Sure

 

Not wanting to start an argument but with my cars. I service them myself. Which means changing fluids and tuning. Hopefully the entire engine will only need to be rebuilt once in my life time.

However, with watches a service seems to mean a full rebuild? How come the lub can't just be changed and the watch regulated?

 

Because they won't be able to charge £460 for the service and claim it's white man's magic.

 

To clean the old lubricants out, check parts for wear, etc. requires fully dismantling the movement. It's what all brands do when they service a mechanical watch, so it's more like rebuilding the engine than just doing an oil change.

 

My problem is a bit different. I would love to follow the majority of the advice here (certainly from @Archer), but I just don't have a local watchmaker that I trust. I'm stuck in a cycle of allowing local watchmakers to work on pieces that I care less about, just to see if they can handle the work, do a quality job, and don't cost an arm and a leg. At this point I'm considering sending my better examples to the UK for service, which introduces all kinds of risk and delay. As a result, I'm not performing services nearly as often as I'd like, and I've had two vintage manual-wind watches I really care about start to have problems in the last year.

 

I think this is an issue for many of us as an elder generation of watchmakers have retired over the last 20 years and the pool is shrinking. My watchmaker is on his way to retirement (partially there already), so I too will have to start the hunt for someone I trust, and finding that locally may be impossible. Luckily the community here is spread out enough across the globe that there is usually someone that can be reccomeded at least within the same country- so you should make a thread for recommendations in your area or at least within your own country.

 

I see you posted a couple of years ago looking for a watchmaker in your area... maybe it would be worth posting again, in the open discussion area. I think more people read that than the vintage omega area. Also I'm sure there are watchmakers friendly to vintage in the USA you could use, which would be cheaper and less risky than shipping to the UK.

 

Thanks - maybe I will post again. @Archer was also gracious enough to send a few search websites my way, but everyone I found and checked out seemed to either work for large jewelers (no control of pricing), or focus on modern watches and have no idea how to source vintage parts. I have an old Longines with a very odd crystal that needs to be replaced, so that's the watch I usually use as a "test case". It's crazy how often I'm basically told they have no idea where to even begin. Some OF members have recommended solid WMs in the States, but the wait is usually really long, or they aren't even accepting new work. It seems like even though this hobby has exploded in popularity, the support network hasn't experienced the same kind of growth. With the length of the learning curve for new WMs, I'm guessing this will be the case for a long time to come!

 

Vintage Longines is particularly challenging. I heard that Longines decided that being able to repair old watches kept them from selling new ones, so they scrapped their entire supply of spare parts. (Do correct me, someone, if I'm misremembering.) Yes, the demand for watchmakers outstrips the supply at the moment, especially watchmakers with skills in vintage watches. But there are some.

 

I can't verify that Longines scrapped all their spare parts, but I can say that Swatch group is of no help at all with regards to sourcing vintage Longines parts, so it would not surprise me if this was the case. So although I have a Swatch group parts account, every time I ask for vintage Longines parts, they are of zero help. In contrast Omega has parts going back a long ways...but nothing for Longines.

In terms of watchmaker availability, yes there only a few new watchmakers coming out of school (not enough to replace those who are retiring), and many of those are going to brand service centers. It's a much easier path to work in a service center, than being an independent watchmaker and running a business. At the service center you have resources of the entire brand behind you, access to all kinds of equipment and parts that you don't have to pay for, no issues getting parts from the brands you work on, and you go home every night and relax not having to worry about ordering parts, billing customers, what to do when their watch is done, it's time to pay, and they never reply to you (dealing with that right now)...and the list goes on...but I would never work in a service center personally.

The fact is the average age of watchmakers is going up all the time. It's only going to get worse from here, and even brands are having a hard time filling the roles they need watchmakers for. This is why a lot of the work at service centers is being done by people other than trained watchmakers, but people who are given on the job training. In many instances this is limited to things like installing dials and hands, final casing, refinishing of the case and bracelet. The trained watchmaker only works on the movement, and nothing else.

But now with the "sequential servicing" model, these people with no formal training and only on the job training will be doing more of the movement work. This is essentially an assembly line type system where one person is trained on one specific area of the movement, such as the barrel area, so they will install the new barrel and put the bridge on, and then the movement moves to the next person who will install the train wheel and the bridge, and then it moved down the line to someone else who does the winding/setting parts, and so on. This eliminates the need for someone working on the movement who understands the whole movement, and at the end a trained watchmaker may only do the final touches - escapement work and adjusting for example.

This is the future of local servicing at brand service centers. On top of that many makers (Tudor for example with their "in-house" caliber) simply replace the entire movement in the watch, and then send the movement they removed back to a central location to be serviced, and then it is sent back out to be installed as a replacement in the future. Omega does this with the modular chronograph movements in some markets.

Things are changing, and true watchmaking skills are constantly being eroded by these policies...

Cheers, Al

 

I grew up the son of a GM master mechanic and I have seen enough of the insides of engines of cars that folk drove until they quit. So I also grew up a firmly believer in routine maintenance on all things mechanical. Once I bought my first decent watch and found a watch maker I began learning about watch movements and basic maintenance. Now through the help of books, my old watch maker, and this forum I clean and adjust most of my own watches. I haven't tackled an auto winder yet but I plan on picking up a cheap one to tinker with later this year.

 

I will service my three Omegas (Speedmaster, Seamaster and Globemaster) every 5-7 years, but through an Omega qualified independent watchmaker and not through Omega’s service centers — too expensive and they have a tendency to devalue watches with service parts, particularly dials. I’ve seen too many examples of Omega service “upgrading” vintage tritium Speedy Pros with Superluminova service dials and hands.

 

I bought my late father a Seiko back when I was still at school, probably 35 or more years ago. He wore it most evenings with pride as a gift from his only son. Now 12 years after his passing it’s back in my possession. He never had it serviced and I don’t intend to either. I use it occasionally as it’s more sentimental than anything else. However it does keep good time - within 10-15 seconds a day at last count. So, it’s precise and accurate but it may not be running well - in the same way a car may get you from A to B running on 3 cylinders, but it’s good enough for me.