- Posts
- 66
- Likes
- 8
decwright
·I was doing that the second this one arrived 😀 haha
Removing and refitting new crown on vintage seamaster..
- Posts
- 7
- Likes
- 4
- Posts
- 3,184
- Likes
- 3,852
SpikiSpikester
··@ ΩFWe have quite a few members in London and the Home Counties, so it would be good to know who the WM was.
stefan is pretty much your best bet for meticulous and expert work at good prices. Although he is based in the Saville Row area you can post stuff to him pretty easily if you don't fancy going into town.
stefan is pretty much your best bet for meticulous and expert work at good prices. Although he is based in the Saville Row area you can post stuff to him pretty easily if you don't fancy going into town.
- Posts
- 66
- Likes
- 8
decwright
·Hi all, the name of the watchmakers was 'In Time' and from most of the reviews I've read on them they seem like they give excellent customer service, maybe I just got one who was having a bad day haha. Anyhow I'll be staying well away from them in the future.
- Posts
- 12,505
- Likes
- 16,843
gatorcpa
··ΩF InvestiGatorFound In Time Jewellers online.
http://m.intime.co.uk
They seem to be in a lot of malls and department stores.
Just for grins maybe you should submit an online form asking the cost to replace your crown, mentioning that you would give them the correct new crown.
If the quote comes back substantially less than what you paid as I suspect it might, you can then register a complaint.
I hate to see people taken advantage of. This seems to happen more in the UK than other places and I'm not sure why.
Let us know how you make out,
gatorcpa
http://m.intime.co.uk
They seem to be in a lot of malls and department stores.
Just for grins maybe you should submit an online form asking the cost to replace your crown, mentioning that you would give them the correct new crown.
If the quote comes back substantially less than what you paid as I suspect it might, you can then register a complaint.
I hate to see people taken advantage of. This seems to happen more in the UK than other places and I'm not sure why.
Let us know how you make out,
gatorcpa
- Posts
- 66
- Likes
- 8
decwright
·I was thinking of registering a complaint but I never thought of catching them out with the free estimation form. I've just filled out the online form describing exactly what I want done and that will supply the crown. It says that I will have an estimate sent to me via email within 48 hours. Will be interesting to see what figure they come up with. I'll let you know as soon as I've recieved an email 😀
- Posts
- 3,184
- Likes
- 3,852
SpikiSpikester
··@ ΩFThey're an in store concession type business, all about the turnover and typically staffed by younger sales types.
We had one at our local shopping centre a while ago. When I enquired about a battery change, they did everything possible to avoid giving a price range, insisting I brought it in. All I get could get was a load of guff about every model being different, no such thing as a standard price, all the complexity of different batteries, resealing and pressure testing etc. In the end I was very charmlessly "informed" that a price range would be £25-300 depending on the watch. We walked away and the concession left he shopping centre a few months afterwards. In the end Stefan did the battery change for me along with servicing some other watches.
By the way, I don't think the UK is worse than anywhere else for this sort of thing. I've found France to be far more expensive and dealing with Italy still needs a bit of care.
We had one at our local shopping centre a while ago. When I enquired about a battery change, they did everything possible to avoid giving a price range, insisting I brought it in. All I get could get was a load of guff about every model being different, no such thing as a standard price, all the complexity of different batteries, resealing and pressure testing etc. In the end I was very charmlessly "informed" that a price range would be £25-300 depending on the watch. We walked away and the concession left he shopping centre a few months afterwards. In the end Stefan did the battery change for me along with servicing some other watches.
By the way, I don't think the UK is worse than anywhere else for this sort of thing. I've found France to be far more expensive and dealing with Italy still needs a bit of care.
- Posts
- 25,980
- Likes
- 27,611
ulackfocus
·Certain parts of New York are famous for scamming people, particularly in jewelry and electronics. I read a story a couple years ago about some store in Asia that would take in a Rolex for service and stick a substitute movement (an ETA or Miyota) inside the customer's watch and keep the Rolex caliber.
Honesty is a commodity nowadays.
Honesty is a commodity nowadays.
- Posts
- 66
- Likes
- 8
decwright
·Seems to me like you have to be very careful where you take you're watches these days. Whatever part of the world you live in. Maybe they think because we own a nice watch we have more money than sense and were never going to question a price? Haha
- Posts
- 66
- Likes
- 8
decwright
·So no free estimate via email from In Time. Instead they rang me this morning and told me that they could definitely do the watch but there was no way they could give me a price as they would have to look at the watch and it may even need a new stem. When telling them that I had taken the watch to a jeweller previously to have the movement checked and they'd told me the stem was fine ( just to try and force a price out of them 😉 ) , they still said that they would not be able to give me any figures without looking at the watch. So much for my 'free estimate within 48 hours' 🤦
- Posts
- 1,320
- Likes
- 737
John R Smith
·To be fair, I can understand any watchmaker being unwilling to give a firm quote if they were not supplying the parts. Most responsible craftsmen undertaking this job would want to order the crown themselves (to make sure that the thread and internal diameter were correct) and most would want to have a spare stem on hand too, or quick access to one, in case the original was worn or damaged.
- Posts
- 529
- Likes
- 605
blueteg
·This operation should not involve removing the movement from the case at all. In fact, if your watch is one where the movement comes out the crystal side, the crown and stem should simply pull right out.
@gatorcpa I came across this thread from a few years back and wanted to see if you could elaborate on this? I have a '69 Seamaster Cosmic (where the movement comes out of the crystal side) with a 565 caliber and it came with an unsigned crown. Would be great if I can replace crown with an Omega signed crown myself, or as a fallback, take it to my local (Omega certified) watch maker to have him do it without having to worry about the labor cost for him to pull the crystal and extract the moment.
- Posts
- 3,181
- Likes
- 12,502
MtV
·@gatorcpa I came across this thread from a few years back and wanted to see if you could elaborate on this? I have a '69 Seamaster Cosmic (where the movement comes out of the crystal side) with a 565 caliber and it came with an unsigned crown. Would be great if I can replace crown with an Omega signed crown myself, or as a fallback, take it to my local (Omega certified) watch maker to have him do it without having to worry about the labor cost for him to pull the crystal and extract the moment.
It has a two-piece crown (because you need to get the crown out to remove the movement from the case). The top of the crown (and a part of it with a female end) can be pulled out, the part with the male end stays in the movement. It just "clicks" back in place when you want to re-attach it. Your Omega-certified watchmaker would certainly know how to do it - if you want to try it yourself please note that all those parts are very small and delicate. There's no brute force needed to perform the job.
I do hope my English is sufficient to explain that in a comprehensible way...
And as stated above, changing a crown is a very quick job for a watchmaker, if crown and stem are indeed correct. It shouldn't be expensive at all.
- Posts
- 375
- Likes
- 465
onlyomega94
·Indeed a crown change is an easy job for any watchmaker. He or she would not have to be omega authorised/certified to do this in my book. In fact my watchmaker (not Omega authorised but having repaired Omega for 30 years) changed it in 5 minutes for free.
- Posts
- 227
- Likes
- 791
Dimitris
·Well what if they ask you to pay 10 or 20 dollars, believe me the damage a novice can make on a watch movement can cost way more than that which is not worth it in my opinion .
