Since we get asked about watchmakers so frequently, could we perhaps have a new section for recommending watch makers? I need to put a couple of reviews up, and it'd be handy to have an area where I can post the pictures and a description of the service I received.

What do people think of this idea?

 

I love it! I think we all have someone we would recommend....and it probably could help out those individuals new to the hobby. I know it took me a year , and hundreds / thousands of wasted dollars to find a great watchmaker.

 

Great idea

 

+1 on that, thanks for doing this!

 

Great idea. if possible structured based on geography..... I know we can send watch overseas to get serviced, but most people would like it to be done locally.

 

A few resounding yesses there.. and I'm sure there will be more. What do the officials say.. Ash, Dennis, Trev? dsio, ulackfocus, Trev?

 

I like it, but there would be details to iron out.

 

Yeah, the more I think about it....the more issues I can come up with. For instance, I would need my watchmakers' permission to post his information on here. Then, does he become an OmegaForums recommended watchmaker? My guy was an Omega watchmaker in Bienne, but I have no idea if he wants that kind of exposure.

 

I agree that individual watch makers might need to give their permission, particularly our "resident" ones. On the other hand, the one I want to recommend is a workshop with a few employees and he specifically asked if I was prepared to give a review, if I was happy with his service... I can always do that anyway in the Open Discussions forum, but it'd get lost after a few weeks.

I personally think it'd be useful for raising awareness of reputable watchmakers that we don't all know...

 

I also think we'd have to limit the watchmaker's details to those in the public domain e.g. the watchmaker's website in my case... I know that our residents wouldn't generally want their addresses broadcast....

But for STS, for instance, all the details are publicly available anyway, and it'd just be a forum (pun intended) for people to show examples of the work and give a postive recommendation.

 

I think this would be a great idea. Any word on how this can be done? I've spent a lot of time trying to find a local watchmaker and I unfortunately end up on yelp reading raving reviews about how quickly someone swapped out a battery...

Incidentally -- anyone have a good watchmaker in the New York to Boston corridor?

Thanks much!

 

Very good idea! I agree with Dennis that details and limits would need to be put on posts. And I feel the watchmakers would have to agree to be "OF rated". Don't want to overwhelm our best friends!!

 

Too late!

I've been waiting to see how this idea develops, but I'll jump in now. I can see good and bad from something like this...

While this is a great idea for collectors, most watchmakers I know are already so overloaded that it's hard to imagine they would really want a ton of extra exposure.

Still it's nice to have options, so if someone is emailing me now and I'm telling them it will be August before they can send in their watch (which is currently the case) then they might like to have an opportunity to email someone else to see if they can do the work sooner. It would be helpful for me to be able to give a name I know that my client would be happy with if they can't wait for me to get to their watch...

Just some thoughts.

Cheers, Al

 

The only thing I can see is that unless the list is big, those watchmakers will also be overwhelmed quickly. When I was looking for a watchmaker, most of the recommend ones on the forum were booked far, far, far out.

But some feature I would love are:

-Contact info all in one area

-Instead of having to email the watchmaker often or wait for the watchmaker to remember to email you when they are free, maybe the site has a "open for repairs" or "full, not accepting repairs" indicator.

-How far out their wait list is.

-What their turn around time is.

-What parts accounts they have (rolex, omega, etc).