If you can find one that hasn't retired and is taking new business. 🙁
I predict and upswing for independents in 2023!
It’s been mentioned on here a few times so it’s not unexpected but it is unwelcome. In the UK the cost to service a steel 3 hander is now £590 and a chrono costs £825. Gold etc cased watches are higher still.
Not good news. It will likely mean a lot less watches go for an official service. The case for some lower cost older Omegas like the Speedy Reduced is made even less appealing when you bear in mind you may have to spend 50% of the purchase cost to put right a fault.
Switzerland's industry alone has said they need 4,000 watchmakers trained in the next four years to meet increased demand and retirements.
STS authorised by Omega to repair are quoting £450 for steel mechanical non Chrono. Omega are £590. I wonder if STS will increase prices?
Mind you STS charge extra for polishing, I would not want this anyway. Maybe this is why STS is cheaper than Omega, as Omega include polishing.
STS actually do include a light refinish as they call it in their service charge. In my experience this is very good and unless there are noticeable dings our gouges you'll get back a watch that looks nearly new. They do charge extra is laser welding or more intensive refinishing is required but AFAIK Omega themselves wont laser weld at all, they will recommend a new case or whatever.
I hate that they ask a flat fee for all watches. I would expect that an old ETA based movement costs less to service than those modern co-axials.
750eur is almost 50% of what those ETA watches retailed for...
The value of the watch has little to do with the cost of servicing - labour is labour, if you are working on something that is valued at $1,000 or $10,000, it still costs the same.
The flat fee is a good thing for customers generally, in particular if you are a "if it's not broke don't fix it" kind of person. It saves time having to quote and get a response a lot of the time, and some of the parts that are included (even on those ETA based watches) cost hundreds of dollars, so if they need replacing, you are way further ahead.
