Speedmaster reduced - waste of money or go for it ?

Archer

Some inaccuracies in that article...

First off the claim that "Most people use an independent watchmaker who will simply replace the chronograph module, rather than service it." This makes it sound like you can call up the local "Modules-R-Us" location and get a 1/2 dozen DD modules for servicing those reduced watches at the drop of a hat. Not the case at all as Omega doesn't sell modules for this purpose. What happens in most cases is that the independent watchmaker services the base movement only, and doesn't service or replace the module...they just remove it, set it aside, and put it back on after servicing the 2892 portion of the movement. You are typically only getting 1/2 the job done in these cases. Although there are people who will service the module, they are not around every corner.

Second, the author is grouping the "reduced" models with the "automatic" models, at one time saying this:

"The modern iteration of the Reduced / Automatic is called the “Speedmaster 38 Co-Axial Chronograph” and this "The modern version of the Speedmaster Automatic (Reduced) can easily be identified by a date window at 6-o’clock."

The Speedmaster Automatic is not in any way the same as a "reduced" model, as the Speedmaster Automatics use some version of the ETA 7750 in them, which is a fully integrated automatic chronograph, not a modular chronograph.

I would take information on blogs like this with a grain of salt, since most of the people writing these blogs don't have a lot of technical knowledge.

Cheers, Al

Using stacked modules instead of in-house movements isn’t a new concept. Rolex has used Zenith movements in Daytonas until recently. Audemars Piguet stacked sourced complications in modules on top of base movements for years as well. Nobody seems to care. So why should we care about the Speedmaster Reduced?

Foo2rama

While it’s a correct sentence it seems to imply the El Premero in the Daytona is a module movement.

His statement about the 38mm being the successor seems to imply it’s a similar movement and a reduced it can be read the other way.

There is other bad info in that don’t get me wrong, it’s not a great article, just something I noticed.

WatchVaultNYC

My watchmaker in San Diego services the DD module and does not charge extra for it. Maybe its a bit more time consuming, but hardly a deal breaker IMO if the issue is servicing.

WatchVaultNYC

I've found the 7750 Speedy Autos having far more issues than the Reduced when I get them, so anecdote about reliability (most of the time its the day corrector). I move several hundred Reduced and close to a hundred Speedy autos a year so its a reasonably sized statistic.

WatchVaultNYC

I'm pretty sure you're 100% correct about that - ie. its the corrector not the movement. But from an owner's perspective, I know very few watchmakers who will do a "spot fix" i.e. "pls fix the corrector pusher but don't service the watch", so more often than not a fault in the pusher leads to a complete service of the watch

WatchVaultNYC

The corrector issue is usually that it does not spring back into place or does so very slowly, not "damaged" but more of a dirt and wear issue I imagine. I see this a lot more than stuck chrono pushers. Maybe I'm a bit more picky than most, but watches with issues like this I usually send back (fun statistic - I send back about 25% of watches that I buy in bulk for not passing my internal QC).