Watch maker horror story

hi all I want to tell you of my experience I had with a very well know watch maker here in Hatton gardens London. I accidentally damaged my Rolex 114060 buy hitting it on a metal hand rail in work which put a dent in the side of the case. My OCD wouldn’t let me ignore it so I had a look online and found a watchmaker and sent the watch into them with a very detailed note explaining I would like the watch’s dent removed.
When I went to pick up the watch the dent was completely gone and you couldn’t tell it had ever been there but unfortunately the watch had come back damaged the underside of the lugs had been scratched where the watch maker either slipped or didn’t take care removing the bracelet pins and there was a long scratch on the underside of the bracelet itself. The worst part was that they had completely refinished the watch even tho I had never asked them too and the new finish was really badly done as you can tell from the pictures alto I only took one picture of the bracelet the whole whing was effected with their version of Rolex’s finishView attachment 640018 View attachment 640018 To cut a long story short hind sight is a wonderful thing I should have just waited or sent the watch to Rolex but I wanted to save time and money. I ended up selling that watch as when I got it back it didn’t feel like it was my watch anymore and have since bought another one.

Firstly I'm sorry to hear about this; you've lost a very special watch because of this incompetence, I hope your new watch at least partly makes up for your loss.

The refinish is terrible, but what really is infuriating are the scratches on the bracelet, how can any watchmaker or servicer let that go out of their workshops and still hope to get customers?

Not all watchmakers are incompetent so if you do ever want to repair or service your Rolex please do ask on the forum because I'm sure someone will be able to point you towards an actual professional.

They took the watch back and removed the scratches and agreeded that they had caused them they said they never saw my letter that I included which said I only wanted the dent removed and they said they couldn’t do anything to make the finish like the original Rolex finish. I told them I still wasn’t happy but in the end they said the best they could do would be to make a note on their computer and the next time I bring a watch in for a service they would do it for a discounted price! All in all I was charged £150 for the privilege not to mention the amount of worry caused while waiting to get the watch back for the second time.

“the next time I bring a watch in for service...” That’s being pretty optimistic on their part!

I hate when they offer those next time discounts. Don’t they realize there won’t be a next time?!!

really terrible that they did that to your watch. i'm so sorry to hear. don't watchmakers/dealers know these days that people openly debate feedback etc...

For my own learning, what's wrong with the last photo with the 7 red circles?

Sorry to hear about that.
The good news is, only the scratches on the bracelet in the first picture are obvious.

I personally cannot see anything wrong. I’d guess that, in the metal, the finish is no where near what it should be. Unfortunately the photo perhaps doesn’t capture it.