alistair

Anyone know of a good place ?

My Seamaster chronometer is running a bit slow. The place my wife took it into wanter £230 which seems a bit steep.

Iwan

I sent my Speedmaster to Omega/Swatch UK for a service recently, cost me about £150.

Give them a call on 02380646800.

If you send the watch to them cocooned in bubble wrap, when they send it back they usually send you a cool padded/zippered travel case.

lozgti

I have a rather nice one and am tempted to do the above.

Whats the deal on insurance if you are sticking it in the post??

cheers

alistair

Thanks

I guess Royal Mail Special Delivery for the post

r32

Always Omega, no one else.

Freak

Noone covers watches in the mail.... not even royal mail special delivery or fedex.
Investigate and see -its in the small print

Iwan

Royal Mail Special Delivery is ok for watches, in fact lots of watch companies use it to deliver watches or recommend people use it when they send them in for servicing.

You're right about Fedex, DHL etc, they usually have an exclusion for watches/jewelery in the small print. I just checked again and Special Delivery doesn't have any exclusions as far as I can see.

GC8

Time-Repairs in Bolton: look on t'internet. About £65 each for my old mechanical Omegas, as opposed to the comedy £200+ prices proposed by jewellers returning them to Swatch...

alistair

It's about 6 years old & losing about a minute every hour or 2 - so I guess it needs a bit of TLC

yoza

Do you know what a proper service involves on a mechanical watch?

When you get a real service and you moan about the £200-300 bill, you are actually getting a bargain.

There is a lot to it, and a lot of skill and specialist tooling required.

Joe Bloggs at the WatchDoctor/heel bar cant do it, even if he has got a huge sign up saying Rolex Trained Technicians.

Would you let a young spotty YTS at Halfords service your Ferrari.....if you had a Ferrari....NO, do you get where Im coming from ?

GC8

Half of the money charged for an Omega service goes to the Jeweller, for sending it. Not value in that instance. The £65 Ive quoted for a mechanical date from Time-Repairs is brilliant value though.

SC008Y_MAD

iTrader: (5)

I have just looked on the Omega website and found 3 place that are part of the customer service network

Customer Service Network

Devildog

That makes the £130 for the actual service an absolute bargain considering what gets done.

You will also usually get a 12 month warranty if you have it serviced by the manufacturer's UK arm.

All in, as yoza says, £230 is not expensive considering what gets done, irrespective of who gets what share of the price charged.

GC8

My watches will keep going to Bolton.

Devildog

Wouldn't have thought otherwise

GC8

Clicky. Some sample prices: Omega Mechanical Service or Repair £60.00. Omega Mechanical Service or Repair with date £70.00. Omega Automatic Service or Repair with or without date £85.00. Rolex Oyster Perpetual Date-Just £175.00.

I cant fault the bloke.

yoza

Brian's Profile

After reading your post and the above, I would happily let him work on my watches.

I would be a bit worried at how fast his turnaround would be as he works alone, I have just filled in a job sheet so we shall see how it goes.

Thanks for the info.

lozgti

Is it really bad not to be servicing it?

Mine is a 1950's/60's constellation.Last time it was serviced was probably when it was passed down to me about 20 years ago.

Don't use it very often though do try and keep it wound (even that I am bad at,but it still seems to keep good time)

I understand the car/watch servicing analogy.I suppose to some extent its a bit like people who buy exotic cars and can't afford to service them..bit like me with the watch.... but I inherited it not chose it!

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

I don't think the car analogy is really a good one...

With a car service, you're regularly replacing inexpensive parts in order to prolong the life of much more expensive ones. Each service is a small amount of work compared to fully stripping and rebuilding the entire engine.

However, with a good watch service, that's what you're doing. You're not just opening the back, vacuuming out the dust and giving it a spray of WD-40 - the whole mechanism is dismantled, worn parts replaced, then the whole thing is reassembled, the case polished and the watch returned almost 'as new'.

From that point of view, provided the watch continues to keep good time, there's arguably little point sending it for service - given that a service and a major repair are so close to being one and the same thing. The cost of a few extra parts is probably small compared to the watchmaker's labour.

Often the clue that a watch needs servicing is that it ceases to keep accurate time, because parts are getting worn or lubricants are no longer working properly. But if it keeps working, I personally can't see any reason to worry.

GC8

Im sure Ive told you about him before fella? He is looking at about four to six weeks, which is better than most manufacturers agents quote. I dont know how it compares with other thrid party repairers, but Id expect it to be competitive.

Simon

GC8

Its impressive isnt it? Especially when you look at the prices. £60 for my Seamaster and £85 for my Dynamic and theyll both come back virtually like new.

GC8

For outraged Lancastrians: Bury, Bolton: its all the same to me.....