zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

: My Q: How accurate are Omega quartz movements
: supposed to be?

My Omega Quartz (cal.1538 ?) is -2 in 3 months (one or two weeks more than 3mon) actually. My watch should be within -10 per year. I think my watch is the average one. A friend of mine has a SeMP quartz that is dead on.

: Another Q: Assuming I buy an Omega quartz, can
: I have the battery changed at my authorized
: Omega dealer or do I have to ship it off for
: three weeks? I'm getting mixed feedback from
: owners on this one.

If you are buying Omega, it's VERY LIKELY that you will have more than one high-end watches (book that!). You actually don't care 3 weeks, even 2 months. This is no concern at all (at least for me).

: Final Q: I've heard [ugly] rumors that quartz
: movements have some sort of limited
: lifetime-- that the quartz (I think)
: eventually suffers some natural degradation;
: might mechanical movements actually last
: longer than current quartz? (Or will we all
: be dead and buried by the time any of them
: die?)

My oldest Quartz watch is 9 years old, and it is still running as accurate as 9 years ago. Quartz watches are more reliable than mechanical ones because the mechanism are much simpler than automatic. Due to less friction, I think quartz watches definitely overlast automatic watches, if you give quartz watch same service interval.

Most of my watches are automatic, but I believe that in terms of time keeping, quartz watches beat automatic watches in almost every single way.

: Thanks,
: JB, the humble WI (not on a par with you
: savants)