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Dimitar Adamski
·Well, I ws honest and explained what happened. I hope he will be meciful, lol.
Simon Freese
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NeedForSpeed
·Well, I ws honest and explained what happened. I hope he will be meciful, lol.
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Omegafanman
·Would you mind sharing how you were able to reach him? Email? WhatsApp? Phone call? He claimed in April that he was already working on the service of my watch. I have heard nothing since then despite having tried to contact him by all possible means. In this context it’s pretty hard not to be concerned. Many thanks 🙏
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Mark Rick
·First and for most do not worry about the safety of your watch, Simon had mind for a number of months, contacted me when works were completed and forwarded me a tracking message. If you message him with your concerns I'm sure he will contact you, how ever he is still catching up on a backlog.
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watchyouwant
·Would you mind sharing how you were able to reach him? Email? WhatsApp? Phone call? He claimed in April that he was already working on the service of my watch. I have heard nothing since then despite having tried to contact him by all possible means. In this context it’s pretty hard not to be concerned. Many thanks 🙏
This is completely unacceptable from any service provider. 7 months ? Oh Dear ...
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NeedForSpeed
·I should see him this month. If you PM me a question / contact I can ask direct for you. I would not be concerned, it is just workload I suspect. I saw him earlier this year and he was very busy then, but still maintaining a top standard which is the most important. The watches dont ever run slow, even if delivery might on occasion ;0)
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NeedForSpeed
·Update: Simon messaged me this morning and was apologetic explaining that he has had some difficult circumstances and is getting back on top of his workload, and he confirmed my watch was already serviced and posted today and he shared the tracking number. So all good - hope that reassured anyone else who might be in a similar situation and was concerned. Many thanks all!
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Omegafanman
·This is completely unacceptable from any service provider. 7 months ? Oh Dear ...
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Dimitar Adamski
·Would you mind sharing how you were able to reach him? Email? WhatsApp? Phone call? He claimed in April that he was already working on the service of my watch. I have heard nothing since then despite having tried to contact him by all possible means. In this context it’s pretty hard not to be concerned. Many thanks 🙏
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Omegafanman
·Important update ref Simon Freese…..
I did not mention this before but Arwind @wristpirate who is a super guy and well respected collector set up a watch Boutique a few months back. It is in London near Bond Street tube at the Grays Antique Market. I was there yesterday, lovely selection of watches presented by a true and very honest enthusiast. He his making a collaboration with Simon who is in the shop some days. If you contact Arwind that is another way to reach Simon and possibly a more convenient way to collect or drop off watches. It’s great Simon has some extra support and nice to have his expert eye at the shop. A win for all of us hopefully. Simon does still have a lot of work on but he is a fantastic watchmaker with a strong strong understanding of vintage pieces, and nobody works harder.
https://tortoisewatches.com/
I did not mention this before but Arwind @wristpirate who is a super guy and well respected collector set up a watch Boutique a few months back. It is in London near Bond Street tube at the Grays Antique Market. I was there yesterday, lovely selection of watches presented by a true and very honest enthusiast. He his making a collaboration with Simon who is in the shop some days. If you contact Arwind that is another way to reach Simon and possibly a more convenient way to collect or drop off watches. It’s great Simon has some extra support and nice to have his expert eye at the shop. A win for all of us hopefully. Simon does still have a lot of work on but he is a fantastic watchmaker with a strong strong understanding of vintage pieces, and nobody works harder.
https://tortoisewatches.com/
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PaulMcElhinney
·Having sent my Constellation to Simon for servicing in April 2023 I must confess I would never consider using him again. The watch was returned not in my red Omega service case but in a cheap plastic box. I queried this an he assured me that he would return it - he didn't. The watch would stop in the night, the self winding mechanism clearly wasn't working. I returned it to Simon and seven months later I kept getting nonsense excuses about why it wasn't resolved. I demanded the return of the watch by 1.11.24 otherwise I would commence county court proceedings, no reply, no watch. I commenced county court proceedings and secured the return of my watch (which still runs woefully) and my service fee refunded in full. Simon is so incredibly unprofessional. As other have alluded to he simply chooses to ignore emails and decline to return watches when demanded. I went through a divorce 20 years ago and immersed myself in work and I do not consider that unfortunate circumstance any mitigation. The only positive thing I can say is that he threw his hands skywards and paid up. Not a good experience.
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Dash1
·I too have suffered a lot of stress using him. I won’t bore you with the details but it was extremely difficult to get £30k worth of watches returned after months of excuses. One was incorrectly worked on and the other not serviced, yet I was charged for the services. He also did not return two valuable original crystals despite repeated requests. I should start court proceedings but could do without the added stress. A real shame since I had been a loyal customer for many years and had recommended him to dozens of people.
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Larry S
··Color Commentator for the Hyperbole.Too many watches going to too few shops these days I wonder?
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tikkathree
·I should see him this month. If you PM me a question / contact I can ask direct for you. I would not be concerned, it is just workload I suspect. I saw him earlier this year and he was very busy then, but still maintaining a top standard which is the most important. The watches dont ever run slow, even if delivery might on occasion ;0)
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watchyouwant
·Important update ref Simon Freese…..
I did not mention this before but Arwind @wristpirate who is a super guy and well respected collector set up a watch Boutique a few months back. It is in London near Bond Street tube at the Grays Antique Market. I was there yesterday, lovely selection of watches presented by a true and very honest enthusiast. He his making a collaboration with Simon who is in the shop some days. If you contact Arwind that is another way to reach Simon and possibly a more convenient way to collect or drop off watches. It’s great Simon has some extra support and nice to have his expert eye at the shop. A win for all of us hopefully. Simon does still have a lot of work on but he is a fantastic watchmaker with a strong strong understanding of vintage pieces, and nobody works harder.
https://tortoisewatches.com/
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LuGr
·@
My experience was very similar to yours. I sent my Seamaster in to Simon in June 2024 for a repair after some correspondence (including sending him videos of the issue so he was certain it was something he could work on) and it came back with the same issue. I got very few responses from Simon after several months of chasing and ended up filing a small claim against him in November 2024. Rather unsurprisingly, he hasn't responded to the court claim and I'm now in the position of either pushing for a County Court Judgement or letting the matter go.
I think everyone appreciates the complexity of working on these watches but Simon's lack of communication is incredibly unprofessional. Surely working the cost of clearing your inbox once a week isn't going add much more than a few days on to the average service time (which is already many weeks) which most customers won't even notice.
Reading the other comments on this thread it seems that Simon is definitely in a downward spiral at the moment. I will definitely not be sending any watches to Simon in the future and will just suck up the extra cost of sending them back to Omega.
Having sent my Constellation to Simon for servicing in April 2023 I must confess I would never consider using him again. The watch was returned not in my red Omega service case but in a cheap plastic box. I queried this an he assured me that he would return it - he didn't. The watch would stop in the night, the self winding mechanism clearly wasn't working. I returned it to Simon and seven months later I kept getting nonsense excuses about why it wasn't resolved. I demanded the return of the watch by 1.11.24 otherwise I would commence county court proceedings, no reply, no watch. I commenced county court proceedings and secured the return of my watch (which still runs woefully) and my service fee refunded in full. Simon is so incredibly unprofessional. As other have alluded to he simply chooses to ignore emails and decline to return watches when demanded. I went through a divorce 20 years ago and immersed myself in work and I do not consider that unfortunate circumstance any mitigation. The only positive thing I can say is that he threw his hands skywards and paid up. Not a good experience.
I think everyone appreciates the complexity of working on these watches but Simon's lack of communication is incredibly unprofessional. Surely working the cost of clearing your inbox once a week isn't going add much more than a few days on to the average service time (which is already many weeks) which most customers won't even notice.
Reading the other comments on this thread it seems that Simon is definitely in a downward spiral at the moment. I will definitely not be sending any watches to Simon in the future and will just suck up the extra cost of sending them back to Omega.
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pdxleaf
··So on and so on and scoobie doobie doo@
.... I will definitely not be sending any watches to Simon in the future and will just suck up the extra cost of sending them back to Omega.
I have heard it can also take 6 months with little feedback on status.
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LuGr
·How long do you expect to wait for Omega to complete a service?
I have heard it can also take 6 months with little feedback on status.
Plus you have the option of sending it back through an AD so you don’t have any worries with postage. My experience with Simon was a bubble wrapped plastic box sent using Royal Mail that is insured up to £2500 which is nowhere near enough for most Omegas.
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Steve1haggart
·For those member that’s are looking for an alternative I have been using the watch repair centre in new castle they are reliable friend and reasonable with there prices average wait time 8-12 week for a full service . I have put a link below .
www.watchrepaircentre.co.uk
www.watchrepaircentre.co.uk
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Charlemagne1333
·I will definitely not be sending any watches to Simon in the future and will just suck up the extra cost of sending them back to Omega.
