in 2007

 

I don't think "Universal Watch Repair" meant what he thought it meant.

Yikes, would expect service plus cost of an entire donor movement to be at least a grand less than that.

 

Yeah, but you should have seen the quality of that case detailing...

 

In 2007, the entire watch wasn't worth much more than that service.

 

wow, what a shame. They probably did more than $2800 in damage to the watch.

 

sorry, was following thread on iphone and didnt see images. I assumed based on the description and cost of the service that multiple parts were replaced needlessly. I'll look at the images when I get off the road.

 

Wow, could they have redialed it without mentioning on the restoration invoice?
It looks so perfect ... what are the telling signs?

 

I have been in the UWR shop (local to me) way over priced on watch service. They tap into people that are not knowledgeable and offer plenty of snob appeal go figure that one out

 

I've seen some incredible UG redials done at IW in Ohio. Nothing will ever be as good as JLC's factory redialing, but IW is damn close to perfect on UG. Even if you have one small complaint, they'll take it back and redo it again.

 

Thanks for the replies, gents - always an interesting learning process.

 

Yeah, nothing there strikes me with suspicion. I'd stamp it original, unless somebody gives me evidence to the contrary.

 

Not long ago i was at one of the local watch supply houses. I asked one of the counter people in the shop Who is good at lazer welding gold I needed to have a lug repaired on a gold watch.case
His first thought was UWR then he said stay away from that place it will be very expensive. he recommended a jeweler that is a great goldsmith for the repair of the lug. When done The goldsmith handed me the case and said no charge and even offered to do the repair while I waited I told him no rush I came back to the shop a couple hours later and the watch case was done.
So the moral of the story is plenty of good guys around you just have to find them and that is the hardest part word of mouth works very well.

 

For what it's worth, they tried to charge me a ludicrous amount on a repair and I had them send me my watch back...

 

Well somebody just a week ago was looking for a watchmaker in the Detroit area in another thread, maybe you could recommend one?
I'm interested in the info myself. About a year ago (and before I joined this forum), I tried to do research on line for watchmakers in the area to help out someone, all I could find were a couple of mom and pop stores that were hard to assess and a posh place in Birmingham !
So it's easy to understand how people would go there for safety if they don't have any referrals.