Omega Slit Second cal.3600 & In House Movement

[João de Deus]

Recentemente comprei um Speed Rattrapante, que por sinal gostei muito, e em pesquisa na net encontrei um fórum com alguns esclarecimentos sobre o movimento Omega 3600 feito pelo Chuck Maddox.
Achei interessante o fato de que a princípio a Omega iria entregar um movimento completamente novo "in house" o que não ocorreu, motivo pelo qual entregaram cerca de 5 mil relógios com a complicação Split-Second e COSC.

Link:
http://forums.watchuseek.com/f20/speedmaster-automatic-chronometer-calibre-3600-rattrapante-86122.html

Explicações do Maddox:

Here is the schtick... Yes, the Calibre 3600 "Split-Seconds" [This is the correct name... Omega calls a completely different chronograph model the Rattrapante - even though the terms [Split-Seconds/Rattrapante] are interchangable] was announced in 1999 as a completely new "clean-sheet" in-house movement powered model. However, Omega had problems with this movement... They couldn't get it to run reliably or when they did, it wouldn't keep good time... So even though they had announced the product, it wasn't being produced, wasn't in production and customers who'd placed advance orders with Authorized Dealers were calling the AD's for updates and AD's would call their Omega Rep's and get the same answer: We're still working on it...

A year passed, then 18 months, eventually [I personally lost track of exactly how long Omega tinkered trying to get their in-house design to fulfill all of the design requirements] Omega finally gave up in frustration on their in-house attempt and to get the model out the door and get the folks who'd been chomping at the bit off everyone's back, they decided to used a modified Valjoux[/ETA] 7750 based movement tuned to Chronometre spec's.

Also by this time the MSRP of the watch ballooned up to $4,400 for the bracelet model [I don't remember the MSRP for the watch on a Kevlar Strap, or if the Carbon-Fibre dialed model exacted a premium or not]. So you had a situation where some people had waited a couple of years for a "New In-House" model, expecting a certain price point and then Omega delivered something else at a higher price. Certainly some of those potential customers bailed out, and for a time there, this was the most expensive Stainless Steel chronograph Omega made, so it was difficult for Omega and it's dealers to attract new customers to take up the slack. So as a result, sales weren't especially high. Add to that that Omega really didn't put much marketing into the project, which by this time was viewed as a bad-luck product.

In fact, while I had modest interested in the product when it was announced, when I saw the first one's hit the shelves I was very under-whelmed. I saw both pictures and an example in person at my local AD and it was the Black Dial Carbon Fibre model. Now traditionally I dislike Carbon-Fibre dials as the weight savings is negligible, the carbon-fibre weave makes the dial busy and difficult to read. Until someone, Walter I believe, posted pictures of a silver dialed example over in TZ OF. That was a model I liked... So by that time the Forum Favorite AD didn't have any and couldn't order another one. But he put his Rep and feelers out in the AD community and within a couple of months was able to obtain one for me.