my hundred year old pocket watches or my 1963 Gilera 125SS, it can be difficult keeping this stuff running, but parts are out there.

As for independent watchmakers, one of the two I use has been bitching about the availability of Omega parts and the impending doom of us all for about 5 years now, yet he still puts parts into my "too old to be supported by the factory" Omegas without much difficulties. (the last time it was an early 20s piece, the time before a railroad piece from 1905)

The other guy I use simply goes in the back, disappears into a cloud of boxes, dust & cussing for about 25 minutes, and then reappears with the required part.

If he says he doesn't have it then I email Dave.

He usually mails it out within two days.

If you're too afraid of damaging it for lack of parts, quick! sell it now while its running.... but the stuff is out there and will likely continue to be out there for those with the patience to look for it.

The watch I'm wearing now is from a company that went under about 85 years ago and I recently had a new mainspring installed after a wait of 1 week for the part. No worries.

 

This is false - independent watchmakers can still get certified by Omega to gain access to factory parts. If the watchmaker you use isn't certified, ask them why they don't get certified.

Any fully equipped modern shop will have the majority of the equipment needed to gain certification, and after that there will be some factory training involved, but parts can be had if the watchmaker is motivated enough to take the appropriate actions.

There have been legal challenges by watchmakers and the third party parts resellers in various places around the world. All have so far fallen short, and I don't expect any of the current actions that are in progress will be successful.

I've always said it need to be the much larger consumer class that needs to get involved, not just a small number of watchmakers and parts resellers.

Free and open access to parts, tools, and technical information would be ideal. I don't think we are going back to that unfortunately.

Cheers, Al

 

I'm glad that you haven't experienced much difficulty over the recent years obtaining parts for your vintage pieces. I can't say I relate. I noticed simple parts as crystals, crowns, stems, tubes, and other components usually replaced at service have become far more difficult to source for my vintage Omegas than they were say 5 yrs ago. I can't foresee this getting any easier. Ultimately I understand there isn't enough demand from our hobbyists and watchmakers to push for legislation to prevent this restriction on parts. Thus the manufacturers and ADs have no problem taking full advantage which they are starting to do.

 

How is this false? Consumers are slowly becoming restricted to only using brand certified watchmakers if they want proper service as these watchmakers now have exclusive access to parts that were once available to independents. Hell some of these certified watchmakers have now taken to keeping the original parts when servicing (which I heard Rolex does).

Why should one need a brand certified watchmaker to obtain parts if he wants to service his own watch? I understand the need for additional training for those watchmakers not familiar with relatively new movement designs such as the co-axial system. However, why does a non-certified watchmaker who has been properly servicing vintage Omegas all these years now need to be certified to just obtain parts?

 

Yup... its not easy and it won't get better. Like Al said, we don't represent enough buying power to be a blip on anybody's radar.

 

My watchmaker was certified (factory training, shop certification visits, etc) but then Swatch required him to buy a $10k cleaning machine (after about 10 years as certified) in order to maintain his certification so he loaded up on parts and then closed his account.

The fight to maintain access to parts for out of production watches should be tied to the larger "right to repair" movement. If Rolex/Swatch/etc want to maintain exclusivity on their parts for modern production watches, fine. But once factory support is no longer offered, parts supplies shouldn't have a barrier to entry beyond price

 

Because that is what Swatch requires.

If you want to get into some deep philosophical discussion we can, but at the end of that discussion, access to parts will not have improved.

If you want a practical solution to the parts shortage, then using a watchmaker with a parts account is about the only solution there is at the moment, unless you want to hunt for parts on the open market. Since you started this thread specifically about lack of parts on the open market, I am guessing that solution isn't working so well...

If keeping his parts account open was not worth upgrading the machine, then that was certainly his decision. Each watchmaker has to decide for themselves what sort of expenditure of time and energy is worthwhile to keep a parts account open. If for example your watchmaker was close to retirement, and they would not have enough time left working to pay back the cost of that machine, it was probably the right move.

BTW $10k is not a particularly expensive machine...

Cheers, Al