Hi,

I joined the site towards the end of last year after fumbling through my first Speedmaster acquisition. As the titles states, I should have come here before making that purchase. When I joined, I was in the middle of resolving the matter of a watch that was not as advertised (by a long shot). I wanted to let it play out before sharing the episode here.

My tale of woe:

In August, last year, I made a spur of the moment purchase of an Omega Speedmaster (175.0032 calibre 2890-2 / 1140). I bought it from an on-line shop called Huckberry. It was advertised as: "restored to factory specifications, condition 8 of 10 and water resistant".

Upon taking delivery of it, my (definitely uneducated) observation was the it was a very beautiful looking piece. However, within the first couple of days I noticed condensation under the crystal. From the warranty paperwork that I was provided, I found out the watch was actually supplied to Huckberry by The Watch Society (TWS). I found a way to contact them on line and sent an email explaining the situation. The email was responded to almost immediately. I was provided with a Fedex shipping label and assurances that they would fix the watch and return it immediately. The turn around time was spectacular. I got the watch back in a little over a week. However, upon taking it out of the packaging the following were noted: there were nasty looking scratches on the back of the case (like someone used a knife to pry the case-back off) and more significantly, the stem could not be pulled out (period). So I contacted TWS again and again, was given a return label and assurances they would fix the watch.

At this point, I had to leave home for two months on a business trip. The watch came to my house while I was gone. When I returned in late November, and put the watch on (it did seem to work), I found out that it would not keep time during a 24 hour period. At this time, my research began. (Spare me the lectures on this, as I know this is way late to have begun researching this purchase .)

I discovered Christian Dannemann and made arrangements for him to repair the watch. I contacted TWS to let them know that I expected them to cover the cost of the repair. I explained that given their past performance I would not trust them to repair the watch another time. I made the decision to use Christian whether TWS would pay for the repair or not. I was prepared to wash my hands of them in the interest of just getting the watch restored.

Christian discovered a multitude of problems with the watch upon opening it up and digging in: reverser wheel damaged, two support rings for movement missing, missing stop lever, yoke not installed/engaged properly, fourth wheel wonky, internals grimy with grease and debris, pushers needed replacing, (now the good part), the watch case and crystal were glued into position. Upon testing, the pusher and case were determined to be too pitted to seal against water intrusion (hence the glue).

In short, the watch was in very poor condition, except that it was polished to look "restored".

After explaining all this to my contact at TWS (a gentleman named Eddie Chivu), they agreed to pay for all the repairs conducted by Christian and refund my purchase price. So, despite the problems, the outcome is quite good. My respect for Eddie is unshakable. Throughout the "ordeal", he always responded and always took responsibility for making things right. How the watch came to be in such a poor state (compared to the advertised condition) is a matter TWS says they will be looking into.

Overall, this is as good an outcome as I could have expected. I hate to admit being such an unprepared buyer. This event has introduced me to this site and opened my eyes beyond what I would have thought possible to the level of information available to would be buyers. Despite the condition of the watch, TWS took responsibility and made things right. This information is not being shared to run them down, just to share an experience that others may learn from.

As a result, I elected to purchase a new Professional instead of searching out a "reduced". I think I made the right choice .

 

So! You sent the watch back? If you did, I think you did the right thing. Reading between the lines on this MB, I get the distinct impression that most prefer the Speedmaster Professional to the "reduced" model. Although I enjoy my reduced as much as I do my Professional.

 

It was sent directly from the repair shop to TWS. They refunded my purchase price after receiving it.

 

Interesting story. I'm glad that it worked out for you.