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Vercingetorix
··Spam RiskI wonder if it is even possible to get the Ball hands replaced anywhere else except Ball themselves. I would imagine the Tritium may be problematic for independent watchmakers.
Servicing advice...
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Archer
··Omega Qualified WatchmakerI wonder if it is even possible to get the Ball hands replaced anywhere else except Ball themselves. I would imagine the Tritium may be problematic for independent watchmakers.
You can buy the tritium tubes for watches on eBay or Amazon easily, so the tubes themselves would not be the problem. It would be Ball's policies with regards to selling spare parts, if there was a problem at all.
I have no idea what their policies are - I don't think I've ever been asked to service one, so I've never asked them.
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JwRosenthal
·You can buy the tritium tubes for watches on eBay or Amazon easily, so the tubes themselves would not be the problem. It would be Ball's policies with regards to selling spare parts, if there was a problem at all.
I have no idea what their policies are - I don't think I've ever been asked to service one, so I've never asked them.
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ExpiredWatchdog
·
That makes perfect sense. In viewing his posts here and at WUS over the past several years, he clearly has a way with a camera. I was wondering if he might have run a video recorder on his bench during the entire service and then edited it down to a production.
I do this while scuba diving (video the entire dive then edit it down) and I can tell you that two minutes of results takes hours of editing. I thought you might be a celebrity customer.
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YYTIN
·There are others who do it to a lesser degree certainly, often through the use of web pages like watchguy in the UK. Pretty sure @ChrisN here does this as well, and yes Ashton does something similar, but with less detail (he recently described my documentation as "crazy" on another forum).
How long the document is depends on what is wrong with the watch, and what I have to do to fix it. I think the record for a 3 hand watch is 120 pages (2 photos per page), but more complicated watches can be longer.
Many customers appreciate it, and for me it is borne of my own disappointment in getting exactly "zero" details the first time I had a high end watch (Rolex) serviced. Being an engineer, I wanted to see details, and when I asked I received a blank stare. So when I became a watchmaker I did for my customers what I would have wanted to see, and it's generally well received.
Cheers, Al
Oh, and because many no longer have disk drives, I've moved on to using USB's recently...😉
Hi
That's really a great thing to do @Archer !
Not an engineer myself but I do really appreciate getting info about the watches I own and I would of course love to get it for the service done.
I've actually spent time looking at watchguy info and it did lead me to buy at least 2 watches so far : a KS special and a Silvana Diver, just because I loved those detailed reports.
So a pitty for me not to live in the UK or in the US 😀
Maybe the new watchmaker in my town (somewhere in France) who is still in his 20ies will be open to such evolution of service ! Would actually pay for a good and nice report ! Anyway he is a very nice guy, helpful and as far as I can say is reliable (would need a few more years to be certain 😀) so I won't push to much.
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Archer
··Omega Qualified WatchmakerI thought you might be a celebrity customer.
Every customer is a celebrity with me...
Okay that sounds very cheesy. But yes producing these documents does take time. Taking the photos is quick, but a lot of my "mad camera skillz" are due to photoshop...so a bit of post processing happens, then the assembly into a document with descriptions. The good thing is most watches I've serviced before, so I do use similar documents, insert new photos, change descriptions as needed to save some time.
Working on documents for 3 watches as I write this...
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Vercingetorix
··Spam RiskEvery customer is a celebrity with me...
Okay that sounds very cheesy. But yes producing these documents does take time. Taking the photos is quick, but a lot of my "mad camera skillz" are due to photoshop...so a bit of post processing happens, then the assembly into a document with descriptions. The good thing is most watches I've serviced before, so I do use similar documents, insert new photos, change descriptions as needed to save some time.
Working on documents for 3 watches as I write this...
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Dan S
·Maybe the new watchmaker in my town (somewhere in France) who is still in his 20ies will be open to such evolution of service ! Would actually pay for a good and nice report !
In Al's case, you get the best of both worlds, a talented and experienced watchmaker who also goes the extra mile with documentaiton.
However, I wouldn't focus on the report honestly. The most important thing is to find an excellent watchmaker with top-notch training, skills, experience, access to parts, etc. If he provides elaborate documentation of his work, that's very nice, and a bonus, but down the list of important attributes IMO. I could easily see less talented watchmakers offering videos etc. as gimmicks. In fact, we have already seen this, with hack watchmakers posting YouTube videos to promote themselves.
