... that, once born, continued to be told and retold, primarily online. It started already with the Piguet 1185: Everybody "knew" it was a delicate movement destroyed already by the first rough bump. And yet those people responsible for the after sales service, not only of brands using this particular movement, but also of brands with other chronograph movements could not support that. The Piguet does not fail more often than other movements. My wife had no difficulties damaging her Lémania 5100 movement, that is called "NATO caliber", because of its claimed absolute ruggedness, so what? Of my three Zenith 400s, one had problems, making this a failure rate of 33.33 percent - is this a statistically valid conclusion?
I am aware that during the first few years, the Omega cal. 33xx was said to have problems. Neither I nor SAV watchmakers I know can confirm this. Yet, given the huge sales numbers of this movement family, both with Swiss lever and Co-axial escapements, I fail to hear that many problem reports that should be expected, if the stories about the movement's technical unreliability would be true.
Chronograph movements are complicated, in fact they belong to the highest complications in watchmaking. Their sheer number and popularity makes the watches cheaper in production than, say, a perpetual calendar, and yet it is much more complicated. and includes a higher parts count. The more parts are there, the higher is the risk of failure, which is a fully natural relation. Omega SAV people have their experience with it, as have Rolex and Zenith staff members.
Regards,
Marcus