Watch servicing

Discuss Christopher Ward watches
Htownsend
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Watch servicing

Post by Htownsend »

Just seeing what people are doing with regards to servicing their watches. Is it back to CW no matter what the age or once warranty is out do you have a preferred person/company that you use.
MarkingTime
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Re: Watch servicing

Post by MarkingTime »

CW charge £150 for an automatic watch service. That's pretty good for an OEM service. They don't however, offer any case or bracelet reconditioning.
To maintain a new watches warranty, you will need to have the watch serviced at the four year point, so the 60 month part of the warranty is misleading in my opinion.

Now, as for my take on servicing. The movements in the standard automatics are Sellita and you can buy these movements for the price of a service, so I would say run the watch until it shows signs of actually needing a service, probably well in excess of five years and more likely 7-10 depending on use. At that point, get it serviced and/or just replace the movement, as it is not cost effective to service these movements on too regular a basis. Obviously if you have pride in maintaining the same movement and want to keep it going for as long as possible, then service every four to five years as per recommendations. I don't personally see the value in that though.

If you have an expensive movement, then the that changes things a bit, but usually the more expensive a movement is, the more complicated it is likely to be and the more expensive the service costs.
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Re: Watch servicing

Post by Jkpa »

I have two relatively new mechanicals that will require a service and are not "throwaway" movements so I'll likely service those every 7-8 years or so (not daily wearers) and then I have my newly acquired 7750 VJ chronograph that I don't have plans to service unless it displays weird behavior and if it does, let's hope it's before 48 months as per above. :) Anything cheaper like Seiko or Citizen movements, I have no plans to ever service. Just replace the movement.
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monkeymax
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Re: Watch servicing

Post by monkeymax »

Depends on the age and what you want doing. I sent my >10 year old Kingfisher in to CW for servicing as I was thinking it'd be easiest if I needed spare parts. Also their pricing is very reasonable in my opinion. But the movement is pretty generic so I wouldn't be too worried about taking it to a good watchmaker to do the servicing. But the watchmaker I've used before would charge more than CW so it was a simple decision!
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Re: Watch servicing

Post by Dilbert »

MarkingTime wrote: Wed Jan 13, 2021 9:41 pm CW charge £150 for an automatic watch service. That's pretty good for an OEM service. They don't however, offer any case or bracelet reconditioning.
What?! Doesn't CW offer case and bracelet refinishing? :?:
JAFO
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Re: Watch servicing

Post by JAFO »

Coincidentally, I've been looking into watch case refinishing, and it sounds really specialised.

see this example talking about laser filling of scratches, and so on.
https://www.shwr.co.uk/polishing
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Re: Watch servicing

Post by Bahnstormer_vRS »

Dilbert wrote: Mon Jan 18, 2021 2:23 pm
MarkingTime wrote: Wed Jan 13, 2021 9:41 pm CW charge £150 for an automatic watch service. That's pretty good for an OEM service. They don't however, offer any case or bracelet reconditioning.
What?! Doesn't CW offer case and bracelet refinishing? :?:
No, they don't; although at several of the GTG/CW Events held in 2019 Mike France stated that it is an area of service they are looking into and hope to be able to provide in the future (no time frame put forward).

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Re: Watch servicing

Post by Kip »

Dilbert wrote: Mon Jan 18, 2021 2:23 pm
MarkingTime wrote: Wed Jan 13, 2021 9:41 pm CW charge £150 for an automatic watch service. That's pretty good for an OEM service. They don't however, offer any case or bracelet reconditioning.
What?! Doesn't CW offer case and bracelet refinishing? :?:
Case polishing is truly an acquired art. Every step is critically important from prep to the final buff. Mixed finishes are time consuming and challenging. Different metals also require different techniques.

While I am not bad at it, I would say I am just above average and I have been polishing on and off for 20 years, but certainly not full time. CW would need to invest in proper equipment and training and then you get into scheduling within and the slowdown in service turnaround. I think it is nice service to offer, but CW must find a way for it to make sense and be profitable.

A few years back I had some discussions with Chris about this, but the only way it made sense at that time was to do most every watch, but that would add to the service costs and CW was not up for that at that time.
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Re: Watch servicing

Post by JAFO »

I would have thought that if CW wanted to do it, they would need to offer it as separate option on it's own, without a service. I don't see how they could offer servicing for all brands, and I doubt if it would be economic to have an internal department just to refinish CW watches.

Maybe the best way would be for CW to sub out the refinishing to a specialist for a commission.

Moving expensive watches around isn't an inexpensive job though, is it?
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