Omega Men's 3570.50.00 Speedmaster Professional Mechanical Chronograph Watch
Positive Review:
I've bought this watch for $200 in 1967. It's always kept great time and has worked well, considering nothing lasts forever. If it needs to be fixed, you have a choice to have it fixed or not. In 1998, it needed to be fixed and serviced, so I took it to an Omega dealer who said he was going to send it to Omega and the cost would be $300. It came back in the same condition I sent it and not fixed and probably not serviced. I called Omega in New York and they had me send it directly to them. I got a phone call from Omega about two weeks later and was told that the dealer had sent my watch to a non Omega repair place and that they were going to send it to Omega in Switzerland. Omega fixed the watch, serviced it and even though I hadn't asked for them to polished some minor scratches out of the lens, replaced the face and hands, they did. It was returned it to me without a bill about 6 weeks after I'd sent it to them. They also had the Omega dealer refund my $300.
Last November I took it in to be fixed (it was still working well and keeping good time) because I inadvertently broke the crown off the watch - not the watch's fault. I also wanted it to be serviced. I made sure it got sent to Omega, not "Joe's Discount Watch Repair". The estimate was $500. Okay, that's not cheap but if I wanted cheap, instead of having it fixed, I could have bought a $30 Casio or Timex instead.
Now that this model costs over $3000, it's doubtful I'd buy another one but since I'm getting on in years. It's probably the last time I'll have it serviced. Since I've always been satisfied with this watch and Omega in general, I don't mind paying the money to get it fixed.
On a side note, my watch is a wind-up model that I don't believe is made any more. The closest they come to it is a "manual start" watch, meaning you wind it enough to start it and then it's a self winding watch while you wear it. The Omega dealer mentioned that the wind up and manual start models are repairable but the battery/quartz ones aren't. If the battery/quartz models need to be repaired, they do it by replacing the insides of the watch as a unit.
Negative Review:
> July 21, 2009
I purchased mine around the time of the release of the Apollo 13 movie.
The chronometer simply does not keep accurate elapsed time. It does not click over at the right moment thus, you can misread the elapsed time by a full minute or a full hour! Omega could not fix it and frankly their repair costs and turnaround time is ridiculous.
I suspect the quality control has gone down recently to keep up with the demand due to the release of the movie Apollo 13 and now the 40th anniversary of the moon landing.
One of my life's most expensive and regretful purchase.
Frankly I wish I had purchased a Rolex instead.
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