Dear readers,
I am enclosing a letter sent by me to Omega (instead of writing out a review, some change in the format, poetic license if I may call it that). The letter itself is self-explanatory and should serve as a review of the Omega Seamaster Professional watch. Please take the time to read it...
Dear Sir,
I am a Bombay-India based journalist and writer. It is with great regret that I have to write to you to express my displeasure and disappointment with two of your products which I purchased recently.
I purchased (about a month ago) an Omega Seamaster Professional James Bond Limited Edition watch (watch number 80415182) for which I paid Rs 90,000 (Rupees ninety thousand only) approximately USD 1875, from
your official distributor/retailer in Bombay, India. While your Indian representative was very nice and courteous and helped me during the transaction, it is your product that has disappointed me. The automatic watch which is supposedly certified as a chronometer (high accuracy watch- for MS readers) does not keep good
time. It runs approximately 8-10 seconds fast every day.
Sir, I am an electronics engineer by training and have access to very hi-tech testing instruments and have very accurately measured the reliability and accuracy of this watch over a span of more than a month. It was very disappointing to note that such an
expensive watch (USD 1875 for a watch is a lot of money and I am not a hollywood or bollywood star to just buy one and forget about it) does not live up to its commitment of +/- 4 to 6 seconds a day. Worse, I wear the watch for 8 hours a day, but it still does not give me the promised 44
hour power reserve. If I don't wear it on a Saturday, it stops working on Sunday.
After realising that my choice of purchase was flawed, (I had purchased a mechanical, automatic watch which by nature is not as accurate as quartz watches) I went in for another Omega watch. This time I purchased an Omega Seamaster Professional (watch number 58148864; ref 25418000)quartz watch for Rs 57,000 (approx USD 1188) from the same
retail outlet.
To my utter surprise and dismay, the quartz watch goes about 0.5 seconds fast/slow every day. Now, one may say that 0.5 seconds fast or slow per day is an acceptable level of accuracy for a wrist watch. However, I would like to point out that a USD 120 (Rs 6000) Citizen digital watch keeps better time. It goes fast or slow only by 3-5 seconds a month, compared to the approximately 10-15 seconds of the Omega quartz watch. The Citizen/Seiko watches in my opinion are much more reliable/accurate (10-15 seconds of Omega versus 4-5 seconds of Citizen/Seiko per month) and are much much cheaper than your watches.
Sir, I understand that your watches fall into a different category and cannot be compared to digital watches manufactured in Japan. However, in this day and age, accuracy is of paramount importance; and the only
reason I spent nearly 3000 USD on your watches was because I was under the impression that your watches would be much more accurate. Further, the ''Swiss Made'' label was a symbol of accuracy - which I now feel is no longer applicable in 2003.
I am extremely disappointed and feel cheated because of this. I don't want to send the watches to a service centre, because I feel that there is no technical problem with the watch. It is just that the movement used in the watches is not as accurate as expected. I would be very grateful to you if you could prove me wrong by showing me the accuracy of the movements used in your quartz watches.
Sincerely
(The letter ends here)
A follow up letter is also reproduced...
Sir,
I am still awaiting a confirmation on the reliability
and accuracy of your watches as per my original email,
which is attached herewith. There is simply no
documentation available regarding the accuracy. Most
international manufacturers of precision instruments
specify the accuracy of their equipment and products
in their documentation, brochures, user manuals, etc. Both
the products purchased do not contain user manuals,
neither are there any specifications on your website.
Most Japanese, American and German precision equipment
manufacturers have soft copies (in Adobe Acrobat
format) of manuals, specifications, etc on their
corporate websites. It is quite surprising that an
international precision brand like Omega does not
provide similar information on their website.
(Neither the Omega Seamaster Professional Automatic
James Bond Edition Nor the Omega Seamaster
Professional Quartz had user manuals with them
specifying the accuracy and reliability of the
movements used in them. Only the calibre of the watch is
mentioned, but there is no indication of the
specifications of the calibre)
