How Much is the CW five-year warranty worth?

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miket-nyc
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How Much is the CW five-year warranty worth?

Post by miket-nyc »

In mid May, I bought a CW Trident C60 GMT watch. The watch was new, but I bought it from a British guy on eBay. I'm very pleased with the watch (and the price I paid), but the seller said that price included the CW five-year warranty, which could be transferred to me.

But I've been unable to get the warranty transferred because of various screw-ups. My seller didn't buy the watch from CW himself, but from someone else. and CW has no record of ever selling a watch to him. He then sent me the name of the guy who sold HIM the watch, and it turns out that's not the original buyer either. (In the original box, CW enclosed a letter to the original buyer from them, and his name doesn't match either of the names I have).

It's been getting more and more difficult getting responses from my seller or from CW, so an alternative option occurred to me -- if I can't get the warranty transferred, I can figure out how much the warranty is worth and get the seller to reduce the price by that amount. The case of this watch seems to be constructed like a bank vault, and I've had cheap Japanese movements that lasted longer than five years, so I expect an ETA 2893-2 is going to do the same. Has anyone here needed repairs on a CW sports watch during the five-year warranty, and what were they? And if you had a chance to buy the same watch with or without the warranty, how much more would you pay for the warranty?

Mike Taglieri

P.S. There is, of course, another possibility: my seller seemed like a perfectly nice guy in email, but he may have been dragging his feet on this information because the watch is hot. If anyone here is the original buyer of a new-in-box Trident C60 GMT watch that was stolen from you or you know someone else who is, please get in touch. Be prepared to tell me your name and the size, color, and serial number of the watch.
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Re: How Much is the CW five-year warranty worth?

Post by MadMrB »

Too early in morning, I misread your post sorry :oops: - Warranty should be fine if you have the warranty card.
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Re: How Much is the CW five-year warranty worth?

Post by reggie747 »

What about the serial number on the case back ?
That would tell the age/sale point of the watch and probably the original purchaser.
Whether CW will give you the latter part of the above, I don't know.
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Re: How Much is the CW five-year warranty worth?

Post by ItsAliveJim »

I thought the warranty was on the watch, not the owner? As long as you have the warranty card, then all will be fine. What about the thousands of people that must have given CW watches as gifts?

I honestly wouldn't worry about it. If you have all the paperwork then CW will sort you out if anything goes wrong :thumbup:
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Re: How Much is the CW five-year warranty worth?

Post by MiniMpi »

I have never had to transfer the warranty to or from any of my CW watches whether I bought it new or second hand.
As Steve said once you have the warranty card/manual that shows the date bought, serial number etc then CW will carry out warranty on it once the warranty is still in the five year period.
I bought a C6 from eBay without the manual and like you even though I apparently had the first owner's name which my seller said he was, CW couldn't find him on their system.
They keep the person's name as the reference, not the serial number.
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Re: How Much is the CW five-year warranty worth?

Post by Scrogg »

MiniMpi wrote:They keep the person's name as the reference, not the serial number.
Seriously? That's insane!

What is the point in putting serial numbers on if not as a way of identifying the watch? :?

Owners change, serial numbers don't. Which genius decided the way to administer a transferrable warranty was by registering each watch to something the company have zero control over?
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Re: How Much is the CW five-year warranty worth?

Post by smegwina »

Scrogg wrote:
MiniMpi wrote:They keep the person's name as the reference, not the serial number.
Seriously? That's insane!

What is the point in putting serial numbers on if not as a way of identifying the watch? :?

Owners change, serial numbers don't. Which genius decided the way to administer a transferrable warranty was by registering each watch to something the company have zero control over?
The serial numbers are so they can accurately keep track of what movement (ETA vs Sellita) is in what case...... Oh wait....... :D

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Re: How Much is the CW five-year warranty worth?

Post by Scrogg »

miket-nyc wrote:How Much is the CW five-year warranty worth?
That's almost impossible to answer.

CW don't sell warranties separately, so they have no published retail price, so the only answers you will get will be opinions.

To someone that buys a faultless watch the warranty is worth nothing. To someone that has to send one back many times over the 5 years it is worth a great deal.

You are asking people with little/no experience of repair/replacement costs to put a monetary value on something that to some has no worth but to others has been invaluable.
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Re: How Much is the CW five-year warranty worth?

Post by jtc »

You have the original buyer's name, you have the warranty card and know when it was purchased.

As long as the watch is within the warranty period, it should be honoured.
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Re: How Much is the CW five-year warranty worth?

Post by tempus fugit »

mike - did you get the instruction booklet, which has the warranty card at the back?

if so, you already possess the warranty.

if not then can you confirm that CWL have said if they have a record of the date that serial number was sold? As warranties are fully transferable.
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Re: How Much is the CW five-year warranty worth?

Post by miket-nyc »

Some people here seem to think my worries are groundless and the warranty is fine. That is not correct. This is what I was told in an email by Ms. Wera Mettles, head of customer service at CW: "If you want to buy from another customer, the warranty can be transferred. But we must get the details from the original owner to do so. An order number, and or his address details should suffice."

Then, when I later said I was having trouble with that and asked if they could find the original owner's name from the serial number, she said: "Without an order number, and or customer name / address or email address we cannot search on serial number alone I am sorry to say."

Those are exact quotes. I realize this is completely daft, as some people here have already said. There's not much point in putting a serial number on each watch if you're not going to RECORD that serial number for future use. But that's the way they run their company. So the warranty is transferable, but only if you can supply the name and address of the original buyer.

At first, I thought that would be easy because the watch was totally new -- the bracelet had been adjusted to my seller's wrist size [same as mine, conveniently], but the plastic on the back of the watch case hadn't been removed and it was still in the little plastic bag, with all the papers in the box, etc. It just never occurred to me that this watch had already been bought and sold at least twice. (And maybe more -- I know the name of the guy who sold it to me and the guy who sold it to him, but there could be a longer chain of them).

My seller said he had bought both the large and small size at the same time and sold the one he didn't prefer. That originally sounded a bit fishy, because CW had their money-back guarantee for the one he didn't prefer. But if he wasn't the original purchaser and didn't have the warranty, that made more sense.

Concerning my question, Scrogg says: "You are asking people with little/no experience of repair/replacement costs to put a monetary value on something that to some has no worth but to others has been invaluable."

I realize the question I'm asking is unusual, because most people who buy CW watches got them new from the factory and have the warranty, but you guys are watch collectors (and presumably CW watch collectors), so who would be better people to ask? If, for example, you were at a watch show and you saw two new CW Tridents for sale, and the seller said: "they're exactly the same watch but the one on the left doesn't have the five-year warranty," how much more would you pay for the one on the right?

That's all I'm asking, so I can suggest it to the guy who sold me the watch on ebay as a way of ending this dispute. American Express, whose card I used to buy the watch, offered to cancel the whole transaction, but that seems completely unfair to the seller. I LIKE the watch and want to keep it, just at a lower price to reflect the fact that there's apparently no way to get this warranty transferred.
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Re: How Much is the CW five-year warranty worth?

Post by downer »

Do you have the warranty card? If Yes, no worries. If No, you have no warranty. I think it's that simple.

If you have no warranty:

a) you are unlikely to need one
b) even if your watch needs attention, it will not cost the earth to fix, and the work could be done locally to save time and cost

Your questions to CW seem to be about "transferring the warranty" into your name, and I think that's why you got the answers you got.
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Re: How Much is the CW five-year warranty worth?

Post by nbg »

^^^^ Is it that simple though Richard?

The norm in the industry, as we all know is exactly as you have indicated in the first line of your post.

That doesn't mean that is the basis on which CW operates its own 60:60. What's the point of having a process that "transfers" the warranty, unless it is a requirement of CW as part of the 60:60?

If it really didn't matter, I would have thought Wera's response would have also added something along the lines of:

"However if you currently have the certificate of authenticity that is on the back page of the owners manual, this is all you need to be covered by the 5 year movement warranty".

Unless of course Wera's assumption was that the current owner doesn't have the certificate of authenticity and would therefore then need to provide the information that she requested to be able to transfer the warranty to the current owner.

We have had this discussed in previous threads and I am still non the wiser and the information on the CW site is also lacking in detail.

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Re: How Much is the CW five-year warranty worth?

Post by MadMrB »

I appreciate your concern and cannot specifically answer your original question as it is rather subjective. But if you were to seek compensation from the seller regarding lack of verifiable warranty, then perhaps an amount towards the cost of a standard movement service might be suitable discount/compensation, factored by the likelihood of the watch developing a problem before the warranty expires. But again that is all down to your perception...

Also, maybe you should rephrase your question to CW. Instead of asking to transfer the warranty, just state that you have purchased a watch second-hand and you have the original warranty card, and ask if a problem arises within the remainder of the warranty would they honor the warranty and fix it? - I guess what may be CW's problem is with proof of purchase, however as has already been mentioned - what is their serial number for??

If CW then say that they would not honor the warranty, then aside from that raising concerns with other CW purchasers, that then gives you a definitive answer with which to approach your seller regarding selling a watch without warranty.
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Re: How Much is the CW five-year warranty worth?

Post by downer »

nbg wrote:^^^^ Is it that simple though Richard?

The norm in the industry, as we all know is exactly as you have indicated in the first line of your post.

That doesn't mean that is the basis on which CW operates its own 60:60. What's the point of having a process that "transfers" the warranty, unless it is a requirement of CW as part of the 60:60?

If it really didn't matter, I would have thought Wera's response would have also added something along the lines of:

"However if you currently have the certificate of authenticity that is on the back page of the owners manual, this is all you need to be covered by the 5 year movement warranty".

Unless of course Wera's assumption was that the current owner doesn't have the certificate of authenticity and would therefore then need to provide the information that she requested to be able to transfer the warranty to the current owner.

We have had this discussed in previous threads and I am still non the wiser and the information on the CW site is also lacking in detail.

Neil

I think it is that simple. I think there are plenty of examples of people having warranty work done by CW on watches where they are not the first owner.
Richard
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