Re: F300Hz

Selling essentially the same thing for different prices goes on all the time, in the automotive world, with airline tickets, etc. In basic economics we learn that price of a product is a single point X where supply and demand curves meet. But what happens in that case is that all the people who are willing to pay less than X are shut out of the market. If it is possible to do so, a producer's profits would be maximized if he could sell to all those people as well, as long as X was more than his marginal cost of producing one more unit. But there is a problem - if the producer charges less than X, then all the people who were willing to pay X will pay less and the producer will leave "money on the table". Historically you could size up each customer and charge them different prices when you were haggling in the bazaar. But in a modern economy each "item" has but a single MSRP. But, what constitutes an "item" - if you take the same thing, or more or less the same thing, and call one a "Seiko" and one a "Pulsar" or one seat is "business class" and the other is "tourist class" , one car is a luxury car (Lexus) and one is a family car (Toyota), then you can sell (essentially) the same thing for significantly different prices (on a plane, a first class ticket can be more than 10x the cost of a discount tourist ticket even though everyone gets there at the same time). And given the nature of mass production, it is much easier to just change the label than to set up another production line for the production of the lower priced item. The different "perceptions" of the product, so that consumers don't see them as being the same even though they really are (except for some minor features which don't really change the cost all that much - e.g. leather seats) are managed thru marketing. As savvy consumers it is up to us to figure out the similarities and exploit them. This goes on at all levels - once upon a time I had a BMW for which the oxygen sensor cost over $100 (even aftermarket - more at the dealer). After all it was an imported luxury car and everyone knows that import parts cost more, right? The Ford sensor had an identical business end and sold for $30. The only difference was the connector at the end of the wiring pigtail. So, with a quick splice job, the $30 Ford sensor became a $100 BMW sensor. Or you buy the $80 "Titus" instead of a $500 "Omega".



"Frank Adam" <fajp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:vo2rt4l24ta0oe3cppvqvivasjvqvqrv2g@xxxxxxxxxx
On Wed, 8 Apr 2009 10:54:44 -0400, "Jack Denver"
<nunuvyer@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


"Frank Adam" <fajp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4r7ot4hoeqprjsnres5snrvjs85n7gham9@xxxxxxxxxx
On Tue, 7 Apr 2009 22:20:23 -0400, "Jack Denver"
<nunuvyer@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I don't want it - I got me own now.

Eh, it's only a Titus. ;-)

I know your are joking ( I can tell from the smiley) but you touch a real
point - label counts for a lot in watches - the same chrono is worth x as a
"Chronographe Suisse" and several times x if it says "Breitling" on the
dial. This watch is an extreme example since it is not SIMILAR to some
Omega model, it literally WAS an Omega once upon a time. This has always
been true - witness the not inconsiderable amount of work that went into
delabeling this watch.

It is like the Seiko/Pulsar thing. That is one of my main beef with
Seiko actually(their pulling of all tech documents being on top of the
list). A lot of the Pulsars nowdays are precisely what your Titus is.
To me, this is even less moral than the fakers faking a watch
completely, because i would expect that if i buy a Mercedes for
200,000, i won't see the exact same car in front of me with a
different, but *official* badge and a price tag of only 100,000
hanging off the bumper.
Rebadging is used for marketing purposes, but when the two "different
brands" can only be separated by a 50% difference in their retail
value, that to me is highly unethical.
Of course Omega had done this before with rebadging a few of their
models to Tissots, but nowhere near on the scale that Seiko is doing.


Do you work on these? I know there was once upon a time a special tool to
turn the little 3 lobed regulator screws. Do you have this tool or what
do
you use to improvise?

No i don't have one of those. I'd just use the tweezers i guess, but i
don't repair the hummers.

I was thinking that perhaps something like a plastic pen barrel with some
notches filed into the tip might work.

Those TV trimmer tuner sets from Tandy-Radioshack, can be quite useful
to make litle things like that out of.. I bought one of those(come in
a pack of 6 or so for peanuts) some years ago and they all ended up
being one off tools or some such.
I think the pen barrel may be too wide, as you would want to see the
prongs actually turn..

One reason is, that i don't have a microscope, which is required to
set up the pawls properly. With 360 or so teeth on a 5 mm(if that)
diameter wheel and the 2 pawls having to be adjusted in relation to a
tooth width and depth, even the double loupe is out of that league.

I wonder whether a 10x binocular microscope (I see these on ebay for a few
hundred bucks in Chinese makes - maybe not the best but probably good
enough) would be a good thing to have anyway - I know my eyes ain't getting
any better.

When i worked on them we used an electro microscope, but can't recall
what the magnification was. The double loupe is 12x so i don't know
about that 10x microscope. I'd guesstimate that you'd need at least a
30x or so. Remember that the horizontal setting of the pawl is that
you can just see a gap between it and the tooth surface.. There is not
a lot of daylight to see there on any day. :)

I am somewhat tempted to make a frankenwatch out of this and put an Omega
F300hz Seamaster dial back on it (and back if I could find one - it's

Faker alert ! Faaaker alert !!!!! ;-)

This raises all sorts of interesting philosophical questions (I hate
I.P.Q.'s) - if a watch was originally built as an Omega and someone
literally ground the Omega markings off, is it "fake" to put them back on?

Hm.. probably not, as it would come under the "restoration" tag.
However, if that "someone" grinding it off was the manufacturer and
they've intended it to be a Titus and ten you eliminate the Titus
branding and re-style it to be an Omega, that would be considered
faking. IMHO.. of course. :)

Mind you, i'm not saying you shouldn't do that if you wish to do it.
You bought the watch, so AFAIC, it is yours to do with it as you
please. As long as you don't offer it for sale as a genuine Omega, i
see no problems at all and to hell with anyone who does.
That includes Microsoft... Yeah, i know, but i just had to say it. :)

The case is just about the only part I DON'T need - that is all there. Not
clear to me whether you could get a dive bezel back onto it.

hard to tell from the picture, but i don't think the required bezel
ridge is there. It seems to have been machined off ? You should have
about 1-1.5mm high, flat sided ridge right around.
If it is there, you may find a replacement one on Ofrei, they have a
fair few Omega bezels and also some universal ones that may do the
job.
Not cheap, so you'd want to be sure about this.

--

Regards, Frank

.

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