Story of my memento watch

Canuck

I very much doubt there ever was a watchmaker to which this sort of thing hasn’t happened. A warranty is the manufacturer’s way of telling you that, to the best of their judgement, the product is perfect. But if it proves not to be perfect, they will look after you....

Canuck

...May you be so fortunate as to never make a mistake!

WatchCor

Well, here it goes. I reached two significant milestones within a 6 month period. I got my specialist license/decree (a 6 year program📖) December '18 and then managed to get tenured May of this year. Even before I got the tenure I was semi actively looking for a suitable memento watch but not quite found one special enough. After receiving the tenure I decided that I would try to find something special to commemorate both of those events.

After a tedious and long search, with some of the tribulations mentioned here, I found it:

On my balcony with the sun setting.

At work

At home

On my front yard

Needless to point out I wore this all the time (except sleeping) for the first week. 😁 Images don't really do this piece justice, it was exactly to my taste.

Alas, all was not well:

One regular morning I woke and put it on my wrist and a cold chill reverberated through my spine. My wife looked me weirdly, and later told me: "I knew something was off with you that morning".

The movement had seized. Fracking impossible. The modified El primero is a work horse and a reliable one.It must have been broken during shipment to me. I contacted the dealer/seller and he was very professional, apologetic and was a pleasure to negotiate with in this ortherwise displeasurable situation.

I sent the watch back and the root cause was this:

A loose screw

The dealer offered a generous discount and a service by his watchmaker but I declined politely and I opted for the full refund. The watch came with 1 year mechanical warranty.

I could fathom that perhaps tossing/dropping the packet it came in, could have broken something but I don't understand how a screw might have become loose. Additionally no one knows if the loose screw had caused any other issues that would only later surface.

From the exhilarating search to the childish joy of receiving it and wearing it to the horrific realisation that it's broken, this watch brought me a rollercoaster of emotions😵‍💫

And still the search continues.....

michael22

You sound like somebody who should just buy new. That's not a disparagement.

Dan S

With pre-owned and vintage watches, one must accept that they occasionally need repair, and a loose screw on a watch under warranty is an extremely minor issue. Repairs like this are trivial. It's much harder to find the watch you want in good condition at a fair price. As you see, all of the experienced collectors responding to your thread would have made a different decision. After you have purchased a few dozen watches, you will understand better. Perhaps it would be better for you to start with less expensive pieces, so you don't have so much anxiety about them. Your language ... "cold chill reverberated down my spine", "horrific realisation", "gut punch", etc., suggest that you got very emotional about this minor issue with a mechanical object.

Or perhaps the real issue here was buyer's remorse.

JwRosenthal

I don’t fault @WatchCor for getting weak knees- this is a major financial commitment and a scare like that right out of the gate would make me squeamish as well. Plus with a new to you dealer, having something like a loose screw begs the question of what else wasn’t done properly at the last service. Just taking the counterpoint here- I would have taken the discount and kept it- but we all react differently to to that kind of stumble.