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A WARNING to anyone with a Vintage Longines watch (unfair Longines practices)

Syrte
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I seem to remember MWR member “Antoine” on MWR or another member has had some of those rings replicated. Might even sell them on Ebay if you look.

Bit suprising to hear Longines wanted to restore or replace the dial. Did your watch go all the way to the manufacture in Switzerland? They have a vintage watchmaking workshop there that is very much attuned to working with collectors, but there may also have been some turnover with new people in that department.
 
watchyouwant
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A ALiEN2108
I refused to pay 2400eur for bogus service claim and wanted only movement holder ring. They did not want to provide one. Thus 2 months wasted and NOTHING done.

Has it ever occured to you, that the Factory might not have one left? Did they tell you, they have it in stock ? Or need to machine one for you after the service ? If you call Longines a " Greedy Vendor....", you should send a Rolex Sub Big Crown to the Rolex factory and ask for a missing part and see the estimate , which you reject and want your watch back . And they will only send your watch back to you , after you pay them for the inspection and service quote. Which will be a few 100's Dollares....Your rambling is understandable, but Longines Is far from a Greedy Vendor. They care about their history. You did ask for advice here and got all solutions from knowledgeable collectors. You did not follow any of them. So, step back and listen to advice for free. Then solve your problems. Easy.
 
A
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Joe_A Joe_A
The lesson or takeaway from my point of view is this:

Before one sends a watch out for service, make an effort to find out what the recipient's policy is on service.

The WARNING should be something like: "Look before you leap."

I do not see fault on the part of Longines for offering full-service only.
I do not see fault on the part of any watch manufacturer for not wanting to sell rare vintage or custom made parts for a vintage watch to an end-user.
However; Longines is not completely innocent here.

I did just have a look at the Longines site:

https://www.longines.com/en-us/send-and-service-your-watch

I then went to the "Services Pricing" section and a partial service is listed as an option:

https://www.longines.com/en-us/maintenance-prices

I assume the pricing pertains only to current or recent model watches, but it's not made clear.

In looking over the prices, it would be reasonable to think that the service that the OP wanted would cost much less than $2,400 EUR.

Longines could do with a better policy statement concerning the servicing of vintage watches.

One is invited to make an inquiry and I would hope that Longines would set a proper expectation level if one were to write them and describe what is wanted.

Cheers,

Joe

Indeed, I expected something in the neighbourhood, which I would gladly pay. Not to forget, I DID correspond with them before sending the watch to them multiple times. I did let them know my sole objective is to get missing part. The arrangement was not what it turned out.
Edited:
 
A
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Syrte Syrte
I seem to remember MWR member “Antoine” on MWR or another member has had some of those rings replicated. Might even sell them on Ebay if you look.

Bit suprising to hear Longines wanted to restore or replace the dial. Did your watch go all the way to the manufacture in Switzerland? They have a vintage watchmaking workshop there that is very much attuned to working with collectors, but there may also have been some turnover with new people in that department.

Yes corresponded directly to Switzerland (I am in Europe) and watch went directly to them. THEY - Longines SWITZERLAND - listed dial replacement as part of the service.
Edited:
 
Joe_A
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A ALiEN2108
Indeed, I expected something in the neighbourhood, which I would gladly pay. Not to forget, I DID correspond with them before sending the watch to them multiple times. I did let them know my sole objective is to get missing part. The arrangement was not what it turned out.

Sorry, I missed the part where you contacted Longines in advance of sending in the watch to clarify the level of service you were seeking.

Also . . .

The Website area where repairs and maintenance is discussed, suggests that they do entertain repairs that do not require full service or restoration. I find the site to be misleading . . . or at the least, there is ambiguity..
 
Bernhard J
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As others said, it seems not unusual for todays manufacturers to provide "services", which shock any collector. Maybe 15 or 20 years ago I sent a near mint 50s V&C watch to them for service. Not cheap, but did not kill me. But what really annoyed me was that they replaced the really fine original windng crown by a modern one. And answered to my request for returning the original one that they had disposed of it 🫨.

Turning to Longines, I must praise them with respect to their archives services. I asked them for an archives extract for a pocket watch and received this within a week and without any charge (not even postage). This is really great and the present general policy with respect to documentation. Others ask for the same service 150.-- upwards.

Extract from the Archives.jpg
 
Andy_timeman
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A bit (lot) of a very misleading headline. You have a rare watch with a missing part. Others have given you cheaper options to sort it out. You ignored all suggestions. Perhaps you have been lucky and bought it much cheaper because of that simple issue. Who knows...good luck to you if that is the case. The watch is vintage with more years than almost all of us commenting. I find it amazing that a company will entertain any request concerning repair. In Switzerland things are expensive and requires time processing your order. I imagine the work you do also costs money and your business or the one who employs you runs at a profit. Deal with most companies and they will say we don't have parts for that after 5 years. American Standard has plastic gear wheels in their top-of-the-line vanity taps with no replacements. In the watch space it is reasonably well known that vintage rare or needed parts trade on the secondary market on many occasions trade for multiples of what they may physically have cost years ago to produce or what someone may have paid for them a few years ago.... why?? simply because people want them and they may help someone finish their project and make a piece of horological history tick again. I am sure I am not the only one with something in the vintage watch box that I have spent 5 or 10 years looking for one or two missing things to fix it.
 
Zapatta
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Not getting what you want, doesn't make Longines unfair..
 
A
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Zapatta Zapatta
Not getting what you want, doesn't make Longines unfair..

No, a 2500EUR suggested "repair" charge does. As you can see this watch needs a regular maintenance which is indeed quoted on Longines Web site as something in neighbourhood of 500-1000EUR.

Quoting 2.500EUR WITHOUT any itemisation and directly linking replacing one simple part in the watch to that does. Only after challenging such quote they said "Replacement of the dial...Are you kidding me? Replacing a dial?! Did I send the watch to a butcher shop!? I rest my case.
 
A
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Andy_timeman Andy_timeman
A bit (lot) of a very misleading headline. You have a rare watch with a missing part. Others have given you cheaper options to sort it out. You ignored all suggestions. Perhaps you have been lucky and bought it much cheaper because of that simple issue. Who knows...good luck to you if that is the case. The watch is vintage with more years than almost all of us commenting. I find it amazing that a company will entertain any request concerning repair. In Switzerland things are expensive and requires time processing your order. I imagine the work you do also costs money and your business or the one who employs you runs at a profit. Deal with most companies and they will say we don't have parts for that after 5 years. American Standard has plastic gear wheels in their top-of-the-line vanity taps with no replacements. In the watch space it is reasonably well known that vintage rare or needed parts trade on the secondary market on many occasions trade for multiples of what they may physically have cost years ago to produce or what someone may have paid for them a few years ago.... why?? simply because people want them and they may help someone finish their project and make a piece of horological history tick again. I am sure I am not the only one with something in the vintage watch box that I have spent 5 or 10 years looking for one or two missing things to fix it.

All opinions and ideas here were sent AFTER my "encounter" with Longines (and my post). They are highly appreciated and I followed the ideas. So I did not ignore them, but I got them as an answer to my original post.
 
Bernhard J
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Since my experience with V&C I avoid sending a vintage watch to the manufacturer, because they indeed tend to replace anything, which is not in a new condition, including dial, crown, case, and even perhaps the whole movement 🤨.

By I am afraid, others are not better.... I recall having sent a fairly vintage Omega (not collectable back then) of my mother to Omega perhaps 3 decades ago. They did a really nice job, including replacement of the dial by a proper NOS and identical (!) dial. And the total costs were reasonable. The old dial was returned also. But this is long ago, I do not know how they would handle such job nowadays.

If I would today nevertheless make another try (I surely will not), I would make conditional, that any and all replaced parts are returned together with the "serviced" watch.

2500 € for a service of a simple time-only watch is clearly unreasonable anyway, even if you would "value" the missing part alone with 500 €. A good watchmaker would probably not charge more than 500 €, if at all. I am happy that I personally am able to attend to most issues myselfe ... 😀. Sometimes it takes time, if parts are needed. I have been looking for a bracelett link for my Speedmaster 125 since long and just recently found one (though perhaps a Chinese lookalike, it differs slightly).
Edited:
 
Syrte
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@ALiEN2108 Contrary perhaps to other watch companies, Longines has made a significant investment in a vintage restoration workshop which is working hand in hand with their archives department and also in a regular dialogue with longtime collectors of the brand. They do charge indeed in the vicinity of 2500 euros because indeed,
among other specific services they will give you access to a unique parts drawer which will have brand new parts that can be over 100 years old— in your case we’re talking 80 years old. While it wasn’t what you’re looking for, there are many people who are glad they can have an ancient watch restored.
Whatever you saw on their website about selling separate parts without a full service may well apply to their more modern watches, but I’ve never heard of such thing when it comes to vintage watches.
 
A
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size11s size11s
To the OP, this watch could well have the retainer spring that you need. Or did your watchmaker manage to machine the one you had to fit?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/134367683247?hash=item1f48f022af:g:LHcAAOSwpVVjmzl1&amdata=enc:AQAHAAAAoG45TjYde4+e4xDiaoAoLmkHZRrjocG6wceANnQEzgVhXUnLibmZxb9XL+SBLiyFPuFS1VaueUEhbtj8YekAYe/IJnLaecUvQ7UXRz7dpVR7CqmhqF50ZFpg1YBbQfqVjUPFd87oyMjV/LmSmHPlWAXej931Mq9wcYnFX6FLI1EDmHZECCi1mpJDCo7RBFFzftXVw9cFaLwGl+I9aLIu9vM=|tkp:Bk9SR4rKkZGkYQ&LH_ItemCondition=3000

Thank you, yes I have sent the watch with Sei Tacche model that has such sprint (a bit larger outer diameter) to local Watchmaker. Will post the results, once the watch is back!
 
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DirtyDozen12
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size11s
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Ah, I didn't look that closely, apologies. As the OP has gone down another route it's irrelevant.
 
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