The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I have no opinion about this as I will concede that many here have a more educated / informed opinion than mine; however, I am curious to know which watch brand you think is the most reliable? Meaning: which watch brand tends to have the least amount of mechanical problems with its various timepieces? Any opinions as to why you think one watchmaker is more reliable than others would be appreciated as well.

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PAM359, Omega PO Big Size, 1951 Omega Seamaster, Rolex Sea Dweller

I have bought several watches from a private dealer in town, sells all used, all types and has been trained in Switzerland. He tells me that he thinks the Rolex movement is the most robust and most durable. As for me, I have owned a Rolex, Breitlings, Omegas and a Ulysse Nardin over the past nine years, and aside from a regular service, I haven't had a problem with any of them.

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Scott

AP Royal Oak 15400, silver
Zenith Chronomaster El Primero Classic Cars
Vintage gold Corum
Rolex DJ 36 TT, oyster dial, oyster/smooth
Baume & Mercier Riviera 200m, silver dial/aquamarine bezel
Breitling Superocean 57, rose/stainless

I immediately thought Rolex because their movement development is more mature than most manufacturers so they have been able to eliminate more problems from the design / manufacture processes. The same could be said for ETA based pieces as well, although there is dependence on the skill of the person casing up.

Going forward Ulysse Nardin will likely go up the ranks as they are at the leading edge of integrating silicon into mainstream watches which will significantly extend service intervals.

I agree with the Rolex (and ETA) assessment, by virtue of the fact that they've been around for a long time and fundamental flaws of design and manufacturer (plus QA processes) tend to be ironed out over time.

But I think it's also worth remembering that a lot of the time we only hear about issues when manufacturers are poor at resolving the problem, as I'm certainly not aware of any company releasing any official defect figures. As we know, a lot of people will sign up on a forum like this just to bitch about the watch/brand as a result of the manufacturer not just sucking it up and fixing the problem immediately and without any fuss. From what I've heard, Rolex are very good at fixing issues nice and quickly (and quietly), so it may be a case that Rolex get a proportionally sized number of issues, but sorts them out without any fuss.

That said, and to return to the original line, I agree that the longer a movement has been around, thw more likely it will be to be reliable..... assuming the company has cared about it's reputation enough over the years to make the necessary investment to deal with issues.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

No idea of the answer (and I doubt there's any way of establishing a reliable answer) but in terms of numbers of functioning movements, I wouldn't be surprised if it's Seiko.

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I had the same exact thought. Just popped right into my head. Bar-none, I just don't think youll find better reliabilty than Seiko.

If we're talking Swiss-made, then I'd agree with Roff and D8 and say Rolex and ETA are good bets.

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“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.” - Albert Einstein

7550 bases and eta are like small block chevys. i keep getting rolex's at work with big problems. the day date and datejust models keep breaking crowns and shafts all the time. hard to say whats the best.

quartz!!