Omega De Ville 4 Counters Chrono
Discussion
Nom nom nom!
Omega Calibre 3890 with 52 hour power reserve, co-axial movement decorated with geneva waves and incorporates a new generation of shock absorber. However the best bit is the chrono can time for up to 7 days!
I like it ... a lot!
So far I've found prices are around £4.3K, but not sure on an official RRP yet ...
Omega Calibre 3890 with 52 hour power reserve, co-axial movement decorated with geneva waves and incorporates a new generation of shock absorber. However the best bit is the chrono can time for up to 7 days!
I like it ... a lot!
So far I've found prices are around £4.3K, but not sure on an official RRP yet ...
Now *that* is neat. Any pics of the movement? I presume Omega wouldn't be a bunch of complete *duffers* and cover it up with a steel caseback…. surely this one will have a display caseback to see the movement in all its glory?
Is this *completely* bespoke, as in a new automatic chrono movement entirely (à la El Primero) or is it a piggyback / modified ETA / inherited Lemania? I've never really understood whether Omega's chronograph movements (as in the Speedmaster, of course) are effectively (and justifiably able to be named) in-house manufacture movements, or whether they've used Valjoux / ETA parts like everyone else. I know that they used Lemania base movements back before the great consolidation brought on by Quartz, but Omega have been synonymous (to me) with chronographs since the beginning and I'm not sure exactly what they use now.
The main reason why I'm confused is that they definitely used 7750s at one point… because my first 'decent' watch that I bought myself was the Seamaster Chrono - that I loved, but kept completely appalling time, and I chopped it in for the special edition Schumacher Speedy (yr 2000) which I still have (it's the Reduced size so a different movement) and glad I kept
But that Seamaster Chrono used the 7750 - and Omega cause confusion by renaming all the movements with their own calibre numbers, but it was *definitely* a 7750.
If Omega had a true in-house manufacture movement (like Zenith do with the El Primero) then it'd make no sense for them to be using ETA me-too movements, surely?
What's the true story? This 4-counters chrono is either near-as-damnit bespoke, or it's one hell of a bespoke piggyback on a 2892 or similar (at which point the piggyback module becomes more complicated than the base 'watch' movement, you've got to give more credit for the piggyback module!). After all, the 'Master of Complications' Franck Muller operates on this principle - start with a 2892 (usually) and add loads of bits to make it fiendishly complicated (and in some cases, impossible to tell the time with - how about a 'Secret Hours').
Regardless, none of this would put me off buying one of these… you're not going to get those 4 subdials in a row like that by pissing around with a 7750, there's serious mastery going on there. Gorgeous!
Is this *completely* bespoke, as in a new automatic chrono movement entirely (à la El Primero) or is it a piggyback / modified ETA / inherited Lemania? I've never really understood whether Omega's chronograph movements (as in the Speedmaster, of course) are effectively (and justifiably able to be named) in-house manufacture movements, or whether they've used Valjoux / ETA parts like everyone else. I know that they used Lemania base movements back before the great consolidation brought on by Quartz, but Omega have been synonymous (to me) with chronographs since the beginning and I'm not sure exactly what they use now.
The main reason why I'm confused is that they definitely used 7750s at one point… because my first 'decent' watch that I bought myself was the Seamaster Chrono - that I loved, but kept completely appalling time, and I chopped it in for the special edition Schumacher Speedy (yr 2000) which I still have (it's the Reduced size so a different movement) and glad I kept
But that Seamaster Chrono used the 7750 - and Omega cause confusion by renaming all the movements with their own calibre numbers, but it was *definitely* a 7750.If Omega had a true in-house manufacture movement (like Zenith do with the El Primero) then it'd make no sense for them to be using ETA me-too movements, surely?
What's the true story? This 4-counters chrono is either near-as-damnit bespoke, or it's one hell of a bespoke piggyback on a 2892 or similar (at which point the piggyback module becomes more complicated than the base 'watch' movement, you've got to give more credit for the piggyback module!). After all, the 'Master of Complications' Franck Muller operates on this principle - start with a 2892 (usually) and add loads of bits to make it fiendishly complicated (and in some cases, impossible to tell the time with - how about a 'Secret Hours').
Regardless, none of this would put me off buying one of these… you're not going to get those 4 subdials in a row like that by pissing around with a 7750, there's serious mastery going on there. Gorgeous!
41mm, domed crystal, day/date, chrono with a bit of innovation (7 days), 100m w/r - all good stuff.
Omega calibre 3890, automatic, COSC-certified, 33 jewels, decorated, 28,800 bph, co-axial escapement, Omega free sprung balance and a new anti-shock system - more good stuff. (ETA - I've no idea on the movements origin, but the coaxial bit is a Daniels innovation isn't it - do they use that in an ETA? I'd have thunk not, but I'm a bit sketchy on Omega movmnts!)
Very nice, something a bit different from the norm.
(Sorry CF, although a sapphire case back may be an option, the pics on the Omega site say solid back, strange when they go to the trouble of decorating the movement:
Omega calibre 3890, automatic, COSC-certified, 33 jewels, decorated, 28,800 bph, co-axial escapement, Omega free sprung balance and a new anti-shock system - more good stuff. (ETA - I've no idea on the movements origin, but the coaxial bit is a Daniels innovation isn't it - do they use that in an ETA? I'd have thunk not, but I'm a bit sketchy on Omega movmnts!)
Very nice, something a bit different from the norm.
(Sorry CF, although a sapphire case back may be an option, the pics on the Omega site say solid back, strange when they go to the trouble of decorating the movement:
Edited by andy_s on Saturday 14th August 11:49
andy_s said:
(Sorry CF, although a sapphire case back may be an option, the pics on the Omega site say solid back, strange when they go to the trouble of decorating the movement
What a shocking waste.
Perhaps all that 4-dial stuff is just a module after all and the movement's no looker. I'm pretty sure the Daniels co-axial escapement actually *was* retro-fitted as a performance-enhancement to ETA base calibres (but IMO that's a bit like putting an 8-port cylinder head on an A-series - it's still an A-series technically, but it's starting to become a completely bespoke engine when you get to those levels of modification), but that and the 4-dial module… still possible on an ETA.
I need some Omega expert to point me in the direction of info on their movements because I'm still not sure how I should see Omega - they're currently in that grey-zone in my mind with Tag Heuer, where ancient-history put them as leading chronograph innovators, but they collapsed to become ETA-rebadgers, and now trying to reuse their heritage to build new movements and go back upmarket. The problem is that Omega and Tag sold a LOT of quartz versions of their iconic watches and also ETA-rebadge versions of their iconic watches. I guess I need to pull the back off my limited edition Speedy and see what the Reduced movement actually is (because that one simply *can't* be a 7750 - too small) and then search the net for Omega resources.
(and yes, sadly I'm well aware that my favourite manufacture, JLC, make quartz watches. Only some of the ladies' versions though IIRC, and they *still* produce the 101 movement for ladies' jewellery-watches (smallest mechanical movement in the world, still, it's phenomenal). And yes, Patek sell quartz steel watches for £8500. I'm *so, so, so* glad I went for the JLC mechanical for Miss Cyberface over the Patek quartz, she really appreciates the difference now and is on the way to becoming a bit of a mechanical-movement-snob herself
Back on topic, the lack of a display caseback on a dressier watch like that (it's not as tool-like as a Seamaster or Speedmaster) when it's got a genuinely innovative movement (or claims to have, as really it does even if Omega aren't claiming anything)… well it's suspicious and a deal-breaker for me. Perhaps all it is, at the end of the day, is an ETA 2892 with the Daniels escapement bolted on and a piggyback chrono module supporting the 4 dials. Well so what - that's still an attractive movement (the 2892 is the most attractive of the popular OEM-used ETA movements anyway IMO) and if they've decorated and finished it properly with anglage, polishing and different guilloche patterns on the plates and wheels then it'll look superb. Perhaps they haven't finished it as well as they claim.
Why hide a light like *that* under a bushel?
BTW CF, thought you would like this tale, it being of JLC, fakery and eagle eyed observation of small detail( 
) -
http://www.tz-uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t...
) - http://www.tz-uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t...
Edited by andy_s on Sunday 15th August 10:39
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