Frankenwatch purchased from active seller: Patrick Pieper: vintagewatches87 on this forum and Ralf Pieper Internethandel on Chrono24.

I bought a vintage Omega Constellation from Patrick. He sold me the Constellation as all original parts in good working order, but long story short, (though happy to explain to anyone in detail), the watch he sold me is a Frankenwatch with a condensation problem.

Patrick promised the watch had a 1 year warranty and I sent the watch back to Germany for him to repair, (before I learned it was a Frankenwatch). After a long time Patrick returned the watch to me, but it still has the same condensation problem as before.

In hopes of finding an easier solution than shipping back to Germany again, (which took forever due to Patrick taking well over a month to pick it up from customs, repair and return), I took the watch to a vintage watch dealer near me, (Second Time Around in Beverly Hills), to troubleshoot. They showed me the Constellation was a Frankenwatch. Without taking it ou of my sight or opening the case back up, they pointed out that the dial size and case size do not match. Who knows what's inside...

I wish Patrick would do the right thing and take the watch back, but in spite of the 1 year warranty and his assurance before purchase that the watch was all original parts and could withstand basic hand washing or a walk in the rain, (his words), he hasn't responded to my requests to return the watch for weeks.

I bought the watch through Chrono24 in June and have spent untold hours trying to deal with all of this. I am new to vintage watches, so maybe I'm the fool for all of this, but I'm heartbroken to have been cheated out of $1500 on this piece.

Patrick, if you're out there... Why not come clean on this and take the watch back? It's the right thing to do.

 

If you're going to make accusations, you ought to post photos to back them up.

 

Hi there -

I'm more than happy to provide photos. I can screen grab parts of my conversation with Patrick to show what he's said. And as far as the watch itself, I'm not sure how difficult it will be to take the close up photos necessary to see the mismatch between the dial and case, but I will see if I can figure out how to do that and post all the photos as soon as I can.

My hope here is to prevent other people from losing their hard earned money as I did.

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

Our hope is that you don't falsely accuse someone, intentionally or not. Post the best photos you can. I'll put the OB experts up against anyone for providing you with accurate info.

 

Since you are in Beverly Hills may I suggest you drop by Jackmond on N. Canon Dr. I've known them for many years. He may be a better source of info and potential help for you than Second Time Around. One of the best in L.A. for Omegas. Not knocking STA, just another source you might check out.

 

Thanks, I'll give them a shot!

 

UPDATE per Jackmond's watchmaker. 01/16/20

In the interest of full disclosure, Jackmond says that my watch has an Omega dial, but that it was refinished. I'm not fully clear on why per Second Time around, and the photos below there seems to be a size difference between the case and dial. I just don't know enough to unpack this. Jackmond said that the Omega black dials of the 1960s era did not hold up well, which explains why it was refinished, but not why Patrick didn't simply disclose that during the purchase process. The crystal is not an Omega crystal. And of course the "repaired" gasket situation pictured below is laughable.

To properly seal the watch from water, replace the crystal with an Omega one, and service the watch, which it needs, I'm out about $300. Would have cost me $250 to ship it back to Patrick again and not get it fixed, again, so I guess the silver lining is in there somewhere. Bought the watch in June, perhaps I'll finally have a working watch sometime soon!

Posted previous to taking the watch to Jackmond:

Hi there - Thanks for your messages. I'm attaching some photos here that I hope show the dial/case mismatch. I took them through a linen tester lens. Again, I have not opened the back of this watch as I read that Chrono24 has issues with that without prior approval.

I regret I did not return this watch when the initial condensation problem arose, but Patrick said he wanted to fix it himself, and I figured that these things happen and I could trust him to fix it. Had I taken the watch to a shop in LA, I would have discovered the Frankenwatch issue before having to go through all of this.

Along with the watch pictures, I have included screengrabs from a selection of my messages with Patrick. They detail his assertion that the watch can handle hand washing, but not swimming. They also detail some of my requests to him along with pictures I sent to him of the condensation problem the first time, and the second time. You can see from the dates of the messages how incredibly long all of this has taken to deal with. From June until now, in December.

I have offered to pay the shipping costs to the return the watch, but Patrick hasn't responded to my request.

I'm pretty embarrassed that I fell for all of this, but I won't let that prevent me from helping others avoid the same mistakes.

Thanks!

 

What a shame. Thanks for warning the rest of us to be careful with this fellow.

Sounds like the best bet is to hope for Chrono24 to do what they're supposed to do.

 

UPDATE: Still radio silence from Patrick. Per tpatta's suggestion I took the watch to Jackmond in Beverly Hills. They opened the watch up in front of me and this is what it looks like after Patrick had me send it all the way back to Germany for him to repair. No wonder the inside of the crystal still gets fogged after a simple hand-wash, the gasket is useless. Was the gasket even replaced after all the time and cost? Or was the purpose of having me ship the watch back to wind down the clock so I couldn't return it anymore? And to prevent a reputable watchmaker from revealing that it's a Frankenwatch in that small return window? Can't wait to hear what Jackmond says about the inner workings...

 

Dear All,
I found this post while doing research about Messrs Pieper as I have made a similar bad experience with a purchase of a "fully serviced" Mk2 Speedmaster from them on Chrono24.
The watch had problems and I sent it back for repair at my expense twice and it got worse every time- the initial problem was that the second hand touched the hour hand thus stopping the watch around 08:30/20:30. When I received the watch after the first repair attempt the crystal was loose inside the box and after the second attempt the chrono had stopped working.
In the end we agreed that I should take it to a local watchmaker here in Vienna which resulted in a 1.000 EUR quote for the complete overhaul of the movement which according to the watchmaker was bone dry and in a very sorry state. There has been complete silence on behalf of the seller ever since although Chrono24 asked him to get in touch with me at least twice...I can also post the whole message thread, however, it's in German.
Regards, Michael

 

Just came across this thread. He seems to stick to his business model and behaviours, just had an encounter with vintagewatches87. But I am in Germany, have a good lawyer and payed with Visa. He won't get through this without harm if I don't get the money back by Monday.
Fun fact: I returned the watch already, he has already put it up for sale on Ebay again, but hasn't confirmed Ebay he received it back or replied to my messages concerning retransfering the money back to me.

here the watch in question: https://omegaforums.net/threads/dealer-descriptions-continued.122442/#post-1644838

 

The second hand with the cracked lume seems to be the same as in the advert, although he tried to hide it underneath the date loupe .
What I find really annoying is that Chrono24 (where I bought the watch) is rather unwilling to do something, he is still a trusted seller (although they told me they would take away his trusted seller certificate). I just had a look at the customer's ratings - there was at least one similar incident lately where a customer received a watch with a loose hand, took it to a local watchmaker and was presented with a 500 EUR quote for a complete overhaul...Please keep us posted!