Title says it all!

I own 4 vintage mechanical watches:
- 1927 Hamilton Barrel (I think was "serviced" by the seller but not certain) (daily wearer)
- 1944 Omega ladies "Cocktail", serviced by seller (my wife wears on occasions)
- 1947 Vulcain Cricket, which I had serviced (daily wearer)
- 1963 Omega Constellation (supposedly serviced by seller)

All these watches work fine. Since I'm only certain two were serviced then it's: 2/4

 

I have 29 watches and I'm certain that 20 have been serviced within the last 2 years.

 

I have five mechanical watches (and several others):
Rolex Submariner date ceramic, purchased 2015;
Omega Seamaster Diver blue ceramic, 2014;
Omega Seamaster 300 Master Co-axial, 2015;
Omega Constellation C-case, 1966, purchased 2015 (it was a great year for my collection);
Prometheus Manta Ray 1000M, 2014.

I had the Constellation serviced by the Omega Boutique as soon as I bought it - it's not a daily wearer, but I put it on a couple of days a month. The others are still under warranty, and I swap them on and off on a daily basis.

I also have a 1968 Bulova Accutron Spaceview 214 that belonged to my stepfather. I haven't had a battery in it in a number of years, and I do need to get it serviced ... somewhere.

 

I own thirteen watches. Montblanc, Rolex, 2 JLC and RGM purchased new last four years. The rest are vintage. The Montblanc has been in for warranty twice, not a fan of Richemont service centers. My Rolex and JLC Master Calendar will need to be serviced in a year or two. My SS Tri Compax was serviced by Crown and Caliber before shipping to me and has a history on Omega Forums - but it will need an overhaul eventually, I had my UG 216 overhauled, my 2998 overhauled and my new gold tri-compax is out for an overhaul. My Connie and Gallet were purchased from the shop that serviced my 2998 and now my Tri so I know they are up to date. Here is what I've learned....You need to be selective about who you let touch your watches. You need to make sure that the watchmaker ONLY DOES WHAT IS IN THE AGREED SCOPE OF WORK. You need to budget for service and proper service is expensive, even more so for vintage watches. Expect to pay a bit more for a watch with a well documented service history. I now expect to service any vintage watch I buy so I budget for it. (which is also why I'm slowing down for a while)

 

Looks like some OF members are a bit shy...
Let's participate in the poll (good or bad)!

 

4 automatics, 2 "recently serviced" when I bought them, one brought in for service after acquisition where "nothing was needed."

The one I haven't had serviced (yet) has a skipping seconds hand that I have every confidence will get fixed when I do get it serviced. I'm thinking of asking my watchmaker for a bulk discount if I bring him my 3 Omegas to service all at once.

 

About half my watches have been serviced within the past 2 years, one is in service now and a few more are queued up to go in. . .

 

All my vintage pieces (5 of them) have been serviced within the past two years. I have a new to me Speedmaster 3210.51 that will go for service this year. The rest won't be due for a few more years

 

So in sum ... Up to date on service:
7/13 in total
6/8 vintage

 

about 90%

 

I have 110+, approximately. 90 % of them have been serviced. Of course, that is over 40 years of collecting. Could many of them use servicing at present? For sure! Yes! But I only service the few I use for daily wear, on a regular basis.

 

of the 4 dozen watches purchased over the past 12 years, all were serviced at or soon after purchase (average age is in the seventies)..... too many have been serviced since:

at least four busted mainsprings..... three magnetized by the very heavy magnets at work..... two dropped roller jewels..... one degraded crown seal, one broken crystal, one overbanked, one broken pallet fork, one malfunctioning hack feature.

and I managed to kill a Seiko diver.

so, except for the one quartz watch with its original battery..... call it 100%

 

If you don't mind me asking, what kind of work do you do?
(a little bit of thread-drift here...)

 

Of the 6 automatic watches I own, 2 have been serviced; Rolex 16570 and Omega Seamaster 300M

 

I currently have 7 automatics, 2 have been serviced - a "Bond" SMP and a 69 Speedy

 

I have about 30 and all the big items are serviced.

Vintage

5512
1675


Modern

Iwc portofino
Iwc Portuguese
Iwc tzc
14060m
167510

Antique

Waltham

A couple I took but they didn't need servicing and a couple that where services are no longer with me so....about 35-40%

But some of the modern ones are not due yet anyway.

 

too many

 

Quality Manager at the time, but they discovered that the hobbiest motorbike mechanic in me could fix robots so......I used to work with these big 3 axis robots that were driven pneumatically by blowing a big magnet down a pipe, which dragged another big magnet, which was concentric with said pipe, along with it which in turn dragged the robot along its rails. As the robot weighed in at about 800kg you can imagine these were some seriously big ass magnets. When the robots broke the engineer (aka QA manager) was called who, if he happened to be just arriving for work, would have his personal stuff still on and he would get his watch magnetized and all his bank & credit cards scrambled. Did 3 watches in about six years, but managed to trash all my cards about twice a year.

 

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If they say 8 am when I start work and if they say 5 pm when I am done then it is all good ...