Evening all

I am not a huge poster on the Omega forum but an avid follower and aware there are many a wiser soul than I who frequent this forum.

As a few of you will know I have been on a bit of a personal mission of late following Omegas recent enforcement of their policy that all category 4 vintage watches need to go back to Switzerland for servicing. For many years I have used STS (Swiss Time Services) in the UK to service all of my watches, including my category 4 pieces (a quick google search of Omega category 4 will show you quite how many watches that actually is).

When this policy was enforced it created me with a massive problem as Swatch/Omega no longer service quite a few calibre's in my personal collection either in the UK or in Bienne itself however the Swiss Time Group are the only people who have the knowledge and the skills to still be able to work on a lot of these watches, specifically Megaquartz's and more specifically Calibres' 1510, 1511 and 1516 (the Stardusts and Marine Chronometers), they also carry a large range of the associated spares as vintage NOS items.

From a rant over on TZ-UK I was advised to contact James Averey at Swatch (their Head of UK Customer Services), James has been a massive help and a real advocate and after dozens of emails he has confirmed today that I can continue to get my cat4 watches (specifically Megaquartz and my Marine Chronometers) serviced through SWISSTEC, who are the sister company to Swiss Time Services and based in the same buildings.

SWISSTEC are official UK agents to Ball and Ebel but also cater for a lot of other Swiss brands, having had a length conversation with their MD today he is confident that they can continue to offer the same level of service for my watches that they would have done through Swiss Time Services. The work will be done without the Omega endorsed warranty and on the understanding that SWISSTEC are not an Omega approved service centre, but still with a full and comprehensive warranty on the work that they do. More importantly they can do the jobs I need doing: strip and rebuild a magnetic motor system for a cal 1510: no problem, replace the LCD screens on my chronoquartz: no problem even remanufacture me a new part of my moon phase: no problem

This suits me just fine as I have seen their facilities, their watch makers all trained at Swiss Time and their Director spent 15+ years at Swiss Time before starting up SWISSTEC. There are lots of other great people servicing vintage Omegas such as Duncan at Genesis and Rocco at Watchworx (in the UK) but this offers me a great solution for some of my more exotic Omega watches like the MQ's, Marine Chronometers and some of my really rare pieces.

This is a massive life saver for me and a lot of other collectors of watches like the Megaquartz, Speedsonics etc and a lot of the other Cat 4 Omega work that I need to be done and will give me personally total peace of mind that I can not only get the same great service I enjoy when using STS but also can get my rarer and more eclectic pieces still catered for through SWISSTEC

Anyway, I am aware that many collector curse anything with a battery for a heart but I don't and I know Swisstec can support a lot of other now obsolete cat 4 calibre's so I thought fellow forum members might like to know.

I am going down to Swatch HQ in a few weeks to meet James in person and thank him for his support face to face, also to get a look round their facilities as I hear they are extremely impressive, I am also taking down one of my 321 straight lug 105.002 Speedies for a service to see how their work compares as I have heard some great things about the work they are now doing.

Anyway, that's it for now but I thought I would share this bit of great news with everyone.

To celebrate I sent one of my Omega Megaquartz F2.4Mhz Stardusts down to be serviced today, watch this space for the results

Cheers Tom

 

Well done Tom.
Hats off to you for persisting and making a difference in the way things are done.
It would be great to hear how the 105.002 service goes, I will get mine serviced soon so it will be good to know how it goes.
Cheers Mick

 

That sounds interesting. The reason I avoid watches like you have in your collection is the grizzly cost of service. I'm interested to hear how it goes for you

 

Great OP, Tom - I was searching the net for info on servicing a 1510 MQ and this is exactly what I wanted to read!

Having said that, this thread is a couple of years old now - does anyone have any recent experience of having a 1510 serviced at either STS or SWISSTEC?

 

The "rule" quoted above about forcing Cat. 4 watches to be sent to Bienne of course only applies to Omega service centers, so any capable independent can service these for you.

Cheers, Al

 

So, fundamentally SWISSTEC still service these 1510 family watches, they are part of the STS group, they supply a 12 month warranty and they have all the parts. As Archer said most capable watchmakers and service them as long as the motor and circuit, the magnetic minute etc are OK. If you want complete peace of mind and a warranty then use Swisstec but expect a bill for £750+VAT

 

Thanks for the responses, guys.

Sorry, I should've been clearer - when I said "servicing", what I really meant was "repair". That's why I was thinking even a capable watchmaker might not be able to help. I don't actually have a 1510 (yet!), but am on the lookout - I occasionally come across examples that are "not working" and was wondering if bringing them back to life was at all possible. Of course the best-case scenario for these examples would be that they just need a battery change, but I was wondering about repair/parts availability now that Omega themselves won't take them on...

Thanks again.

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

Not sure I am following you - Omega will still service these, but they must be sent back to Bienne. If you take one of these Cat. 4 watches to any Omega service center (i.e. a place that is authorized to perform warranty repairs on behalf of Omega) then they are forced by Omega to send them to Bienne, and will not work on them themselves. Of course if they are not an Omega service center, no such rule applies, and anyone who is not part of the service center system can service whatever they want. This is why I found it odd that Tom asked Omega for permission/support/confirmation for the non service center (SWISSTEK) to repair his watches - of course they had no choice but to say yes as they have no relationship with this entity.

Any service center like STS can simply create another entity that is separate from the service center, and then service whatever they want. It might even be the same people who work at the service center, but they simply do it under the other entities name name - I don't know how the STS/SWISSTEK relationship really works, but easy enough to get around the rules with a bit of paperwork...

Surely parts would be an issue - if I look up the movements in question, they are not even shown on the Omega Extranet, so if your watch needs parts you would have to rely on the open market or donor parts for repairs. That in itself is not unusual, as I do this often for watch movements - the issue here is the somewhat limited number produced making donors scarce I would think.

Cheers, Al

 

But it's not a category 4 - it's not any category i.e. it doesn't appear on Omega's list of calibers that they will still service.

If a caliber is not on that list, it means even Bienne won't service it. Of course the reason for this is no parts - that's why an independent watchmaker who somehow can get hold of the parts has to do it. The parts (or some of them) are no longer coming from Omega (otherwise they'd still be servicing it themselves and the caliber would still be on the list...).

 

Okay sorry - I was going by what Tom had said, that since they were Cat. 4 they had to go to Bienne...that seemed to be what he was implying above. I never look at these lists - I just service what people send me if it's something I can get parts for.

If these aren't even on the list, then it makes even less sense why Omega was involved in any of this.

Cheers, Al

 

Absolutely no need to apologize, Al! I don't really know what I'm talking about and am a bit out of my depth just taking part in this thread

For example, I didn't know all Cat. 4 had to go to Bienne - I thought it was on a case-by-case basis, depending on the expertise at each particular service centre (although I assumed all Cat. 5 would have to go to Bienne).

I even took a Cat. 2 LCD caliber to a Service Centre and was told it had to go to Bienne!

Anyway, all very interesting and educational!

 

god bless the men who know HOW to repair watches.

 

I believe Bienne now RUD these any 1500 family watch, I sent an MC there last year and it was returned undone as they didn't have the spares. To my knowledge Swisstec are the only people with the spares but as Archer says as long as it working they aren't complex watches as they are modular, if the circuit or motor or magnetic minute wheel (the three key issues) are shafted then its a bigger problem.

 

If it is indeed possible Swisstec is the only place where that can be done, now with the limited supply of spare quartz modules and motors I understand that an 15xx that needs both these modules might not be serviced, they'll have to see it. In any case be careful when you buy one because my first 1510 looked pretty much NOS but the quartz module had some kind of fault in it and it would sometimes skip a beat, very very hard to trouble shoot, but in the end it had to get a new module.

Someone was asking about Swisstec vs STS (Omega Service Center) and while I don't know the details they do operate in separate areas in the same building as I found when I was fortunate enough to be given a tour a few years ago. Very impressive facilities if I may say so myself ;-)

 

My understanding is that Swiss Time Services Ltd is the legal entity and is the approved Omega Service Centre. Swisstec is a division (not a separate company) of STS set up to offer services to a wider range of watch types and ages, with special accreditation from Ebel and Ball watches.

 

I've had Omegas serviced by STS before, but not Swisstec. Is a Swisstec service cheaper seeing as it doesn't come with the two year Omega warranty?