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Michael Young/Classic watch repair experiences

T
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wkimmd wkimmd
Had a tudor 93150 bracelet that was a mess (got on ebay) that Michael restored - did a great job. As others said, came back polished, but this was such a mess I didn't mind. Price quoted was WAY cheaper than anyone else I could find in the US. Turnaround time was 6 weeks. Highly recommended.
WK
Thank you. I am really glad to hear everyone say that the work is completed on time
 
T
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Spacefruit Spacefruit
Bracelets Yes, absolutely. Brilliant. Bracelets, definitely.

Lovely guy, great setup, and much more efficient now his wife is working in the office.

But remember his main focus is now Undone watches.
Have you heard anything about the quality of work before and after he launched undone?
 
T
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ATWG ATWG
Not everything comes back looking great, trust me, I can speak from experience.....
tell me more! I see a lot of examples of rolex bracelets on his site but what about other brands? Please do share your horror stories
 
Mods
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Interesting to read the opposite experiences.
I’m somewhat in the middle.
I had an omega flat link restored.
I got the impression they were very busy which led to a small delay in communication responses from them and completion of the work.
This may be resolved now per William’s (Spacefruit’s) comment.

As I was based in the U.K. I made a point of asking for pics of the bracelet once the job was done before they shipped it to me.

I wasn’t satisfied with the work and they sorted it out. From memory it seemed like the stretch hadn’t altered much. They managed to correct it and did a good job.

My advise would be to use them but ensue you are able to inspect before they ship and you pay.

Final point. Whilst they can do omega flat link bracelets. There specialism is Rolex bracelets.
They said that the omega flat links are harder and take more work which is why the cost is higher.
 
T
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ATWG ATWG
Sent a 7206 folded oyster bracelet, came back loose and not as advertised. Also, his turnaround time and communication was not stealer to say the least. I for one will not do any business with him. Additionally, I know of 2 other collectors who have had similar experience. I know he's well known and respected, I'm sharing with you my experience.
Thank you for sharing! I have heard communication is an issue.
 
T
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RCAFBuster RCAFBuster
I have just sent my 5th watchband to Michael for restoration. I have had only good experiences as the previous four have come back completely fixed and either polished or not, to my specification.
Pricing has always been what's quoted and turn around times have been quite good to Australia.

Cheers,
Buster
Good to know. I really don't know anyone else that does the kind of work he does. Good to see mostly positive reviews here
 
T
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Chye Chye
Plenty of positive reviews of his bracelet repair work, but somehow and unfortunately for me, my first and only bracelet repair experience was no good. A collector friend who was privy to my whole transaction went so far as to advise that in his view, no work was actually done on the bracelet I sent over and received back. Did not follow up as I did not have 'before' pictures of the watch..
I also bought one of his tropic dome crystals, received a wrong one, and he swiftly remedied the situation. Very happy with the outcome, no problem at all.
That's quite shocking.
 
trackpad
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I don't think Michael has so much day-to-day involvement in the shop now. I have had 4 different jobs completed by them – and the results range from "Great" to "Horrendous". My last job (and I mean last) was in 2018.

One thing that unifies all those experiences is a degree of chaos, and the feeling that no one there has ever even heard of a CRM, much less set one up. I quickly got the impression that everything was being run off of post-it notes and a yahoo email address, and that impression never really improved.

You can try to minimize your risk, as I did, by investing the time to write a good and detailed brief about what you do (and don't) want done...but if that brief ever gets read or follows your watch through the entire process is anyone's guess. My guess is "maybe...sometimes".

All that said, I was eventually (eventually) partially refunded for the last issue I had. I think M.Y. is honest and means well. My guess is they have had a LOT of new work over the past 5 years, following the rise of the vintage market more broadly. I mean, is there anyone else at all doing these bracelet restorations? Please tell me if there is.

But I think they more or less own this market – and so they've added more benches and more technicians to sit at them, but not necessarily the training they need – and definitely not the tools and workflows to scale a good end-to-end customer experience.

Or at least as of a year ago it seemed like they hadn't. But maybe things have changed! Organizations do sometimes learn and improve.
 
w154
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I’ve got a 6636 that I’m thinking about sending, but I’m not really up for playing a quality-lottery especially if the cost is high. Can anyone with experience estimate the cost of a simple refurb (tighten fixed links, repair spring links, no polishing) ? I’ve requested a quote so that’ll help, but are the quotes firm or do they get adjusted once they have your bracelet ?
 
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Dan S
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Not sure where the OP is located, but rolliworks is now doing bracelet restoration in the US. Plenty of positive reviews on RF.
 
ATWG
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Dan S Dan S
Not sure where the OP is located, but rolliworks is now doing bracelet restoration in the US. Plenty of positive reviews on RF.
I contacted them last week, Mike was very helpful. They also have an Omega parts account and perform service for both Rolex & Omega at very reasonable price. Lastly, their turnaround time is very short (2 weeks.)
 
MRC
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w154 w154
I’ve got a 6636 that I’m thinking about sending, but I’m not really up for playing a quality-lottery especially if the cost is high. Can anyone with experience estimate the cost of a simple refurb (tighten fixed links, repair spring links, no polishing) ? I’ve requested a quote so that’ll help, but are the quotes firm or do they get adjusted once they have your bracelet ?

In Oct 2016 the cost for my 6636 was USD263 inc new springs, rivets and return shipping to UK. No extras over the original quote. The bracelet originaly cost me two bottles of cheapish wine from the original owner. Inflation since 1975 🙁
 
A
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Shared this on another forum but this thread was a factor in my decision to try Michael, thought I have to make a post as well:

'I had a bad experience with Classic Watch Repair recently. Was looking for a good watchmaker after moving to HK for work and read this thread and others on various forums. The quality of their work seems to have slipped and Michael is no longer directly involved in the shop, emails sent to Michael gmail is handled by his assistants.

Anyway to make the story short I had a Ulysse Nardin (ETA base) and a Glashutte Original serviced there. Ulysse Nardin came back ok (not perfect) but the Glashutte Original had to go back because stem fell out which they could not fix. Customer service was more keen to push blame around than working to resolve the issue. For bracelet work or work on movements where parts are readily available, I think they offer good value for the work they do. However for anything more than that I would be very careful. At least pay with a credit card that offers good buyer protection as dealing with their after service support was infuriating.

Hope this helps.'
 
wsfarrell
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Dan S Dan S
Not sure where the OP is located, but rolliworks is now doing bracelet restoration in the US. Plenty of positive reviews on RF.
LA Watchworks is also very good, and (apparently) has a good supply of vintage parts. They added a link to a 1973 C+I rivet bracelet for me. Very slow, though (~3 months).
 
321Only
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I wonder if anyone ever sent a dial over to classic watch repair. The restoration work they post on their Instagram channel looks very impressive. e.g. this 5513 dial where they removed the scratches on the surface.

I was actually thinking about sending one of my dial with a similar issue over but after reading about mixed experiences i will probably step away. too much risk as vintage dials are (as we all know) crazy expensive.
 
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Kapka
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321Only 321Only
I wonder if anyone ever sent a dial over to classic watch repair. The restoration work they post on their Instagram channel looks very impressive. e.g. this 5513 dial where they removed the scratches on the surface.

I was actually thinking about sending one of my dial with a similar issue over but after reading about mixed experiences i will probably step away. too much risk as vintage dials are (as we all know) crazy expensive.


I was at his shop last week and I had a pretty good feeling. I can’t tell anything about how good they are at dial work but I was in similar situation. Read a lot of mixed reviews but being there felt good and I decided to let him service my Rolex.

I’m only doing a movement service but anyhow I got a feeling that they are professional and know their job. Hongkong must have highest density of Rolex watches per capita. His shop had a window with hundreds of Submariner/GMT dials in all possible variations + plenty of great watches for sale. I know for sure that there are no places even close like that in Scandinavia where I live so I decided to just follow my gut feeling.

Will post the full experience after I get the watch back so I hope my gut feeling was right 😁

BTW, I’m in no way connected with their business and was only there because I was on a business trip in Hongkong so I took the opportunity.

Cheers, Kapka
 
Kapka
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whippetman01 whippetman01
I sent two recently to Michael Young
Before
After
Happy
4525BD6C-ECA9-4C45-9023-D0C75C017443.jpeg E4E964EB-03DE-425F-9F3F-03C02D4B5007.jpeg


I was thinking of fixing the bracelet as well but it is not so stretched yet. What surprised me was the fact that bracelet restoration was more expensive than movement service. I guess it simply requires more work..
 
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