Another thread on whether or not to service vintage watches reminded me of an incredible shoddy service / watchmaker story, but it ends well. The moral of the story is that it’s so great to have a good watchmaker you can trust.

When I bought a 1942 RAF Omega, I sent it for service to a watchmaker described as “serious” by a couple people on French watch forums.
I had bought a couple watch straps from him on Ebay, he had top ratings and seemed a nice guy.

After a while, he called to say he had serviced the watch but it was a nightmare to time and regulate, the balance staff was too worn and the only solution was to perform an expensive balance staff replacement or to change the balance entirely.

After posting on another forum, I told him I wanted to replace the entire balance and was lucky to find one myself. He did the work and returned the original balance to me with the watch. Then after another job, he told me he had an accident, could not work for several months, and through a pal I found my now “go to” watchmaker.

Fast forward to a year or so ago, I decided to ask my watchmaker to return the original RAF balance back to working order and replace the damaged balance staff. Well guess what.
The original bimetallic balance of that historic watch was completely fine.

One must conclude that initial watchmaker had lied, to try and extract a significant fee for a supposed balance staff replacement. He probably didn’t imagine I would post on a watch forum where pals advised a complete replacement. And he probably did not imagine a female newbie would find a non incabloc balance complete from the 1940s.

I now suspect his “accident” occurred when he realized that despite being a complete newbie, I was already well engaged onto a path he did not want to follow, ie “please keep the original hands of watch Number one, with the original dial of donor Number 2”- and “can you please try to put some yellow color on the new lume”?

 

I belong to a Watch and Clockmakers Association in my area and I couldn't believe the disdain for collectors by some.
That's when I changed my title from collector to "tinkerer".

Isn't finding a good watchmaker our most important search?

 

... and the search for funds to keep paying the bills.

 

My mother has a local watchmaker near her who charged her 300 euros to service a manual wind 1960s gold Omega - that’s the price he quotes when there’s no problem to fix.

She wanted a bigger crown for an easier wind: he supplied a gold plated one and never returned the 18k original gold crown...

When I started getting interested in vintage watches and went to talk to him he started complaining about all of those people who think they can buy old watches on flea markets and on the internet and then think those watches can be fixed.
And they don’t realize that means having to find parts for old movements that don’t exist anymore.
Well.... yeah....

 

I am blessed to be in this thing of ours and living in an area with good watchmakers. I’m always aghast when I read some of the stories posted here. A real watchmaker can repair any watch. A real watchmaker can source and fabricate. A real watchmaker stands by their work. So far so good.

 

I had a early 1900s marine clock overhauled rather expensively by the local watch & clockmaker, a member of most of the big associations and a factory trained Omega technician you would expect good work. The clock never ran right afterwards and was returned several times with no improvement. Giving up on the guy was hard as he was a personal friend and fellow church goer, but off the the local ancient German in the cluttered hole in the wall it went...

Ingo showed me a completely shot balance assembly and ancient springs that I had already paid good money to replace, I had been royally ripped off by a friend! Ingo worked on it for ages and finally got it running well, charging me nothing because he said he took too long to get it right.

Needless to say, Ingo has gotten a lot of business from me since.

 

The majority of the reason I was comfortable getting into collecting vintage watches was living in the D.C. area, so Zaf Basha from classicwatch.com was close by. Probably one of the most reliable people I've met when taking watches in for fixing, servicing, etc. and the bonus for me is not having to worry about international shipping nightmares.

But at some point, after hearing all these stories, I'm realizing I either need to learn to fix watches myself or have dummy watches that I send in for repair to "test" potential new watchmakers in case Zaf decides to leave/retire.

 

I have used a few incompetent watchmakers. These watchmakers had positive reviews and plenty of business from other watch owners. Given my experience with them I honestly don't understand how they are still in business.

Fortunately I have since found two great watchmakers.

 

I have used a few watchmakers and have settled onto a few favourites for different jobs.

One thing that can't be escaped is that all watchmakers are perpetually busy, so please ensure the ones you leave your precious tools behind are well treated and respect their time fixing what is dear to you

 

I don't think watchmakers, as a group, are any different than any other profession or industry that provides some sort of service. There are good ones, and disappointing ones. And, yes, it is a blessing when you find anyone who's competent, trust-worthy, honest, and won't gouge you. That being said, I'm doing better with watchmakers than dentists; I've gone through four of the latter, and still can't find one I can stand.

 

Lucky indeed as he really knows his stuff and some of the “sympathetic” restorations he posted on the web are amazing.

 

...or 2. 3's a charm...

...and they do it all without superglue.

FIFY and +1.

 

Oh the woes occasioned by some watchmakers and the pleasures produced by the good ones! I've had a well reviewed watchmaker who refused to refund the cost of his service fee for a Connie 168.010 when the shipper (UPS) lost the watch when he shipped it back to me, and another who wanted to add a thicker gasket to a Connie 168.005 to deal with a rubbing rotor AFTER a $500 service. @Archer and others helped me avoid that catastrophe. More recently a good OF member introduced me to his watchmaker, and he gave my UG Polerouter a sympathetic service for a very reasonable charge and a quick turnaround.

 

I find myself in a position now where lots of people tell me stories of good, and bad watchmakers - possibly as some sort of therapy over a pint.

It often turns out that one collectors "hero" watchmaker, is another collectors "villain" watchmaker.

A fairly consistent trend being various watchmakers who are fantastic at fixing XYZ watch brand/movement, are awful at every other watch brand/movement, and yet rather than refuse the watches they don't know, take them in... and then does a less than satisfactory job.

 

I'm not even going to ask how you consistently find these things...

 

Yes. I'm convinced that they take jobs on despite their better judgement in an attempt to help the customer, and then find themselves in over their heads. At least in most cases.

 

That’s interesting. Mine hates the double modules of the Speedmaster automatic movement which he says is crap- and he also hates Seiko.
Thanfully I haven’t had to push him too much outside of his comfort zone except he thinks some small ladies watch movements are a pain.

 

I'm glad your watchmaker enjoys working on regular speedmaster's movements, phew

 

I think there's a mix of things, including (but not exclusively):

1 - They need/want the work/money
2 - As you say @kkt they want to help the customer
3 - Arrogance
4 - Ignorance
5 - Bad Luck