Dear all,

It's been a while since I posted here!

Last week the date change on my calibre 12 Heuer Autavia 1163T 'Siffert' started behaving strangely, and it is time to get it serviced, anyway.
Please can anyone recommend a reliable UK watchmaker experienced at working on these? Doesn't matter if they've got a long waiting list.

I've used Duncan Potter at Genesis Watchmaking for similar work in the past on various other brands (Rolex & Omega, among others) and I'd be happy to do so again, but I'm a bit out of touch on vintage Heuer servicing. Also, Genesis are based up near Carlisle, and since Sifferts with good provenance have become quite valuable in recent years, I'd like to deliver it personally. So, a recommendation in the East or South of England, or the Midlands, would be more convenient.

Many thanks for any thoughts.

Hi Mark, good to see you posting again.

Simon Michlmayr in Norwich? They have done work on vintage watches for me before, not cheap but good. They have a TAG Heuer accreditation. Worth a query?

https://www.michlmayr.com/

These may be worth a call https://watchesoflancashire.com/ Though a fair bit out of the area you are looking for.

That’s really helpful, folks.
Yes, I think I will email Duncan first to see what he suggests. I know that some watchmakers offer fully insured shipping in both directions as part of their service, and maybe they can now do that.
I’ve seen lots of recommendations for Richard Askham in the past, but he’s now based in Yorkshire so that’s not ideal.
Norwich would most certainly be convenient, and I suspect that’ll be the way I go.
Many thanks.

I’ve recently sent a vintage sub to Duncan at Genesis for a service…..have yet
To receive it back but so far I’m v.impressed by our interaction and yeah, the mailing in system
Is always a nerve wracking experience.

Tag Heuer themselves will service and repair their own vintage watches. Is it for reasons of cost that you haven’t considered them?

Quick update: I went with Michlmayr and all went well, albeit a bit slowly and it wasn't exactly cheap.

It needed a new mainspring and several other internal bits (you can tell I'm a movement expert ), and they polished a nasty scrape off the crystal but just cleaned the case: around 900 quid including return shipping. Their standard shipping apparently covers up to £30k (which was around 3x what was needed for this piece that I'd acquired from Paul Gavin after it had been restored by Abel Court, the vintage Heuer expert, and comes with documented provenance). They were very keen to establish my requirements before taking on the work, and kept me well informed.

It now looks beautiful and works impeccably. They guaranteed +/- 20s per day, which it is easily achieving on the wrist, but I havn't done any sort of formal timing test.

I dropped the watch off at their workshop in the Norwich outskirts, which I was able to combine with a camera club trip to the city. You can drop off & collect from a separate jewellers in town if you wish, but I was interested to see their set-up before I consigned my piece to them - it's a very impressive and efficient-looking operation on a little business estate. Not surprisingly the security looks like that of a bank. I was impressed that they had a nice display in Reception about their training programme for young watchmakers.

So, many thanks for the recommendation, and I'm very satisfied. Personally I would only use them for special watches of high intrinsic or personal value, but I'd say they can be relied upon if that fits your needs.