It is so sad that Simplex followed the marvelous 61, with the Prestige which essentially killed them.
-Quoth Sixty Fiver
Killed them? Not hardly. I suspect they sold more Prestige derailleurs than all their previous models combined. Unless you mean the Prestige killed off the earlier, better Simplex models.
You are right about the Prestige being pretty good when new. They wore out rapidly and were prone to breakage. The fronts were worse than the rears, but the rears weren't much good after a short time.
Campagnolo wrung that basic design for all it was capable of at the end.
-Quoth Repechage
Yup.
Interesting to contrast the Record family with the Valentino/Velox/Gran Turismo gizmos.
Kind of like Porsche: Record is to 911 as V/V/GT is to 914.