just looked at the service cost in the UK. Is it my imagination or have these just gone up? For mechanical chronograph it’s now £750. I swear it was £550 before!

Can somebody confirm?

 

It's 750CHF, about £570.

 

I would take my watch to a good watchmaker, not the official dealer.
For example Watchguy: http://watchguy.co.uk/. He has a reasonable price list.
I have a very good experience with Christian.

 

I did wonder if you were looking at the wrong list as there is one for steel and one for precious metal but no you are correct. The UK service prices have risen by around 25% in the past month. Its now £550 for an auto or man wind 3 hander and £750 for any mechanical chrono inc a Moonwatch!!!!!

They really are taking the piss now, first deny parts supplies to independents then massively jack up servicing costs. At a rough guess I would say these prices are now double where they were about 3 years ago.

I am rather glad that I have recently serviced the one piece I have that has to go to them. I may start disposing of my modern pieces if this is what I have to spend every 5-10 years on them. How long I wonder before the authorised independents follow suit? Nice way to shoot yourself in the foot Omega.

 

I think more than 25%. Chrono was 550 and now 750. That 200 quid increase. 36%! Is this Rolex level service cost. Compared to Longines that is half this cost.

 

Was only $750 AUD and now I see its $1100

 

That's crazy. You made a good call with the OB service voucher.

Be thankful it isn't AP level service cost.

 

No change (yet) on the USA site - still $750 for a non-precious metal chrono ($950 for precious metal chrono). Let's see how long it lasts

 

Looks like it won’t be long until it is on par with AP...

 

They did not deny parts to any independent watchmakers who were buying from Omega directly. The people who now can't buy parts from Omega were never able to buy parts from Omega - they bought them from third party resellers. It's those resellers that were cut off - you can't cut off a relationship with someone you never had a relationship with in the first place. I know some will argue it's the same end result, but it's not - plenty of independent watchmakers order parts from Omega still, like me.

Having said that, Omega is going overboard with price increases, and not just for servicing. Back in the day, they would have annual price increases of a couple percent on parts across the board, that would happen every spring. These days there are "surprise" increases like acrylic crystals nearly tripling in price overnight last year, and some dials have tripled in price. The latest one I noticed was the price of spring bars going up by a little over double, and I used to buy new case tubes (the part that the crown goes on) for $3 each, and they jumped overnight to $17 for the simple designs, and some more complex designs are now $45. Crowns, pushers, hands and lots of parts have gone up in price also, but not as dramatically.

 

Hold the phone people! I just looked again and the prices have reverted back to how they were*. Still expensive but not quite as offensive as earlier. My guess is it was a web glitch and the UK page was showing CHF numbers but with GBP as the currency.

Phew!

*for mech movements, 3 hander back to £410, Speedy and other chronographs back to £550.

 

I just checked to £750 for speedy

this is odd

 

I just phoned up an OB - £750 is the new price for mechanical chrono

 

UK site now down and international site, service costs no longer there - i'm sure it was an error that they loaded the new services prices too early....

 

Hmm, I think the confusion above over whether prices have reverted or not is due to the fact that on certain browsers/OS the price is (for a non-PM chronograph) £550, but on a mobile device it's £750. For example, on my chromebook, it's £750, but on my windows desktop, it's £550 nad on my mobile (using both Chrome and Samsung browsers) it's also £550.

The reason - I think that Chrome on a chromebook does not automatically send / offer via pop-up to send you to the UK-specific site, which Omega has as it's default page for the UK. So you go to this site (the old one):
https://www.omegawatches.com/custom...s-and-prices/main-steps-of-a-complete-service

rather than the new one that Omega wants you to see:
https://www.omegawatches.com/en-gb/...s-and-prices/main-steps-of-a-complete-service

The difference? That little "en-gb/" (English-Great Britain) which denotes the site as specifically for for us Brits.

My guess would be that the new price is indeed £750 ....and Omega need to do a little more cross-browser checks and remove redundant links when they update their website.

 

When I click on your first link, chrome in android asks me if I want to visit the UK site instead. I think you're right as that took me to a page showing 750GBP for a stainless chronograph.

There is a major shortage of watchmakers in the world so, I understand these increases. On the other hand I had a friend who went for a trial to work at Swatch in UK and the rates on offer were not good...

Cheers, Chris

 

Al, speaking of which, as we were...?

Planet Ocean spring-bars, Are the same ones used in the Mark 2 as Mark 1 PO, 8500/2500 42mm?
If so is there a ref for them, I know when I got the rubber diver for the first PO they sent slightly longer bars, but I am after the ones for the bracelet for the 2500 and 8500 20mm.

Interestingly when I got a rubber strap for 8500, they told me to use the same as bracelet pins, but on original diver it was different.
Is there a definitive answer regarding these pins? I need the bracelet ones though.

 

Some rubber straps have gaps to access the spring bars that are very much like the gap in an end link of a steel bracelet, so the shorter bars for bracelets are used because the longer bars would be difficult to remove. It depends on the design of the strap and how much room is there to compress the spring bar, but without knowing specific reference numbers of the watches in question, I can't give you a better answer than that.

So for the 42 mm PO with Cal. 2500, the spring bar is 068ST2207 for bracelets, and it's the same for the 42 mm PO with the 8500.

I see a matte black rubber strap for the 42 mm PO with 8500, which is strap 98000377, and it also uses the same spring bar.

For the 42 mm PO with 2500, the black rubber straps for that seem to have 2 spring bars listed, and one is 068ST2208 so that is the spring bar for straps. The other one is 068ST2207A, and I'm not sure what the "A" at the end is for as I've never ordered these.

Cheers, Al

 

You're a star, thanks Al. It's the bracelet ones I desperately need, lost one.... So that's the ref number I"m after. Hoping the boutiques will order them. Can't believe that none of the ones in London actually carry them, or they just don't want to supply them. Think some do offer to order them though.

I do have that matte black rubber you mention for the 8500 42mm, and when that was supplied, I did say.... When I received the 42mm 2500 rubber diver they supplied me with the longer bars, but they said for that one just use the bracelet bars so that makes sense with what you've just said.

The 2500 rubber was the thick Casino Royale type, not the thin matte black one, so maybe that needed longer bars than the bracelet. That must be the one you mention last, they are microscopically longer. Thanks again for your time!

 

One other thing, Does the tension loosen with age. When you push the end in of a bar with your finger, and one is easier to push in than the others, is that wear and tear and age, and I need to replace, or is it just luck of the draw and some of the Omega bars are just made stiffer than others?