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Apr 15, 2020, 07:13 AM
#1
««««««««« WRUW - Wednesday - 15 April 2020 »»»»»»»»»
Good day, IWL
Stay safe.
[Since I'm still at home with nothing important to do, here goes a comment or two about the Omega Speedmaster Broad Arrow automatic (ref.: 3851.20.12):
When Omega launched this model (2001) everybody easily understood their goal: to create a competitor to face the all mighty Rolex Daytona.
With that purpose in mind, Omega took the old Speedmaster design and turned it into a technological tour the force. A new movement (cal. 3303) based on the well-respected Frédérique Figuet cal. 1185 was created and the responsible for the project was Marc-André Miche, a former Rolex expert.
To achieve a longer power reserve (55H) and better stability, the original FP 1185 became larger (11 lignes versus 12 lignes) the barrel-drum received a gold coating and the movement winding efficiency was vastly improved. A larger balance was installed and an adjustment system roughly similar to the one used on the 2500 movements was included.
The Nivarox balance spring was made of a thermo-compensated Anachron alloy. To avoid the irregularities leading to poor isochronism, a free spiral balance spring was chosen.
Tested in 6 positions, the movement (rhodium plated, decorated with Geneva Waves, circular graining, polished flat screws and circularly polished wheels) easily got its COSC certification.
Double rings and special attention to the watch WR led to 100mWR without the need to implement screw down pushers or screw down crown. As a less common feature, the chronograph pushers can actually be used underwater; not sure how useful that really is, though.
The dial, with blue applied marks and large broad arrow hands, is a delight to read and, at least on this subject, clearly superior to the Rolex Daytona.
All was looking good, however, the future of this watch was not going to be particularly bright: a very well-known, respected collector and Omega enthusiast raised a few doubts about the reliability of the movement and,despite the statistically irrelevant sample evaluated, the cal. 3303, attacked by an ever growing social-media, started to have a bad reputation.
I don't know if Omega did any change to improve the movement reliability but, as far as I know, in general, the Broad Arrow was not more problematic than any other model.
Despite the later attempt followed by several well-known top watchmakers trying to objectively oppose verifiable facts to what was becoming a dubious myth, the damage was already done. As far as I'm concerned, I never had the slightest problem with my watch.
Again, all this 'noise' let the pre-eminence of the Rolex Daytona untouched. Omega didn't give up, but that's another story... ]
Last edited by CFR; Apr 15, 2020 at 09:19 AM.
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Apr 15, 2020, 07:34 AM
#2
G-Shock: GW3000B-1A
Rolex: Submariner 14060M
Accurist: 1961 Shockmaster (Gold) & 1965 Shockmaster (Steel)
Omega: Speedmaster Professional 3570.50.00
Meistersinger: Perigraph AM1002
Ben Sherman: S489.OOBS
Rotary: 1990 Quartz (Gold)
Steinhart: Ocean GMT 39mm
Certina: DS Super PH500M & DS PH200M
Timex: MKI Mechanical
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Apr 15, 2020, 08:56 AM
#3
Archimede Pilot 39 in the sun today:
Some people have opinions - The rest of us have taste.
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Apr 15, 2020, 10:02 AM
#4
Another day of WFH.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
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Apr 15, 2020, 10:12 AM
#5
Originally Posted by
CFR
Good day, IWL
Stay safe.
[Since I'm still at home with nothing important to do, here goes a comment or two about the Omega Speedmaster Broad Arrow automatic (ref.: 3851.20.12):
When Omega launched this model (2001) everybody easily understood their goal: to create a competitor to face the all mighty Rolex Daytona.
With that purpose in mind, Omega took the old Speedmaster design and turned it into a technological tour the force. A new movement (cal. 3303) based on the well-respected Frédérique Figuet cal. 1185 was created and the responsible for the project was Marc-André Miche, a former Rolex expert.
To achieve a longer power reserve (55H) and better stability, the original FP 1185 became larger (11 lignes versus 12 lignes) the barrel-drum received a gold coating and the movement winding efficiency was vastly improved. A larger balance was installed and an adjustment system roughly similar to the one used on the 2500 movements was included.
The Nivarox balance spring was made of a thermo-compensated Anachron alloy. To avoid the irregularities leading to poor isochronism, a free spiral balance spring was chosen.
Tested in 6 positions, the movement (rhodium plated, decorated with Geneva Waves, circular graining, polished flat screws and circularly polished wheels) easily got its COSC certification.
Double rings and special attention to the watch WR led to 100mWR without the need to implement screw down pushers or screw down crown. As a less common feature, the chronograph pushers can actually be used underwater; not sure how useful that really is, though.
The dial, with blue applied marks and large broad arrow hands, is a delight to read and, at least on this subject, clearly superior to the Rolex Daytona.
All was looking good, however, the future of this watch was not going to be particularly bright: a very well-known, respected collector and Omega enthusiast raised a few doubts about the reliability of the movement and,despite the statistically irrelevant sample evaluated, the cal. 3303, attacked by an ever growing social-media, started to have a bad reputation.
I don't know if Omega did any change to improve the movement reliability but, as far as I know, in general, the Broad Arrow was not more problematic than any other model.
Despite the later attempt followed by several well-known top watchmakers trying to objectively oppose verifiable facts to what was becoming a dubious myth, the damage was already done. As far as I'm concerned, I never had the slightest problem with my watch.
Again, all this 'noise' let the pre-eminence of the Rolex Daytona untouched. Omega didn't give up, but that's another story... ]
Thanks for the info. And very nice watch indeed.
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Apr 15, 2020, 10:15 AM
#6
««««««««« WRUW - Wednesday - 15 April 2020 »»»»»»»»»
Yesterday (with a wave to Robert):
Today:
It's the final countdown! PM me before they're all gone!
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Apr 15, 2020, 11:16 AM
#7
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Apr 15, 2020, 11:28 AM
#8
Member
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Apr 15, 2020, 11:50 AM
#9
Working on my social distancing skill. Learned a lot about how locks work.
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Apr 15, 2020, 11:58 AM
#10
Longines ceramic.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Cheers,
Michael
Tell everyone you saw it on IWL!
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