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apsm100
··Noob taxpayerThis thread is already an anxiety thrill ride. 😒
So what's the biggest mistake your watch servicer made?
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SkunkPrince
·I'm glad my local guy is an enthusiast, CW21 trained by a well-known brand as well, and I have never once had an issue with him... and he is younger than I am. 😁
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omegawatchlover
·Watchmaker was struggling to open the caseback of my Omega ref 14389. He ended up making dents into the side of two lugs and also bent them. To top it off or should I say hide the mistakes, he polished the entire case. The once unpolished case was super shiny and sharp edges were round. The caseback had scratches but I loved them. I don't remember asking him to polish that ugh!
Keep in mind, this is the guy I trusted for years with my watches. Never polished a watch til now. Talk about murdering this one.
Also took the watch back in several times because it stopped working. I finally sold it off.... still sucks that a perfect watch that I was hoping to keep in my personal collection was destroyed.
Keep in mind, this is the guy I trusted for years with my watches. Never polished a watch til now. Talk about murdering this one.
Also took the watch back in several times because it stopped working. I finally sold it off.... still sucks that a perfect watch that I was hoping to keep in my personal collection was destroyed.
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asrnj77
·I sent a vintage diver to a watchmaker that I had read about online but never used. I requested only a service on the ETA movement and a new crystal (which I provided). When the watch came back the tritium lume in the bezel (not a pip but the entire triangle) was gone. I sent a rash of emails and he never responded. I just could never look at the watch the same, even though it was a relatively minor piece. I sold it and chalked it up to a life lesson
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cristos71
·They say a picture speaks a thousand words...
Before...
After....
Before...
After....
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Aludic
··@SpeedyBirthYearWell, I cannot fault my watchmaker at anything but sending me this little video of a watch that took a little longer getting serviced due to restricted part supplies (COVID), while I knew I couldn't pick it up for another week...
(Credit to Horlogemakerij Rijsman)
(Credit to Horlogemakerij Rijsman)
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Archer
··Omega Qualified WatchmakerWatchmakers are human - we all make mistakes, myself included. Anyone who tells you they haven't is lying. No profession is perfect, which is why doctors need malpractice insurance. After all, it's not like anyone here has never ever once made a mistake at their jobs, right?
The key thing is owning up to what happened, and working with the customer to come to the best resolution possible.
My advice for anyone finding themselves in a situation where a watchmaker has messed up is to be calm and do your best not to get emotional. Going in guns ablaze may make you feel good for a minute, but will usually make coming to an agreeable resolution much more difficult. I can assure you if your watchmaker is the kind of person that normally does good work, they feel as bad (or worse) about the error than you do.
Note that even the big brands make mistakes...as evidenced by this result on my GO after it was sent to Germany for service:
Cheers, Al
The key thing is owning up to what happened, and working with the customer to come to the best resolution possible.
My advice for anyone finding themselves in a situation where a watchmaker has messed up is to be calm and do your best not to get emotional. Going in guns ablaze may make you feel good for a minute, but will usually make coming to an agreeable resolution much more difficult. I can assure you if your watchmaker is the kind of person that normally does good work, they feel as bad (or worse) about the error than you do.
Note that even the big brands make mistakes...as evidenced by this result on my GO after it was sent to Germany for service:
Cheers, Al
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Canuck
·There are mistakes, for sure, which are unfortunate, but they happen. What is unforgivable in my view is charging for work not done. That is fraud.
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JwRosenthal
·There are mistakes, for sure, which are unfortunate, but they happen. What is unforgivable in my view is charging for work not done. That is fraud.
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140dave
·Biggest issue I had was of no fault of my ex-watchmaker and an issue he surely wanted to avoid, he died while he had my watch in for service. His kids were a nightmare and they eventually sold everything including many watches like mine that were at his home to be serviced. The watch (fairly common TII 21j Bunn Special PW) was a minor loss compared to the craftsmanship, took me a few years to find my “new” guy.
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imageWIS
·Biggest issue I had was of no fault of my ex-watchmaker and an issue he surely wanted to avoid, he died while he had my watch in for service. His kids were a nightmare and they eventually sold everything including many watches like mine that were at his home to be serviced. The watch (fairly common TII 21j Bunn Special PW) was a minor loss compared to the craftsmanship, took me a few years to find my “new” guy.
I know someone that happened to, and while the family didn't go off and start selling clients property, my friends watch was completely disassembled and he didn't know how to get all the correct parts to take them to another watchmaker.
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Canuck
·I was approached by a guy to service his grandfather’s Seth Thomas Maiden Lane railroad standard watch for him. It ran well, and was in decent shape. He asked me to go through it, just as I had all of the railroad pocket watches and three Seth Thomas railroad clocks, over the years. I didn’t want the job, so I procrastinated so long that he told me he was going to find someone else to do it. I told him finally that I would do it, but I informed him of the dangers of working on such and old scarce clunker. I told him the risk was all his. He agreed. I did it, and the repair went well......until less than a week later, the fully wound mainspring broke! The barrel ruptured, the centre wheel pinion broke, and a third wheel pivot as well. I tried for months to locate parts, to no avail. Well, my mistake was in trying too hard for this jerk! I lost a customer! Did I make a mistake?
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Syrte
·What did he say for his defense?
My worst story is just charming in comparison. I once bought for 20 euros a ladies watch I found cute- but it wasn’t running. My watchmaker said the only option was a full service, which cost multiple times the purchase price of the watch.
When I came back to fetch it, he handed me the bill and said, “by the way, that dial is refinished”.
I guess I must also have failed to communicate.
If true jt’a best redial I’ve ever seen, still a cute button of a watch.
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Archer
··Omega Qualified WatchmakerThere are mistakes, for sure, which are unfortunate, but they happen. What is unforgivable in my view is charging for work not done. That is fraud.
Yes, of course. I've seen it plenty of times, and even posted photos if it happening here on the forum...there are good and bad watchmakers just like in every other profession/job.
