Omega Speedmaster

The Stories Behind My Dad’s Omega Speedmaster

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I’ve written before about my dad’s Omega Speedmaster Professional, now my Omega Speedmaster Professional, and how he passed it down to me. But before I forget, I want to write about a few of the stories he told me about that watch. They’ve always stuck with me.

When I first got it, I thought he’d bought it in 1969. Turns out that wasn’t true. After some research, the serial number puts it around 1970 or 1971. When my dad was still alive he confirmed that timeframe. Still, an absolute classic.

One thing he told me that always made me laugh was how Omega almost never buys back their old watches, but more than once, when he sent it in for maintenance, he claims they offered to buy it from him. He always said no.

My dad was a physician assistant who worked in trauma and surgery, so the watch saw some things. He used to joke that it had been sterilized more times than he could count, which, considering where it had been, I appreciated hearing.

He told me about one time when one of the links on the band came apart while he was literally working inside someone’s chest, and the watch slipped off his wrist. They had to fish it out, clean it thoroughly, and fix the band afterward. I still have that original band, so I know it got fixed.

I can’t imagine that would be allowed now. I don’t know what the current hospital rules are, but I’m guessing “no watches in open chests” is probably written down somewhere these days, sterilized or not.

When I tell people that story, some of them are grossed out, others think it’s amazing. I’m firmly in the “amazing” camp. It’s history, after all.

Another quirk is the bezel. Instead of the usual tachymeter, his has what Omega called a pulsometer bezel. It’s what I grew up seeing on his wrist, so to me, that’s just what the watch is supposed to look like. When I had it serviced maybe ten years ago, they asked if I wanted them to replace it since it doesn’t rotate anymore. I said absolutely not. The bezel’s part of its story.

Years ago, when I was living in New York, I brought it to the Omega Boutique for maintenance. The guy behind the counter said he’d have someone take a look and disappeared into the back. A few minutes later, an older gentleman, clearly one of their watchmakers, came out excited to see it. He thought the pulsometer bezel was great and said it was a really special piece. He also told me they could do the service in-house instead of sending it back to Switzerland, which was a relief. Apparently if it was slightly older it would need to travel for service.

It was nice seeing someone else appreciate it that much. That old watchmaker was genuinely happy to work on it.

I don’t wear the original metal band anymore, it was always a little loose even when my dad wore it, and apparently that specific band design is rare now. So I keep it stored safely and use a NATO strap instead.

It’s funny how polarizing this watch can be. Some people hear its stories and get squeamish. Others think it’s the coolest thing ever. I’m clearly in the second group.

Every time I take it in for service, it still gets attention. It always starts a conversation. And I love that.

Watch Costs are Relative

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I’ve always found it a little funny when people complain about how expensive an Apple Watch is. For me, the cost has never been the barrier to owning one. Right now I’m wearing a Series 10 46mm. It’s not the cheapest watch I own, but it’s close. The actual cheapest is my Seiko SKX007, which I picked up a couple of summers ago as a knock-around watch for the beach.

I bring this up because my Omega Speedmaster X-33 recently needed a battery replacement. While it was at Omega, they called to say it also needed a full service. Not exactly shocking—I bought it in 2006, so it’s pushing 20 years old, and this is only its second service. It’s had a hard life: I wore it daily for years before I started rotating in other watches, and titanium picks up dings easily. At the last two battery changes they even noted “condition poor” on the paperwork, which felt a little insulting if I’m honest.

So yes, I’ll be glad to have it back shiny and refreshed. What I’m less thrilled about is the price of the service. And yet, it’s not surprising. It’s about what I paid the last time I had another Omega serviced. The kicker? The cost of this service was actually more than what I paid for my Apple Watch.

That’s the point, really: watch costs are relative. The X-33 was the most expensive thing I had ever bought when I got it, and I still love it. But the idea that maintaining one watch can cost more than buying a brand-new Apple Watch puts the whole “Apple Watches are too expensive” complaint into perspective. For now, I’ll just be waiting a few weeks while the work gets done and chuckling at the absurdity of it all.

The photo is of a much younger X-33 right after getting a NATO strap for it, since the titanium band was getting beat up too much.

The Blog Post Were I Write About Watch Straps for Seven Paragraphs

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Can you tell the difference between these two watch straps? Visually there isn’t much of a difference. Holding them they feel pretty similar however there is a noticeable difference between the two. What distinguishes one from the other? If you look closely enough can see that one of them has the word Omega etched into it. That little etching equates to a vast difference in price.

Is the Omega strap better? After wearing  both for a while I would say yes. Is the Omega strap much better even slightly more comfortable than the other one? I would say yes. Is it worth many times more money than the generic one? Probably not.

This is a situation where I’m reminded of the Steve Jobs biography where the author discusses Jobs theory on best versus average of something. I think the used knives for the analogy. The point was do you buy a cheap $10 knife. Do you by a $75 knife or do you buy the top-of-the-line $400 knife? If your chef you might need that extra bit of “better” you get from the $400 knife. In most other cases you’re probably best served with the $75. I think the argument was average were really good to the best ever is only about 10 to 15% in a lot of cases. I know that any number like that is suspect however the sentiment I think holds true.

With these NATO watch straps I think the sentiment also holds true. The Omega one is better. At least in my opinion. It is a much more flexible and comfortable my lawn. It feels more sturdy.The clasp is a bit easier to get on and off. Overall I think it’s a better band.  Using the analogy from the jobs biography however it’s only probably better 10 to 15%. In my opinion it’s not worth the massive price premium I paid for it. I still don’t regret the purchase. I am even considering possibly another one.

Why am I talking about watch straps anyway? For starters I’ve spent a bunch of time in recent months researching and buying a few NATO straps for my watches. Since this is my blog and all I felt like writing about it.

I wore a NATO strap 2 summers ago. I wore one for a few months on my X-33. I liked it however at the time I missed the metal band and switched back to it after a while. In recent months I’ve liked the idea of switching out my watch bands more often. It’s a little bit of extra style and I thought it was cool to be able to do that without having to go to someone to swap out a leather or metal band.

In June I took my X-33 in to have its metal band removed so I can use a NATO strap. At the same time I splurged and picked up the black and green Omega NATO strap. After getting the Omega strap I bought two more straps that were significantly cheaper online so I had a variety. Who cares if you can swap out straps to watch when you only have one of them or in my case two of them that are identical. I purchased a thick nylon band in a gray green. I also picked up a black leather one. After wearing all them I ended up liking the Omega one the best however the leather one is still pretty good. The gray green nylon one is a bit too stiff and I won’t be buying that brand nylon strap again.

After a few weeks of wearing a variety of bands on my X-33 I took in my speed master to also have its leather straps removed so I could use interchangeable NATO straps. I was very tempted to buy the leather NATO strap from the Omega store. The leather strap seemed more reasonably priced in comparison to other nice leather bands however I wasn’t sure if I liked the color so I passed on it for now.

Since swapping out the bands on both watches I have bought another nylon band in a different color pattern. I plan on getting a few more however i have enough of a variety now to keep things interesting for a little while. I am still not 100% sold if I will keep using the NATO straps on all my watches however for now I am pretty happy.

If you are a James Bond fan then yes another cool thing about these gray and black NATO strap is that it looks like the classic James Bond Goldfinger strap. I was surprised when I previously researched that many people pull off nylon straps on my fancy watches in fancy dress clothes such as suits or tuxedos. For me that was the final deciding factor on they will work with any style clothing. Of course that same research yielded me wearing Chuck Taylor’s with khakis and dress pants. The Internet is a wonderful thing.

My Speedmaster Returns

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In early January I was distressed when one night I went to wind my watch one night and felt something give when I started to wind it.  After that there was no resistance when winding it and i knew something was wrong.  I was very concerned because my Speedmaster Professional is over 40 years old and I just had work done on it almost two years ago.  Servicing that watch is not cheap so I was not pleased that it could be expensive to fix.  I took it to the Omega store the next day and thankfully the watch was still under warranty.  That was a huge relief.  On the down side they said it would take up to six weeks to get fixed.  At that point I didn’t care because it was a free fix.

Today I went to pick up my newly fixed watch.  It seems to be working perfectly so I am happy.  it always has a tenancy to run fast so I am wondering if this work has addressed that, but I am not holding my breath on it.

Surprisingly Keeping Time Can be Difficult Sometimes

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Recently there was some communication snafu of some kind at work.  No damage was done but it highlighed the point that people don’t always take into account that we work on a global team.  You can’t just say something happened today at 6.  What day? 6AM or PM?  What time zone are we talking about?  Those are all the questions that come to mind when you make a generic statement like that.  After that my boss suggested people set their computer clocks to UTC.  If you don’t know UTC is basically the renamed version of GMT.  Almost everyone dealing with global locations from the military to most major corporations keep time in UTC.  Otherwise scheduling is a nightmare.  Servers, and other devices are already keeping time in UTC, so my bosses suggestion was that we set our local computers time to UTC.  He offered a way you could setup outlook to display two time zones as well so you could see your calendar in local time as well as keep UTC time.  Both were good ideas.  When I used Outlook on Windows I actually did use the two time zone option but apparently that isn’t available on the Mac version of Outlook.

I thought setting your computer clock to UTC was a good idea but would cause other issues when trying to keep time out of work.  The idea did remind me that I had a clock app that i could run and keep in my menu bar that would list out multiple time zones.  Not quite the same thing but it is very useful.  What I ended up doing instead was set my watch to UTC.  I forgot that I had the option to have two time zones on my watch.  The dial hands can display normal local time and I can have the digital display show UTC time.  That minor realization has already paid off a lot when coordinating calls this week durring the big storm.

I have apps on my iPhone and iPad that also help me with world clock calculations.  I do use them often, but instead of having to do the time zone math, thinking in UTC is a big help.  I have written a bit in the past about keeping time in a global team.  I am writing again because of this minor adjustment to using UTC on my watch had a pretty big impact and I am always amazed at something so simple as keeping time actually can be very difficult sometimes.

 

UTC on my watch

Work using UTC for everything

Scheduling meeting and events accross time zones

How Tourneau Lost a Customer

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While at Jayson’s my friend Dave pointed out that my watch looked messed up. It turned out he was right. The second hand was jumping 5 seconds all the time. From what I read that meant that it needed a new battery. I had gotten over 2 years out of the current battery so since they usually go 18 months to 2 years I was due for a change. Since I bought my watch at Tourneau, and since they are an authorized Omega dealer I took the watch back their to get a new battery. The lady I spoke to charged me $61 to change a battery. I was a bit annoyed that it cost so much but just wanted the work done so I agreed. 15 minutes later the work was done, or so I thought.

Upon inspecting the watch’s functions I noticed that the second hand was still skipping 5 seconds at a time. I pointed this out to the clerk who was helping me and she took it back to the repair people. 30+ minutes later she finally returned with my watch and yet again the second hand was not functioning properly. At this time I was getting a bit ticked off. The sales lady just looked at me and with broken english said “not battery, must send to Omega”. She didn’t wait for me to say anything and just walked off to get forms to return the watch to the manufacturer for service. At this point I was not happy. I know it was the battery since I read the manual about what the second skipping was for. I was also mad that the so called experts at a watch store that advertised themselves as the biggest in the world couldn’t change a simple battery.

When the lady returned I told her I just wanted my money returned for the failed battery replacement and I would take care of the issue myself since I didn’t believe them. She took my credit card back for a refund and told the guy doing the credit “not battery, does not want us to fix”.

At this point I remembered this wasn’t the first time that I had problems at this store. A few months ago I went in and wanted to buy a leather band for another watch my dad had given me. The sales clerk then also was very rude and not knowledgeable. She originally refused to help me since she could not identify where the serial number was on the watch and Omega wouldn’t let them order anything without one. I tried to explain that the watch was so old that it didn’t have a visible serial number on the outside. It was actually on the inside of the watch. She wouldn’t listen or didn’t understand me. She took my information down and said she would try to do something for me and would call. She never did. I should have taken that as a sign, but I forgot about the incident.

This all happened on Friday. I went home and searched online for other dealers in Manhattan that sold and serviced Omega watches. Dave mentioned a really good dealer on the island but I didn’t want to drive all the way out there for something if I could avoid it. I thankfully found two dealers within a few blocks from Tourneau. I ended up going to Wempe Jewelers.

The service gentleman I spoke to was very nice. He said it would take about an hour to change the battery since they would have to test the pressure seals, etc. I was surprised since Tourneau didn’t mention anything like that. This gentleman also said the charge would be $35. The price was almost half of what Tourneau charged and sounded more reasonable. I took my receipt and walked around the area window shopping while they worked on my watch.

About an hour later I returned to be pleasantly surprised to find my watch to be back to perfect working order. I was so happy with the service I sought out a sales person to discuss ordering the leather band for my other watch. The sales person I spoke with was fantastic. He found the right type of band I wanted along with the right clasp. He said it wouldn’t be any problem that I didn’t have a serial number. He noted the age of the watch and said that my issue wasn’t uncommon with older models. He also answered several questions about servicing the older watch. He also said I was smart by changing bands since the one I had was an original one and not to get rid of it since it was rare. I knew this already but it was nice to get a sales clerk who was honest and knowledgeable about what he was selling. He took down my information and I hope to have my new band in 1-2 weeks.

From this experience I will be returning to Wempe for any future watch work or purchases. Sorry Tourneau, I don’t care how big you are you need to understand what you are selling and treat your repeat customers right. That means good service! I walked off the street for help, and Wempe was helpful and curious from the second I walked in the door.

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Six Weeks Wait For a Watch Band

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When I turned 30 my dad gave me his vintage 1969 Omega Speedmaster. I haven’t used it much since I have always been afraid of damaging it, even though my dad wore it in surgeries for 30 years. In the few months that I did wear it I began to scratch the underside of the steel watch band. It was scraping against the desk when I typed. I have a similar problem with the Titanium X-33 I use as my day to day watch.

Recently I have wanted to wear the Speedmaster Professional more often, but I don’t want to mess up the original band any more than I already have (I really haven’t damaged it, but with continued use it will be messed up). I decided to go and try to buy a leather band that I can swap for the steel one I currently have. Well that was easier said than done. I went to Tourneau on Saturday and was basically told if they could get me a band it would be 6-8 weeks. I say if because since they couldn’t find the serial number on the watch they couldn’t validate that it was authentic. They claim that Omega won’t let them order anything without a serial number. I informed the lady that watches as old as the one I have don’t always have the serial number on the outside. For some reason I read that older models had the number inside the watch, if at all. She said it didn’t matter. I just shook my head as I provided my contact information in the hopes that Tourneau can order the band. If they can, I have no idea what color it can come in, or how much. I just don’t get some businesses. Is this company thinking in their head and saying lets take a loyal customer who has paid a premium for a product that double digit percentage of the population are stopping from buying (yes with mobiles and other electronic devices less and less people are buying watches) and make it harder for them to pay money for an accessory. It sure feels like that.

Oh and to be clear, I will blame the store not the manufacturer in this case because the sales lady didn’t handle the situation well at all. Places have to learn how to treat their customers better.

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X-33 Discontinued?

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Apparently my Omega Speedmaster X-33 has been discontinued from sale to the public. I love this watch, and when I traded up from a used one to a new one i was kind of ticked off that i had to wait 2 weeks for them to get it to me. At the time Tourneau did tell me that they only saw about 9 or so of them in Omega’s world wide inventory. Now that makes sense, since I am seeing people posted noticing that it had been discontinued about a month after i got mine. The final tip off was that Omega does not have it up on their website anymore. I guess that NASA still can order them, but the general public can’t. Lets hope that means i can still get parts for it beyond the typical amount of time for a discontinued model since they will still be making them for the government.

For me this is the perfect watch. it is a nice real grown up watch, but it has digital features also. I think it looks allot nicer than the comparable model from Breitling. Now that Omega isn’t making the X-33 any more I just need to be sure i take good care of mine.

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70 Something Hours In LA

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Technically I started the mission timer at 77 hours and 5 minutes. Yes, I am actually counting down until my departure from LA on Thursday. Also a yes to the fact that the function on my watch calls it “mission clock”. I mean my Omega was designed for NASA, so the name makes sence. hold on, actually the function is CDT or count down time. There is a mission time function but that is just a term to refer to the GMT time function on the watch. My bad. Last year I started counting down trips to our other office or other short trips. Keeps things in perspective. No real reason for it, besides I was bored in the cab on the way to the airport.

LA is hotter than NYC. To be expected, but I was finally getting happy with the cooler weather in NYC and now I spend a few days in hot and sunny land. Lets face it, most of the time in LA will be spent indoors anyway.

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New, New Watch

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I finally got my new Omega Speedmaster Professional X-33. it came in to the store and I picked it up on the 31st. I haven’t had a chance to write about it until now. It is basically the newer version of the one I had bought last year used. It was a bit more money (just a bit) but I was able to apply the price of the used on towards the new one. Having the warrantee, box and a brand new item really is better. I know I had a good deal on a used one, but with something that I use all the time and never leaves my side such as wrist watch I really want/need a new one that I can rely on.

So far it is working perfectly. Kind of like a precision swiss watch (sorry for the pun)! I will post photos in a few days. My original Speedmaster Professional (circa 1969) goes back onto the night stand as a backup. And yes I have become a watch guy, or so it seems. I used to be happy with my Timex indiglo, but I am now light years past them!

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