Big price jump on reps?

[mezzanine]

Since Josh and andrew now have public websites, the bulk of their sales are probably not to forum members. Price increase will probably not affect their overall sales, plus less knowledgable buyers are easier to please....JMO..... :wink:

Higgy 8)

Yeah, I agree with that notion. I think they're probably moving away from the forums as the primary sales vehicle.

My tastes tend to be for chronographs...and as more time goes by, the asian 7750 seems to be proving itself as a decent movement. I don't own an ETA 7750, but I do own a HBB, Cousteau, and have owned most of the other good chronos at one point or another...and haven't yet had a problem.

The non-chrono movements are simpler. I'm not as worried about those....

I think the ETA void is going to get filled by the Chinese....but if not, I still think it will get filled, and end up being somewhat anti-climactic.

What was the motivation for stopping distribution? Maybe the grey-market sales? Hmmm...

 

[pugwash]

What was the motivation for stopping distribution? Maybe the grey-market sales? Hmmm...

Simple: distribution of ebauches propped up their competition.

 

[amptor]

er I thought omega was part of swatch group

also omega quartz are ETA jeweled movements

plus I know a guy who has an automatic ETA omega and it wants to stop running after 4 years, I bet you a quartz would last at least 20 without service.

You are correct on all counts though even quartz watches require a new battery every few years and they too require service occasionally to keep them waterproof and properly timed!

If you get water in them or just beat the crap out of them they are both likely to fail in only a few years.

Buying a mechanical watch is like buying a classic car, they often require a little more attention, they are not quite as reliable but they are a lot more fun than a toyota camery, or a timex.


There are other issues with Swatch group besides just shutting off the supply of movements that is just plain silly, Swatch is just as interested in profit as anyone and they won't leave too big of a hole for competition in the market if they can help it!

It's my understanding that there are some patients due to expire on some of the technology in the 28xx and valjoux movements so it makes since that they would be interested in trimming off the production and designing a new series of movements (Valgranges) though they do continue to develop the 28xx series and Valjoux movements so they don't appear to have plans to discontinue either of them anytime soon.

There will be an ample supply of 28xx movements available into the future made by other Swiss companies like Sellita and lower grade movements from Asia. In both cases they simply won't have the ETA hallmark.

No matter how much fun the debate is the sky is just not falling, it's just rocking back and forth a bit!

you definitely have a point, I was just thinking a few minutes ago about the ETA quartz and I imagine it possibly could use some servicing, oiling and etc. It looks like a more complicated movement than some typical "EPSON" (WTF are they putting in these things these days, isn't that a printer company?) Japanese quartz movement. lol. so might as well get an automatic for a few hundred bucks more. It just was somehow interesting to see an omega smp that ticks after the hundreds of reps I've seen with ETA inside.

anyhow from what i've seen so far, when you compare an omega to a rolex... you'll find that the rolex is a more refined piece of machinery.

 

[sub4me]

Go try and find one of dealers sites on the web and good luck to you, you'll need it, do a search like some noob looking for reps and you'll soon find out their sites are about impossible to find. Theses dealers survive cause of these forums.

 

[LegendofSpeed]

I agree with that... I think the forums make up a good slice of their pie... or else they wouldn't jump on every customer service issue like they do (i mean andrew and josh mostly)....

has anyone else noticed the great influx of new members here? it feels to me in the past year and a half that i have been collecting that the community has grown in size by about 3 times... if not more... these new people are the ones paying the prices...

i think sellita is going to be good for all of us... it seems that will be able to fill the void, especially since their 7750 replacement is going to be here very shortly (if not here already)....

The pricing on reps reminds me of a conversation i had with the sister of the CFO of my company.... she is a senior VP with Arco (BP)... she was telling us that gas companies raise prices.... then lower them slightly, but never below what they used to be.... i remember when gas was $2.55-85 not too long ago.... then last year, it was $3.09-29 there for a while.... now, i see gas at $2.99 and i think it's cheap, but it's $0.15 more than i was paying last year... so, they have raised their prices and they leave me feeling thankful!

eta will not be sellling movements, rather whole or in part, to anyone who is not a business group of the parent organization.... i am sure you will be able to buy eta movements into 2011-2 timeframe but they will not be directly from eta, or have been bought from eta after 2010.... it makes perfect sense to me because when i just bought a brand new car last week, i loved the looks of the audi's, and would have definitely bought one if it had a honda "movement" under the hood... as it were, i still don't trust audi engines... and for anyone who is getting ready to say they are wonderful and to be trusted and blah,blah, blah... i have 5.....5! friends with 2 years or newer Audis (A4, TT, A6, RS4, so not just the cheapos)who have had major problems....

in the end... it's funny.... i remember conversations where people said they would be willing to pay a lot more for better builds in terms of closeness to gen.... and DSN was one of the first to show that we would pay $400 for a rep and be happy.... now, we have those better build reps (in terms of closeness to gen) at the prices we said we would pay and now we don't like the price....

be careful what you ask for, you may just get it....