I recently got a speedmaster Pro Moonwatch, but i did not get the bracelet. In researching eventually getting it serviced I see its about $750 regardless of strap/bracelet, but if you have the bracelet, they do a beautiful job refinishing it. I feel that sending in a watch without a bracelet is essentially missing out on the bracelet service, but is not cheaper. I will likely buy a bracelet prior to servicing my moonwatch. Could anyone share with me which bracelet is appropriate for a 2017 311.30.42.30.01.005. Thanks!
It's missing out on refinishing, but you don't need refinishing if you don't have a bracelet. They should still refinish your clasp if necessary, assuming you have a deployant clasp. Service is primarily about maintaining your watch, replacing seals and lubrication and checking to make sure all of the parts are in top condition. In any case, you have about five years before you even need to worry about it.
I believe your bracelet reference is a 1958/957 If you wanted a 1998/849 I could help you out, but I don't have a screw model. I tend to agree with you that if you aren't getting a bracelet cleaned and polished, you should save a bit of money. But IMO the bracelets are great and worth having, if you don't find the 1958/957, feel free to hit me up.
once you do get a bracelet and some wear on it as well send it to the Omega boutique in Houston as the tech there can take care of wear on the brushed sections of the bracelet and it will be complimentary as well.
Unless things have changed in the last few month, Omega have always had one price for "serviced on strap" and another for "serviced on bracelet".
They changed it this year in the states, its one set price for chronographs and non chronographs, now with or without a strap or bracelet is the same price now.
To have a bracelet polished or serviced takes little time and little or no cost depending on who does the work. The value of servicing is on the movement maintenance.
In the uk, I was led to believe that the bracelets were stripped, and the pins/collars replaced... sounds like a reasonable amount of work?
I don't know. I do know that if I ever had a bracelet polished or tightened for my watches it's always been an easy process. As to what they do or not do I suppose it depends on the level of detailing needed or requested
Fair point. I think (can't quite remember) that it was £50 more to have a watch serviced at Omega on a bracelet... if they were/are doing a full strip down and rebuild for that price, it doesn't seem nuts. Academic now though!
If that was done you should have received the old pins and pipes back. I certainly check all the pins to ensure they are tight, and if any are loose they are replaced. In addition the bracelet would be cleaned at a minimum, and if someone does watch it refinished, it's not a huge amount of work, but it does take time to do properly - in particular on a Bond style bracelet as more masking has to be done on those. Of course because they do take time, I see many that have either been completely polished or completely brushed, so some lazy person didn't bother to do the job properly... A Bond bracelet in bad shape can take as much as an hour to completely refurbish, so the time involved can be significant. It really depends on how diligently the work is carried out. Cheers, Al
I asked Omega how much it was to refinish just the Bracelet alone on a Bond Seamaster which the previous owner had badly polished, just to get it back to factory standard finish. They said "Thank you for your email, we are able to undertake a case and bracelet refinish to your watch for £115.83 plus VAT, to include refinishing of the case and bracelet, testing for water resistance and a 1 year guarantee". The watch hadn't been serviced in 10 years so I just saved up a bit more and serviced the whole watch with the bracelet included for about £330 odd.
Omega and STS will in my experience replace the odd pin or collar if worn, faulty or missing but there is a limit. I sent STS a tired Pre-Bond for full service and they simply quoted for a new bracelet, they wouldn't undertake individual pin/collar replacement which I guess is reasonable bearing in mind the work required and in fact the cost wasn't too awful. Neither will they do fiddly clasp work happily either, they seem to default to charging for a new clasp when any fault such as a worn spring is noticed. I have experienced this on a couple of other pieces.
Bracelets are not cheap, so it's surprising they would default to a new one. Having said that when they get really worn getting everything lined up can be a chore, in particular on the Bond style. Usually a lot of wiggling while tapping on the pin to get the pin through all the layers. The clasp is even more surprising - new spring is $3 and takes 2 minutes to change it...