zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

3303 calibre questions (AGAIN I HEAR YOU CRY...)

Yes, indeed you do... Or at least a heavy sigh...

Posted By:
Raringtogo

Date: 10/23/06 17:20 GMT

Hi everybody, I recently purchased a Speedmaster Broad Arrow with the 3303 movement.

How recently?

This is displaying the early symptoms of failure - minute totaliser not working - second totaliser not resetting etc.

Ouch...

I bought this thing for a very good price due to these issues.

Did it have these issues when you purchased it?

Looking back over past threads, I can see that Omega made an effort to fix these problems without doing a recall.

Well, Omega certainly has seemed to have decided to be re-active about the situation rather than pro-active. They decided to leave watches already shipped to remain in customer's hands, within the supply chain and service them as they failed instead of attempting to either do a partial recall of the watches within the distribution and dealer chain or do a full recall of all models to make sure they all had the retrofit parts.

Unfortunately, we've seen reports of problems in new models of the FP movements models and even calibre's that were "born on" months if not years after the introduction of the retrofit part show symptoms striking similar to the problems known and identified by Omega. The retrofit parts seem to be a partial solution.

So to my question - my recent purchase is out of warranty (it's almost 3.5 years old)

So, if I understand you correctly, you bought the watch while it was out of Warrantee?

what is Omegas stance on fixing the problems for a watch that is out of warranty?

I would assume that they won't do it for free unless there is some sort of extenuating circumstances. Unless the watch had previously been serviced under warrantee (and hence had it's warrantee extended), I would doubt that a manufacturer is obligated to repair/service it under warrantee.

If the watch failed for the same ailment (or for an ailment that is known to be a problem with that model) you might be able to make an argument and get a reprieve. But I would expect the chances aren't very good. However many states and some municipalities have "Lemon Laws". There may be some protection under such statutes but you would have to investigate them and if they apply.

There is obviously a fault in the design

Well, opinions vary on that. Even though Omega has published service bulletins on the topic of the F. Piguet based movements, some people are living in denial about the issues with the F. Piguet movement. And the watch is at nearly double it's warranty and the standard service interval for a watch is 3-5 years. I don't mean to rain on your parade, but I would expect to hear this line of response when you attempt to negotiate.

- are they obliged to repair it?

You might have a case if you compiled information detailing that Omega knew about a problem with these movements and presented it to them when you submitted the watch for repair they may relent and service the watch gratis or give you a discount. On the other hand, if you purchased a watch out of warrantee (and I don't know the details so I'm running through the options), and knew that it had problems... I don't see how it's particularly ethical to hit Omega up for free repairs, regardless if you got a good deal or not.

Any thoughts, insights or general ramblings would be appreciated.

There are a number of known problems with the c.3303. I have a few bookmarks to some notable discussions archived on my watch blog. You might want to go through them (in particular the one's mentioning Shaun T) and consider pointing them out to an AD. You should search for posts on "BA" "33xx", "3303", "33x3", etc. here, and on TimeZone and Watch-U-Seek and print out anything that might be useful to your argument. If your BA is exhibiting the exact same behaviour as described in Shaun T's note, you might have a glimmer of a chance. But, in all frankness, it's a shot in the dark. I personally really doubt you have much luck at getting warranted service gratis out of Omega for a watch that's nearly double the age of the warrantee. I suspect you will likely have to pay for the service.

Sorry man. Buying used watches are a risk, buying used c.33xx's would seem to me even more risky considering the situation with the known problems, retrofit/remedial parts, etc.

I wish I had better news. I hope you didn't pay a huge amount for the BA.

I'll be pulling for you though!

-- Chuck