Dear fellow members, About two months ago, I decided to get my Connie serviced at a local watchmaker. I strictly instructed him to solely service the mechanism and not to touch the hands, dial, lume, crystal or case. After about a week or so, I received an e-mail that my watch was serviced and collected it. Unfortunately, I found that the lume is quite heavily damaged at 1 and 2 o'clock and is almost entirely gone at 4 and 6. My watchmaker now says that it is part of the risk of any service, for the lume deteriorates over time. I am very unpleased with the fact that the lume is gone and the argument my watchmaker has. I am deciding on whether or not to file a complaint against him, and to ask for a refund for the decrease in value. Could you guys help we with determining how much the watch's value has decreased because of the damaged lume? And was it to be expected that the lume would have been damaged during servicing? Thanks a million! Before: After:
Additionally, I found the replacement crown to be the wrong one (different color than the case, and too long), so I am also stuck with a useless Omega crown. I have placed the original one back.
easy fix to replace the lume. everybody can do that. need waterbased tritium and all is good. kind regards. achim
Yes, I know it is an easy fix with new lume, but that will decrease the collectability of the watch. This original lume has aged and is a perfect match with the hands.
The watchmaker wouldn't have pried the lume off, the tritium was obviously very fragile to begin with and fell off or flaked when the dial was handled. When watches are old and he tritium gets that fragile there's not much you can do.
That sucks... I'd be upset too. Won't be "original", but restoration/repair to match the rest of the lume can certainly be done.
If this were my watch I'd bring it up to the watchmaker, but not make too big of a deal over it. I would leave it alone even if I received a settlement. Any attempt at replacement isn't going to look right unless all of the dial lume was replaced at the same time. It was typical for those lume dots to fall off and/or be replaced as part of normal service of the watch. It might hurt the value a little, but it would be minor. Now if these were original "Mercedes" hands in a 1960's Rolex Explorer GMT...that would be a different conversation. gatorcpa
Although the watchmaker seems to have a bit of a blasé attitude, I doubt that this happened intentionally. As others have stated, old lume can be extremely fragile, and I have had lume fall off markers on dials, or come out of hands even with taking all the precautions I can take. It happens - not often but it does happen. Cheers, Al
Echoing the others, it does sound like much more of a customer service issue than a technical issue. Your watchmaker is right: sometimes it happens. Not his fault. You wanted the watch serviced, and this, unfortunately, comes with the territory. It also happens, with some frequency, in shipping. Even the most well padded, double boxed affairs are not immune. The stuff is extremely fragile and disintegrates into a poof of dust, which can then get into the movement and cause trouble.
Old lume is EXTREMELY fragile. Even with precautions, lume can easily fall off hands and dials and will always be a risk whenever a vintage watch is serviced.
On some watches I have even agreed with my watchmakers to relume especially hands infill. These are, depending on state, certain to fail and disperse into the freshly serviced movement. Take it slow and give the guy a chance to fix it. Cheers!
Thanks for your replies. I was not aware that the lume is that fragile and suspected my watchmaker to not have handled it with sufficient care. I will cut him some slack and learn to live with it! Cheers!
I was a recognized leader in industrial construction, a consummate professional with craftsman's skills, extensive experience and a caring soul. And, without fail, I screwed something up every single day. You came here for a sincere heart-to-heart discussion of your concerns. We admire your calm, steady approach. If you sit down with your watchmaker and express your concern in the same manner as you have here, I bet you will leave with a better understanding and also, will leave with a better friend. If not, just leave.