The story starts with my exposure to this beast of a watch in 2016 while meeting a watch enthusiast at an Omega AD. I always had it on the back of my mind but never got around to owning it. 2018 onwards I tried buying it and hunted for it in Dubai, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, China etc., but was informed that it's discontinued. When Covid hit the world, I came to know of one piece being available in a different state in India. Sight unseen I bought the watch in 2022. It's one watch that everyone should wear on wrist before making a judgement on its fit and comfort. I was in a honeymoon period and stopped wearing my other watches.
Issue 1 - Around February 2021, while I was traveling with this watch, I unscrewed the crown to change the date and the crown came out away from the case. I took it back to Omega Service Center (it comes directly under Swatch corporate) for repairs. They took it under warranty and returned to me after a few weeks after repair. I was happy with the turnaround time. They noted some scratches on anti reflective coating on the sapphire. I ignored that due to the honeymoon period. In hindsight, I should have gone after Omega for that. How can a watch within warranty start losing coating like this.
Issue 2 - While setting time one day in 2022, I noticed that the hour hand was not jumping, but rather was moving smoothly. I understood that movement has stopped working properly. I again took it back to the service centre for repairs. This time I also mentioned that bezel seems to not moving properly and the pusher is also too hard to press. I also mentioned that the spring bar at clasp end of the strap had given way once and asked them to check if any spring bar is faulty. After approx. 7 weeks they called me to inform that the watch is ready. I was again happy to get the watch back to start enjoying it again. One strange thing that happened though was I got my watch back in a paper envelope and without any service case (photo attached). After bringing this to attention of Omega HQ (through their website) they arranged to send me the service case.
Issue 3 - While traveling, in February 2023, I noticed that bezel was not moving at all. I again came back to service centre and met the Customer Service Head. This is where a lot of things happened. The most senior guy was unaware of the watch and had no idea on what it was and what the pusher does. I sat down with him to explain the watch and its features. I was annoyed with the way every year I have to visit the service centre for repairing this watch. Then he opened the service history to understand what all had happened in the past. This is where he started trying to put the blame of issues on me. He noted that there were scratches on the case and maybe due to that the crown stem broke. I was dumbfounded by this behaviour for a few seconds. Honestly, this is where I decided to be a little more firm and strict with my interaction that point onwards. Next he checked what was the reason for watch to come to service centre the second time. He noticed that I had mentioned bezel issue that time. But, during service they did nothing to correct or even check that observation. This is where I lost my faith on that service centre team to work on this watch. They basically did not check the case or bezel but simply serviced the movement even after user giving them information about an upcoming issue (which happened BTW within 4-5 months of getting the watch back from service).
Now, he asked me to wait for an engineer to check the watch before making job sheet for me. The engineer pushed down the pusher very hard and showed me that bezel is rotating. It was quite surprising for me as even CS head, at that time almost 20 minutes had passed, had also tried the same and could not move it. I took the watch back in my hand and again, the bezel would not budge. At this time the engineer started telling me that I’m not holding the watch right and am not pushing the pusher as much as is required. When I put a huge amount of force on the pusher, the bezel started moving, but now could not feel the detents and it felt like a free moving bezel. After explaining this in words, he also agreed that there is some issue in the mechanism. It was very demeaning that an engineer is telling a customer how to hold the watch and how to use the pusher and bezel when the customer has been using that watch for almost three years. Again an interaction that gives me zero confidence on the repair department. The competence and skill required to repair this model seems sorely missing from the team of engineers.
When they finally took the watch for repair and made the work order, things moved from weird to bizarre territory.
The form mentioned scratches on crystal and chip on crystal. In Rolex, the crystal sits above the bezel and has a propensity to chip, but in this watch the crystal is flush with bezel and is almost impossible to chip. I insisted that they show me where it is chipped. They took it back and returned after sometime that they were mistaken and it is not chipped. Secondly I asked them to show me the scratches on crystal and they again relented that it’s not scratches on crystal but on anti-reflective coating. Both these observations were removed by them from the work order form. Again, very bad experience this. Tomorrow they could have intentionally or unintentionally scratched or chipped the crystal and blamed it on me. This too inspires no confidence on the people entrusted to work on this watch.
Next the form mentioned plating issue. Since I know there is no plating in this watch, I asked them to show me the issue. I was shocked to see printing issues on the bezel (photo attached). Now, strangely, this printing with luminous material is below a sapphire crystal. When I asked CS head, he said that it could also be user error. Honestly, I was kind of pissed with this response. I then asked them to give me in writing how a user could have caused this issue below a sapphire within warranty.
Post this communication, I called the Omega India Head to discuss this issue and have told them in writing to send this watch to HQ in Switzerland as I don't have any faith on the team in India. He has been non committal on this topic. Strangely, even after filling the contact us form on the Omega website, I have not heard back from them for almost 2 weeks.
Can someone help me with an email address of some person in Omega HQ who could help me solve this issue?
BTW, I'm based in India
Issue 1 - Around February 2021, while I was traveling with this watch, I unscrewed the crown to change the date and the crown came out away from the case. I took it back to Omega Service Center (it comes directly under Swatch corporate) for repairs. They took it under warranty and returned to me after a few weeks after repair. I was happy with the turnaround time. They noted some scratches on anti reflective coating on the sapphire. I ignored that due to the honeymoon period. In hindsight, I should have gone after Omega for that. How can a watch within warranty start losing coating like this.
Issue 2 - While setting time one day in 2022, I noticed that the hour hand was not jumping, but rather was moving smoothly. I understood that movement has stopped working properly. I again took it back to the service centre for repairs. This time I also mentioned that bezel seems to not moving properly and the pusher is also too hard to press. I also mentioned that the spring bar at clasp end of the strap had given way once and asked them to check if any spring bar is faulty. After approx. 7 weeks they called me to inform that the watch is ready. I was again happy to get the watch back to start enjoying it again. One strange thing that happened though was I got my watch back in a paper envelope and without any service case (photo attached). After bringing this to attention of Omega HQ (through their website) they arranged to send me the service case.
Issue 3 - While traveling, in February 2023, I noticed that bezel was not moving at all. I again came back to service centre and met the Customer Service Head. This is where a lot of things happened. The most senior guy was unaware of the watch and had no idea on what it was and what the pusher does. I sat down with him to explain the watch and its features. I was annoyed with the way every year I have to visit the service centre for repairing this watch. Then he opened the service history to understand what all had happened in the past. This is where he started trying to put the blame of issues on me. He noted that there were scratches on the case and maybe due to that the crown stem broke. I was dumbfounded by this behaviour for a few seconds. Honestly, this is where I decided to be a little more firm and strict with my interaction that point onwards. Next he checked what was the reason for watch to come to service centre the second time. He noticed that I had mentioned bezel issue that time. But, during service they did nothing to correct or even check that observation. This is where I lost my faith on that service centre team to work on this watch. They basically did not check the case or bezel but simply serviced the movement even after user giving them information about an upcoming issue (which happened BTW within 4-5 months of getting the watch back from service).
Now, he asked me to wait for an engineer to check the watch before making job sheet for me. The engineer pushed down the pusher very hard and showed me that bezel is rotating. It was quite surprising for me as even CS head, at that time almost 20 minutes had passed, had also tried the same and could not move it. I took the watch back in my hand and again, the bezel would not budge. At this time the engineer started telling me that I’m not holding the watch right and am not pushing the pusher as much as is required. When I put a huge amount of force on the pusher, the bezel started moving, but now could not feel the detents and it felt like a free moving bezel. After explaining this in words, he also agreed that there is some issue in the mechanism. It was very demeaning that an engineer is telling a customer how to hold the watch and how to use the pusher and bezel when the customer has been using that watch for almost three years. Again an interaction that gives me zero confidence on the repair department. The competence and skill required to repair this model seems sorely missing from the team of engineers.
When they finally took the watch for repair and made the work order, things moved from weird to bizarre territory.
The form mentioned scratches on crystal and chip on crystal. In Rolex, the crystal sits above the bezel and has a propensity to chip, but in this watch the crystal is flush with bezel and is almost impossible to chip. I insisted that they show me where it is chipped. They took it back and returned after sometime that they were mistaken and it is not chipped. Secondly I asked them to show me the scratches on crystal and they again relented that it’s not scratches on crystal but on anti-reflective coating. Both these observations were removed by them from the work order form. Again, very bad experience this. Tomorrow they could have intentionally or unintentionally scratched or chipped the crystal and blamed it on me. This too inspires no confidence on the people entrusted to work on this watch.
Next the form mentioned plating issue. Since I know there is no plating in this watch, I asked them to show me the issue. I was shocked to see printing issues on the bezel (photo attached). Now, strangely, this printing with luminous material is below a sapphire crystal. When I asked CS head, he said that it could also be user error. Honestly, I was kind of pissed with this response. I then asked them to give me in writing how a user could have caused this issue below a sapphire within warranty.
Post this communication, I called the Omega India Head to discuss this issue and have told them in writing to send this watch to HQ in Switzerland as I don't have any faith on the team in India. He has been non committal on this topic. Strangely, even after filling the contact us form on the Omega website, I have not heard back from them for almost 2 weeks.
Can someone help me with an email address of some person in Omega HQ who could help me solve this issue?
BTW, I'm based in India
