Speedy water damage repair/restoration

Hi Chris,

Perrin is just a local Canadian parts reseller. I believe they are the largest and most complete supplier in Canada.

http://www.perrinwatchparts.com/

They have come up with some rare parts for me in the past, and they are my "go to" supplier for many brands outside of Swatch. They have been in business since 1929 according to the wall calendar I'm staring at that they send me every year and is hanging on my wall...

There are other parts suppliers in Canada, but these Perrin supply vintage parts and many of the newer suppliers don't since they have not been around as long and don't have the old stock that a place that has been in business for over 80 years would have.

Bestfit is sort of a nebulous entity for me right now, but I have an email in to someone who should know more about them in an attempt to get some clarification as to their status. I have bought many vintage parts that were in Bestfit packaging, and they are still for sale at many material suppliers. People here often confuse them for genuine parts - vintage Omega replacement crowns sold at Otto Frei for example are often referred to here as Omega crowns when they are clearly Bestfit numbers.

What I'm not clear on is if they are still producing (or having parts produced) or if it is now just a name and database as that site would suggest. A supplier in the US recently said on a watchmaker's board that Bestfit has the largest stock of ETA parts in the US, and that their company and most US based materials suppliers all have access to them. He didn't say that these parts were still being produced however.

If I get answers on their status I will include them in this thread.

Cheers, Al

So heard back from the person I thought might have the information I was after...Bestfit has been owned by the William S. McCaw company since 2001, when they purchased it from Grobet USA.

http://www.mccawcompany.com/

I emailed with David Wilson of McCaw, and he indicated that Bestfit is run as a separate division of McCaw since they acquired it, and as Rob has found they distribute through the material houses in the US and Canada (not sure if they have any accounts outside of North America). Bestfit still has parts being made as they have for decades, so they are a going concern for both vintage and modern parts. They will continue to have parts made and also will expand the selection in the future once they see what the high demand items are. They won't be able to make everything of course, but they will hopefully help fill some critical gaps.

In terms of how people outside of North America could get parts, I would suggest contacting any material supplier in North America that has Besfit and place your orders through them. Rob could even see if Perrin would still fill his orders. I can't speak for Europe but they do ship outside Canada and even have a toll free number for US customers. They might not work with people outside North America, but that would be an odd decision frankly. I have ordered from material suppliers all over the US and also from Europe, in addition the a few here in Canada, so there's likely no reason someone in Europe can't do the same. I pretty much always place my order via email anyway - this is 2015 and getting parts from pretty much anywhere should not be an insurmountable task.

I have actually been buying more and more parts from McCaw themselves over the last year or two, and have found the prices very reasonable, and the shipping reasonable as well. The customer service has been top notch - far better than some others material suppliers I could mention but won't...

Anyway, based on what I have been told I think Bestfit could certainly be a viable supplier of parts going forward, at least for many items.

Cheers, Al

Yes I deal with McCaw directly, and unlike some other distributors who ask for business ID numbers or only deal with the trade, no such questions were ever asked of me when I first dealt with them (although my email address has my business name in it, so that might be a factor).

I just email them at [email protected] and ask for pricing and delivery on the parts I need. I can only suggest being as thorough as possible with the information you provide. If you think of a typical order for a few small parts, they won't be making much on that, so having them spend the least amount of time possible on a small order is my goal, and where I can I will wait and group parts to make it a good sized order. This is why some material houses won't deal with people who are not in the trade, because they have to spend too much time figuring out what the person really wants when they don't know how to order parts properly.

Cheers, Al