Hi Everyone, Just lost a spring bar pin, without warning, on a solid 18K gold case. I have the broken pin. Anyone dealt with this before? I don't want to go to just any jeweler, and I would also think most watchmakers would not deal with this kind of specialized case work, so looking for a lead on who to use, if repair is even possible, and ballpark costs. I can't tell if this is the first clean break or if this pin might have been repaired in the past. thx!
Keep us(me!) posted, I feel your pain x2......appears someone before me had it drilled for a regular springbar and wore it that way. Would love to get it back to double female if the $$$ is not too great.
That guy looks like he does good work, but I'm in the states, not anxious to ship across the pond. I was advised by my UG guy to have the pin laser welded. Going for a consult today. Like Larry, I am a bit skeptical, but figure it's worth some research. I wonder if gold or SS makes a difference on success rates. I will report back.
I just got the case back, it was $100 for the pin repair. They made it sound like any competent jeweler with a laser welder could knock this out in a heartbeat, no big deal. I need to disassemble and take pics, but I'm not anxious to mess with the female spring bars this morning. Will do so at some point and update this thread. Not sure if it makes any difference with gold, SS etc, but I doubt it. So, time will tell, but so far seems like a quick and easy repair.
if you like the strap it's on ... I personally am happy to take your word on the repair and not put you at risk of stressing the post and loosing the watch.
The watchmaker that advised me on the pin repair didn't refer me to "X" and say they do amazing work. Instead they suggested I find the closest jeweler with a laser welder. For me this happened to be a jewelry chain (5 locations!) with the nearest one in a little strip mall near safeway. lol. Needless to say I was a little nervous, and grilled them for a bit before finally handing over the watch. But they said it was a simple fix, and it seemed to work out fine for me. Maybe I just got lucky, but I really did get the impression that any decent jeweler could do this job in under an hour. Or maybe we should start sending high end vintage watches from all over the world to this little strip mall chain near safeway. That would be very funny!
So I bought a SS case which showed up with broken pin, shipped back to seller who had a friend with a laser welder, repaired and shipped back to me in 1 day. Anyhow so far in my experience these pin repairs, gold or SS, are a walk in the park. Excuse the lame pic, was dropping the case off at my watchmaker for reassembly, bad lighting...
I just broke one off of my Tri-Compax while I was impatiently strap changing... how stupid is this ‘invention’ by the way? Luckily when in the UK I live closes to STS, so I dropped it off there - they are going to charge 60 odd quid (so also about $100) to laser weld it back...
@Traveler ....Lots of deep cleansing breaths, a good tool and at least an hour of uninterrupted silence. Never rush!
I had a lug break off of a 1930s watch. Brought to a laser welder in Paris France, repaired in a week- Total cost 40 euros.
Also having witnessed my talented watchmaker sweating for 20 minutes installing an expensive stiff Hirsche gator strap on my gold Tri .. better to use softer leather with these.