Brand Appreciation - WD0017C Ramble
Is it just me, or is WatchDives the most responsive brand to their customers?
Today I was looking into the WD0017C (aka Baby Ploprof). As usual, I was combing through old reddit posts relevant to the watch, and I realized that the idea to make this homage/revival was directly suggested by a Redditor just over a year ago. https://www.reddit.com/r/watchdives/comments/1meb6in/omega_baby_ploprof_homage_proposal/
Within 6 months of that post, WD introduced V1 of the watch. I don't know if that was kismet (perhaps they were already developing this homage?), or they took that suggestion and literally sprinted with it to production.
Three months after the V1 release, they announce a V2 with updates that seem to be entirely sourced from customer suggestions, either from Reddit, or Youtube.
On the dial, "water resistance" became "water resistant" to appease the grammar nerds, and the central facets of the bracelet went from polished to brushed to reduce the bling factor. Also the taper of the bracelet went down from 18mm to 16mm, which better conforms to their overall tooling for accessories - now the V2 works with their OTF adjustable clasp. Then the most incredible thing happened 2 weeks ago - someone posted a complaint about how the included screw driver for resizing ended up stripping their screws, and guess what, WD responded with this:
>"Since you raised this issue, we took it seriously. Today, we returned all of the current screwdrivers in our warehouse to the factory and asked them to replace them with the highest-grade version available, with much better hardness and a stronger tip. This will increase our cost a little, but we think it’s worth it if it gives customers a safer and better experience when adjusting the bracelet."
Who does this...? 🤯
The next evolution of this reference will be a smaller automatic version around 37mm, and I see how eager folks are for that release - every post about the watch has comments asking for the ETA of the auto version.
Last thing I wanted touch on is the attention to detail of this homage. The images included will help to illustrate. It started when I noticed bezel on the Date version of the watch looked warmer than the other variants. At first I thought it was just an error in the photography. But as I dug deeper, I found a post from an owner that confirmed the numbers on the bezel of the date version are indeed warmer. This feature is only available on the date version. That was also when I found a photo of the actual Omega with a similar kind of patina on the bezel, which I can only imagine WD used as primary reference.
I also noticed that there are two different dial designs. The variant with the orange minute hand has a mono block at 12 o'clock and chunkier indicies, while the yellow hand variant had slimmer dual batons. This difference is pertinent because they echo Omega's actual variants, as you can see in the included photos.
All of this is to say, someone at WatchDives is utterly obsessed with this watch, and we the consumer are luckier for their passion and attentiveness. Can you imagine any established major brand caring this much about their customer's opinions, while operating this efficiently? I was also thinking the level of steel finishing WD is doing far exceeds that of the original 1970s Omega. As much as I adore the design language of that era, I am well aware how jangly watches from that time were. If you were to time travel back to 1974 wearing this watch to the Omega factory, they would loose their freaking minds.
If you've gotten this far, thanks so much for taking the time to go on this meandering journey with me. Have a lovely day!