Service cost and what is involved in a CW service

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lisnalee
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Re: Service cost and what is involved in a CW service

Post by lisnalee »

I didn't get any such paperwork with my Elite 1000 when I sent it back in May for warranty repair.
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Re: Service cost and what is involved in a CW service

Post by Essex Paul »

Think they have stopped giving repair info on warrantee repairs now. When my C1 came back in June there was no report. Nothing.
I rang them and they said you don’t get reports on warrantee work.
I think that’s a bit lame tbh.
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lisnalee
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Re: Service cost and what is involved in a CW service

Post by lisnalee »

Essex Paul wrote:Think they have stopped giving repair info on warrantee repairs now. When my C1 came back in June there was no report. Nothing.
I rang them and they said you don’t get reports on warrantee work.
I think that’s a bit lame tbh.
Perhaps that's a question that could be asked at the GTG this month

In fairness though even the big brands tend to be vague about faults with watches under warranty. Not wanting to admit any sort of poor manufacturing or QC issues.
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Re: Service cost and what is involved in a CW service

Post by Essex Paul »

lisnalee wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2019 4:58 pm
Essex Paul wrote:Think they have stopped giving repair info on warrantee repairs now. When my C1 came back in June there was no report. Nothing.
I rang them and they said you don’t get reports on warrantee work.
I think that’s a bit lame tbh.
Perhaps that's a question that could be asked at the GTG this month

In fairness though even the big brands tend to be vague about faults with watches under warranty. Not wanting to admit any sort of poor manufacturing or QC issues.
Good point. Will post question on GTG thread. :thumbup:
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Re: Service cost and what is involved in a CW service

Post by Nick C »

Hi everyone, new to this forum. For Christmas my wife bought me a c60 trident Pro 600. The watch is amazing and I love it but I am trying to understand the approximate servicing costs involved. The figure that keeps coming up is c£200. The watch costs £795 which means the service cost is 25% of the retail price. This is my first watch of this kind and I appreciate that this is high end precision watchmaking but it does seem, on the surface, a little excessive. If I buy a car for £20k the service cost would not be, using this scale, £5k! Is this the norm for these watches? OK, it is every four years which equates to c£1 a week but really?
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Re: Service cost and what is involved in a CW service

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Nick C wrote: Thu Dec 26, 2019 8:38 am Hi everyone, new to this forum. For Christmas my wife bought me a c60 trident Pro 600. The watch is amazing and I love it but I am trying to understand the approximate servicing costs involved. The figure that keeps coming up is c£200. The watch costs £795 which means the service cost is 25% of the retail price. This is my first watch of this kind and I appreciate that this is high end precision watchmaking but it does seem, on the surface, a little excessive. If I buy a car for £20k the service cost would not be, using this scale, £5k! Is this the norm for these watches? OK, it is every four years which equates to c£1 a week but really?
A watch only needs a service if it stops keeping time well - i.e. losing or gaining a significant number of seconds over a day. Enjoy the watch safe in the knowledge any problems like that in the first 4 years are covered for free by the warranty.
Jon

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Re: Service cost and what is involved in a CW service

Post by Nick C »

Hi Jon, many thanks for the reply. The guarantee is great, 5 years on this model but it does say that to ensure the warranty is maintained you must have it serviced every 3-4 years. After posting my comments I did give it some more thought and I suppose, as long as it isn't any more than £200, once every 4 years is kind of OK. It was just the initial surprise of the service cost that took me. After googling this does seem to be the average cost for servicing this type of watch. For sure though, anything adverse in its function and its straight back to CW! Many thanks again for your comments. Have a great new year.
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Re: Service cost and what is involved in a CW service

Post by Kansas City Milkman »

Nick C wrote: Thu Dec 26, 2019 9:50 am Hi Jon, many thanks for the reply. The guarantee is great, 5 years on this model but it does say that to ensure the warranty is maintained you must have it serviced every 3-4 years. After posting my comments I did give it some more thought and I suppose, as long as it isn't any more than £200, once every 4 years is kind of OK. It was just the initial surprise of the service cost that took me. After googling this does seem to be the average cost for servicing this type of watch. For sure though, anything adverse in its function and its straight back to CW! Many thanks again for your comments. Have a great new year.
Nick, I have a number of 5 yr old CWs and haven’t had them serviced yet and they are still running within 10 seconds over 24 hours. Of course best practice that they are serviced, but haven’t seen an issue with mine yet on how they are running
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Re: Service cost and what is involved in a CW service

Post by Craig64 »

Hi Nick
I take the same approach as Jon suggested and have mechanical watches serviced only when I notice any issues however slight. In the case of CW, if in year 4 the watch is running fine,I personally will be happy to leave it untouched, losing the last year of warranty and keeping the £200. But in fairness my mechanical watches are not running 24/7 so they don’t get a lot of wear, and lubrication might be more of an issue long term.

In terms of actual servicing costs, I don’t regard the circa £200 as that expensive assuming that the watch is fully stripped down, checked, cleaned, lubed and reassembled etc. Considering the car value to service cost, compared to a mechanical watch, when a car gets serviced, the vast majority of its components don’t even get touched or adjusted, unlike a mechanical watch, so the comparison is perhaps not really like for like.
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Re: Service cost and what is involved in a CW service

Post by Stanley »

Reference repair times etc
Just returned from a three week holiday with a sick C60 Blue Trident Automatic that after two days decided to pack up, the crown when pulled out to wind just spun and no movement from the sweep hand although the date and time could still be set.
The watch has never been near any water.

Sent e-mail to C W Service with a request for times and possible costings and received the following response.

"I'm sorry to hear you have experienced this issue with your watch. I have arranged for a returns pack to be sent out for you so the watch can come back to us for an inspection and to rectify this issue for you.

Please allow 3-5 working days for this to arrive.

The current repair schedule is approx. 8-10 weeks, once the inspection has been completed we will be able to give a more accurate time frame."

This morning the same fault has happened with my orange bezel C60 Trident wonder any chance of a reduction for two repairs!.

Have a great Boxing day.
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Re: Service cost and what is involved in a CW service

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Nick C wrote: Thu Dec 26, 2019 8:38 am Hi everyone, new to this forum. For Christmas my wife bought me a c60 trident Pro 600. The watch is amazing and I love it but I am trying to understand the approximate servicing costs involved. The figure that keeps coming up is c£200. The watch costs £795 which means the service cost is 25% of the retail price.
Sellita 200 movement. Use it until it doesn't work right, which might be 7 -10 years. Then send it in for service, the worst that can happen is a replacement movement. It's difficult to see how £200 doesn't simply buy a replacement movement and recase etc.. The movements cost makes them an uneconomical service/repair. Certainly servicing every 4 years would be madness as in 12 years you could have purchased a new watch..

I personally don't understand why in standard non COSC Sellita movements CW don't simply replace the movement, reseal the watch, extend the service interval to 7 years with 4 years warranty from new and 2 years after service. They could turn around the watches in days, save a bucket load of time and probably charge about £225 - £250 and make a decent profit. Actually putting in the labour on a movement of that cost to properly service it seems to be madness.
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Re: Service cost and what is involved in a CW service

Post by Craig64 »

Hi Dave
I think you’ve made some absolutely brilliant points in your posting above. What you suggested makes so much sense in my opinion.
When the day comes that one of my mechanical CW watches needs attention, I will likely ask for a price just to replace the movement and reseal, etc.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this one.
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Re: Service cost and what is involved in a CW service

Post by H0rati0 »

DavecUK wrote: Thu Dec 26, 2019 3:47 pm
Sellita 200 movement. Use it until it doesn't work right, which might be 7 -10 years. Then send it in for service, the worst that can happen is a replacement movement. It's difficult to see how £200 doesn't simply buy a replacement movement and recase etc.. The movements cost makes them an economical service/repair. Certainly servicing every 4 years would be madness as in 12 years you could have purchased a new watch..

I personally don't understand why in standard non COSC Sellita movements CW don't simply replace the movement, reseal the watch, extend the service interval to 7 years with 4 years warranty from new and 2 years after service. They could turn around the watches in days, save a bucket load of time and probably charge about £225 - £250 and make a decent profit. Actually putting in the labour on a movement of that cost to properly service it seems to be madness.
Agreed totally.

I know watchmakers infer that the oil "drys up" but they exaggerate - with ulterior motive? Pure synthetic oils do not deteriorate, the only factor reducing longevity is any additives, but even then, the practical lifetime is probably well in excess of 10, even 15 years. Micro particles from wear (only produced from active use) will in time render the oil unable to do its job necessitating re-oiling and a movement clean (or replace). As in-service performance drops off noticeably (or when a fault occurs) is when a service is required, no chance I send in my wristwatches for "preventative" service and some of mine have been running happily (worn intermittently of course) for over 20 years - and don't get me on to antique pocket watches - which do just fine with very little service history over up to two centuries!

BTW, it is not useful to compare watches to cars wrt service - apples and oranges. Cars operate in (and interact with) an incomparably harsher environment and at high temperature and pressure - modern watches are sealed and usually operate in conditions sustainable by humans.
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Re: Service cost and what is involved in a CW service

Post by Craig64 »

I absolutely agree with your further input Horatio.

To add my further two pence worth here, my very first mechanical watch was a Turnograph Date Just Rolex, purchased about 12 years ago. After 4 years I had it routinely serviced as recommended at that time by my retailer, and paid the then price of about £300. When I got the watch back, from then and until this day, the crown action when adjusting time, date or manual winding, never felt quite the same as before it was stripped down and serviced. It felt slightly awkward to engage the necessary positions etc. It felt inferior compared to before it was serviced.

It was that single experience for me that made me decide to have future work done only when obviously needed, and not as so called precautionary or routine measures.

Also, when having any watch serviced, there is always the risk that it will suffer some cosmetic damage during the process, which is invariably difficult to prove or resolve. I have known that happen with top end brands (though personally not with CW watches).
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Re: Service cost and what is involved in a CW service

Post by Thermexman »

My latest service by CW on a C60 Trident was £150 and took 6 weeks.
I’d say use them until they require attention, then spend the dosh.
The ratio of service cost to purchase cost on a CW is high because of CW’s profit mark up being lower than the big boys. If your watch cost several K’s, a service doesn’t seem so pricey in relation.
If you balk at the expense of having to service a mechanical watch, don’t buy one!
Steve.
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