When you send your vintage watch to Longines

Hi Syrte,

I know you are a Longines fan, have met with people there, and I had a feeling that you would push back on my comments. You may be completely correct in everything you say, but if you are then Longines would be the only watch company in the world that I know of that would put a flaking dial back on a watch, or put hands back on with cracked flaking lume, simply because the owner asked them to. Maybe they do this and say "no warranty" so that let's them off the hook when things go wrong, but then that would in my mind be rather poor service.

Again please don't take this as some slight against the people you know and have met with - it's not about those people. It's about brand policies and not having a watch come back under warranty.

I'm not trying to "diss" the watchmakers there, the historians there, or the brand in general. I'm trying to help people understand how brands work, and what the risks are in sending a vintage watch to them for servicing so they can avoid an unpleasant surprise. I can't in good conscience tell people that they brand would never do anything they didn't want, when I know for a fact that is not how any brand that I'm aware of works. If people want to send their watches to brand service centers it's up to them, but I simply try to let people know what the risks are, and there are most certainly risks.

The fact that the video above shows the very thing that some are trying to avoid, tells me that their policies won't be any different than those of Omega. I know you have said this is for "non-collectors" but to be honest that video shows exactly what I would expect Longines to do. I don't think anyone would have expected Omega to refinish this customer's dial without asking, and directly going against what he did ask for, but it happens:

Information requested for my Seamaster Chronograph | Omega Forums

Again, people can make their own decisions to use the service center or not. Until I see some actual evidence of this exceptional stance on leaving damaged items on the watch by Longines, I will continue to urge caution. If someone has correspondence from Longines that says "We must replace your dial because the finish is flaking off" and someone said "No please leave it" and they put that damaged dial back on, then I will be happy to stand corrected. I do think I'll be waiting quite a long time to see that though.

Anyway, I hope this clarifies what I'm trying to get across.

Cheers, Al

Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see what the watch is, so can you tell us that and what the movement is inside? 1200 pounds is a very hefty bill, and I would ask for an itemized list of what they will do before agreeing to it. When the AD gets the estimate for this, there will be 2 prices - what they pay on your behalf and what they are supposed to charge you (which includes their mark-up).

There should be a retail price with details that they can send you a copy of, which will list the scope of work. It should list both mandatory and optional items (if applicable) on it - it would look something like this ion the body of it:



You should make sure you get this and look it over before you agree to proceed. Also read any disclaimers that come with it, because once they get into the job they can change the scope without asking, like this:

"Our workshops reserve the right to replace the hands, crown, push buttons, and crystal of your watch by original pieces or by brand components if their choice that are comparable, aesthetically similar and maintain the same functionality."

Cheers, Al