X-33

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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Watch Drama

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After a distressing call with Tourneau yesterday I decided to show up at the store and find out what exactly is wrong with my watch. To may an agonizing story short they screwed up and the watch was still at Omega no work was done on it what so ever. I got the run around for a while, then I started to raise my voice and get a bit pissed off. The service manager stepped in and finally explained the situation since the regular worker was giving me the run around. When he said he couldn’t tell me when I would get it back until he called the service center monday I told him that was totally unacceptable. He gave me the option of taking the value of the watch I bought and buying something else. I originally thought about asking about that but I originally didn’t really want to do it. When he offered that I saw that as the only way I could get something without waiting another month and a half. Since I bought the watch used I figured I would spend more and get a new watch of the same model. At least it will have the manufacturers warrantee on it. I was then told that Omega didn’t make that model anymore. I told the guy that was a bunch of BS since they prominently advertise it on their website. He gave me store credit for the watch still in repair and then told me he would call me on Monday or Tuesday after he called Omega and found out if he could still get the watch.

I got sorta lucky and got a call a bit after I got home from the store. Turns out I was right and they still do sell the watch and I could order it and have it in 2 weeks. It cost more than I anticipated, but I still wanted it so I told them to order it. Hopefully in 2 weeks I will have my brand new Omega Speedmaster X-33 and my crazy repair drama will be over.

I now eagerly await the call from the store telling me the new watch is in…

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Multi Region DVD Bliss

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Today was busy, but like most days recently I can’t say my time was taken up by X. it was just hectic with “stuff”. I could give you a breakdown of the time by going into my Request Tracker system, but for this blog purposes I just don’t care! 🙂

I had to hit CompUSA today to get an external CD drive case. I needed it to build my semi-region free PC. I wanted a region free DVD player for the PC, but couldn’t find a really simple way to do it. It sucks. I own 2 different region DVD’s. Region 1 USA stuff, and Region 2 European stuff. I have mainly region 1, but do want to play the region 2 stuff. I also wanted use my DVR (now media center) pc and not my DVD player. I have a region free stand alone dvd player that worked fine up until last week (that is another story), but I am trying to do everything via the media center. Here comes the external cd/dvd bay. I found out that the region coding is per drive. so in theory (and practice) I can get a second dvd player and set it to a different region. I can then play dvd’s from 2 regions. A semi hackish approach but I only need 2 regions, so for my needs it worked out fine. I also don’t have ton’s of region 2 dvd’s so I can put the dvd player I set to region 2 in an external case and plug it into the media center via fire wire only when I need it. So I bought the case and put an old DVD drive I had around. Guess what? It worked flawlessly so far. Such a simple fix, and I didn’t find anyone on the internet talking about it. yeah a region free or region 0 player is better, but this works.

After CompUSA I went over to the store I bought my Omega Speedmaster X-33 from. The battery started to go and I needed a replacement. the branch I went to couldn’t do the work so I need to go tomorrow to the main branch and get the work done.

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Travel Essentials

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As I said the other day, I don’t travel anywhere near as much as I used to. Just because I don’t go out of the office that much doesn’t mean that when I do I want to be any less connected. I did a quick overnight trip Monday-Tuesday. I (bored on the train) now write about what I relied on during the trek.

While in transit nothing says keeping in contact with the world like a Blackberry. When you can’t or don’t want to bring out a laptop it is essential. I hate it for everything else, including the stupid direct connect. I find that if I want to hold a conversation I might as well call the person than have a 20 minute conversation on DC. For email nothing beats the Blackberry, yet.

My powerbook was the laptop of choice this trip. My thinkpad is acting funky, and I don’t want to wipe it since I am getting a new one next week. So the powerbook stepped in and performed flawlessly (so far). I used it to watch some tv shows I recorded last week. Checked mail, did work, blogged, etc. All over Wifi!

Without the iPod I would not be sane. It makes train trips, and quiet hotel rooms that much more tolerable. It also is a great portable hard drive to store said TV shows that I watched on my powerbook. I say YES to plug and play!

My Treo is great (always carry it), but this trip it was used as it normally is. Still great, and a must for travel. What I used instead was Extension Mobility on Cisco Call Manager. It is the ability to log into any CCM phone and your extension moves with you. That coupled with the Cisco WIFI cordless phone make working in a different office just like I was in NYC, even when I was running around between 2 floors.

My new Omega X-33 watch was also a must this trip. I use my watch as an alarm wherever I go. I took my timex (broken band and all) along just in case the Omega didn’t do its job. It worked fine. I almost fell out of bed with the loudness of the alarm this morning. First impressions is this watch and I hopefully will have a long friendship!

Lastly I loved my Broadvoice VOIP phone, & Skype. I didn’t use broadvoice this trip, but I used its voice mail. I got all my VM emailed to me so I stayed in touch with everyone. I would never have checked my NYC VM without it. Skype is great since I can use it on my powerbook with my Sony Ericsson HBH-65 bluetooth headset from anywhere I have an internet connection. For this trip it was free calls from the hotel. I didn’t even need my cell phone for it. If I had broadvoice soft-phone I wouldn’t even need skype.

I have talked (praised) most of these items before, but when you use them all together you have a very smooth travel experience. I will most likely be using most if not all of this gear on my next extended trip. Now if only Amtrak could accommodate a nice ON TIME trip and travel would be painless.

The train is approaching Penn now. About an hour and 15 minutes late. So I will wrap this up so I can put the powerbook away. More mobile reviews when I use the stuff and have time to write about them! This post was written on Tuesday afternoon 5-17-05…

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Swiss Persision, & My New Omega

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My old Timex watch broke on me a few weeks ago. I have always been a cheap digital watch person. I liked the alarm, and the laziness of a digital watch. Not even the metal kind, the ones with the leather or rubber straps. My wrists are too small for a cheap metal watch. They would require cutting out of metal links. The work to do that would cost me more than the watch did, so I stayed with the cheap stuff.

Last year my dad gave me his 1969 vintage Omega Speedmaster Professional. I have worn it on and off since I got it. I have always been fearful I would damage it. My dad keeps saying that the watch has been through allot, and I shouldn’t worry. I have heard stories of it being sterilized. Been in countless peoples chests during surgery, and other interesting tidbits. My response is that most flesh wont scratch a watch, but sheet metal and a rack will destroy anything. I don’t want to destroy a great old vintage watch. That being said I have been afraid of wearing it every day. My family says I should just wear it for special occasions. Good idea, but that brings me back to my broken Timex. I got a replacement one at Walmart a few weeks ago. I hate it. It doesn’t feel right, the synthetic strap itches. I just don’t like it. What to do. The final straw was a conversation I had with Jayson on friday after he showed me the nice swiss army watch Gretchen got for his birthday. I realized my problem was I didn’t want to wear my dad’s old omega, but I wanted one I could beat up. I started smelling a spending spree coming on.

I went online and found several model’s of Omega watches that I liked. I was specifically interested in the X-33. it is the latest update to the Speedmaster Professional watch that is certified by NASA for space travel. If NASA certified something, it must be built to last. What I also liked was that the watch was both analog and digital. My main issues with the old Omega I had was that it was all analog. It takes me a few seconds to read the time since I am still not used to all analog. The digital face of the X-33 was cool. The other issue is the old one I have is heavy. it is of course stainless steel. The new X-33 is all titanium. Nice and light. I went over to Tourneau. They have a huge watch store on Madison Ave. They didn’t have any new X-33’s in stock, but the manager came out when I asked about availability of the watch. He showed me a “pre-owned” one. It had some wear on it. Nothing too noticeable, but he said it was heavily discounted since it was pre owned. When I heard the price I gave him my credit card on the spot. It was like half of what I thought it would cost, and it came with a 1 year store warrentee. I am now a happy wearer of a nice metal (yet digital) watch that I can beat up. I finally figured I would fork over some extra money for something that I keep on my wrist 16 hours a day, every day. I mean I buy a good expensive pair of eye glasses for the same reason (well that and other reasons), so why not get a good watch.

So I put my tax return money to good use. Hopefully I will have this watch around in 35 years like my dad had the one he gave me. that way grand kids can have a 70 year old watch and a 35 year old one! 🙂

Now all I need are nicer shoes, and maybe a few dress shirts and I will be presentable. On a plus note I do have the nice day to day dress paints down!

Most importantly now if NASA call’s and says I can goto the International Space Station, I have one less thing I need to buy!