Price increases in CW service dept.

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Re: Price increases in CW service dept.

Post by Lavaine »

nowttolose wrote: Sun Oct 16, 2022 3:23 pm What is the cost for CW to service a Sellita 3 hander and a Sellita 4 hander these days?
The better question might be why CW no longer list these prices on the website? Service prices used to be readily available online. Swatch group has all their service prices online. Why does CW feel the need to keep service rates a secret?
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Re: Price increases in CW service dept.

Post by Kip »

^^ This has been discussed in the recent past. Not certain why they have yet to be posted.
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Re: Price increases in CW service dept.

Post by bigbadbob »

You pay your money and you take your choice - like most things. I can get my car serviced at my local backstreet garage - and I have for oil changes which cost me £100 - whereas BMW wanted to charge £349. But for major services it is main dealer only. Given that CW provide a warranty how long before we have people saying "I paid £5 for a battery, but still want CW to honour the warranty".
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Re: Price increases in CW service dept.

Post by exHowfener »

Given that CW provide a warranty how long before we have people saying "I paid £5 for a battery, but still want CW to honour the warranty".
Yes, CW provide a warranty - on the movement. If the watch is older than 5 years then it's out of warranty. I'm unsure when CW last sold a quartz watch, but they dropped from the range a few years ago (I think) so the warranty argument is becoming less valid as time goes by.
I don't think that CW are ripping people off - they clearly have costs and overheads to cover, but let's be honest, taking the back off a watch and replacing the battery isn't rocket science. And nor is changing the oil in a car come to that.
Still, it's up to everyone to decide what they feel happy paying, there are a range of suppliers out there so fortunately there's plenty of choice.
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Re: Price increases in CW service dept.

Post by Gar787 »

C60 Trident Pro 600 MkII 38mm. Full service, £350 quote from CW. Erm…does this sound right? I bought it for £370 three years ago…
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Re: Price increases in CW service dept.

Post by Mikkei4 »

Gar787 wrote: Sat Jul 15, 2023 12:52 am C60 Trident Pro 600 MkII 38mm. Full service, £350 quote from CW. Erm…does this sound right? I bought it for £370 three years ago…
That price seems to have increased significantly from what I think I remember from previous posts regarding this subject, i.e was around £150.
No doubt prices everywhere and on everything have increased but paying £350 for a service on a watch worth not much more would make me consider if it's really worthwhile.

Alternatively maybe it should be considered as getting a new watch for £350 if it's in really good condition?
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Re: Price increases in CW service dept.

Post by JAFO »

Servicing watches can't be easy. I think if I were a skilled watchmaker, I might expect a large hourly rate in this day and age, given the scarcity of decent watchmaker's. £150 for a service sounds like a loss-,leader to me.

Maybe watchmaking, car maintenance and surgery each require similar skills, but there's no doubt surgeons expect and get a much larger remuneration for their set of skills.

For servicing to be relevant there needs to be a big difference between the cost of an item, and the cost of the service, otherwise the item becomes disposable like small household goods. Even cars start to become disposable as they age, and become less valuable. What happens to electric cars at the end of their battery life? (rhetorical as I can't see myself living long enough to buy one)

Watches are just heading that way, I think. At lower values it's pretty much DIY unless you are lucky. If you pay £5000 for a watch, than the service becomes more viable. Even so maybe it's more economic to simply drop a new movement into a watch, rather than disassemble it.
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Re: Price increases in CW service dept.

Post by tikkathree »

I've literally just (yesterday Friday 14th July) received a C50 COSC back from CW after a service, one of two watches I'd picked off EBay over the past 18 months "in need of repair". This watch was fully functional but running way out of COSC spec and having first established it wasn't just magnetised I'd reasoned that the full movement strip-down, rebuild and regulate would result in a very good watch at a not ridiculous price.

I'm glad I sent the watch in an essentially disposable carton because whatever it was it did not come home (replaced parts?- none, timegrapher output? none, pressure test output? none) but the watch came in a new box of the current design.

UPDATE: I asked if CW could let me have the timegrapher readouts from before and after the service and got the reply "we didn't keep them: if you want us to test the watch again you'll have to send it back".

I take the view that sending any watch for service is like sending a favourite pet to the vet for treatment: "no rush, just please make things better and return it to me when it's well again."

If paying more enables CW to expand and improve their servicing department I'm completely in favour. Is increasing the cost designed to slow down demand for servicing? I don't imagine so.

UPDATE: if £180 gets me a "mechanical analoge (sic) service with no report, no feedback on what they found, no information on parts they replaced and no timegrapher before and after readouts it pains me to say that I'd prefer to pay more. When I put my car in for work I get a full analysis of what's been done. It would be easy to think that I've paid for a service but have no proof that anything has been done. [b/]

The cost of the service was £180 which I thought very fair and very reasonable against the fixed costs of getting Omega COSC quartz and auto chonometers serviced in the past.
I've just looked and CW's website doesn't currently quote servicing costs but personally I'd take as a yardstick Omega's quoted prices which I've hopefully inserted as a screenshot below.

I'll start to monitor the accuracy of the C50 today.

Would I send a watch back for a battery change? I usually replace batteries myself.

This week I'm going to have a go at replacing a quartz movement with a new movement: it ought to be a simple "one out, one in" transplant but I'll let you know!

On pressure testing watches at battery replacement:

1. I have no pressure testing facility.
2. I've read on t'internet that to retain WR, the case back rubber seal MUST always be replaced but have no knowing whether this is true or urban myth.
3. I choose to apply a thin wipe of silicon compound to the case back threads: it makes me feel better.


Omega servicing prices Opera Snapshot_2023-07-15_083733_www.omegawatches.com.png
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Re: Price increases in CW service dept.

Post by Emphasis »

I suppose that's one way to cut down on the number of watches in the stable.

I've already let go of those that don't get worn, plus it certainly helps not having to think about all the eventual service costs.
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