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Rant ..Watch owners with timegraphers...

anilv
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anilv Distinguished Member

anilv

Posted
Posted

Ever since timegraphers have become cheap(ish),  more and more watch collectors are buying them and well, good for them.

But as a part time watch mechanic I'm starting to hate owners who bring me their watches and tell me their watch needs repair because they checked it on their timegrapher and it reads..blah blah blah blah.

It's fine if they bring a Rolex or Omega and expect it to run perfectly but for a 50 year watch with the accumulated wear and tear?

I just did a nice old Tissot with a cal.28. This watch has a fixed stud so a beat error of 0.6 is acceptable to me. Amplitude was strong and it kept good time in all positions +/- 5 seconds or so. This gent came back a few days later with the watch and expected 0.0 beat error (which is fine and I did fix that) and 0 seconds error in all positions. It took a while to explain why I could not get the watch in spec and it was probably worse when it was new anyway!.

But the main point is the watch was running fine when I got it and the owner told me to service it which I did, as most conscientious owners will service mechanical watches every 10 years or so. In hindsight I guess he just put it on the timegrapher and didn't like what he saw and decided that it needed a service. At least this gent didn't question when I told him I would be changing the mainspring!

I'm probably lucky as I don't do this full time but I can imagine how tough it is for watchmakers to manage the expectation of customers. 

Rant over guys.

Stay safe.

Anilv

  • Like 2
clockboy Distinguished Member

clockboy

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, anilv said:

Ever since timegraphers have become cheap(ish),  more and more watch collectors are buying them and well, good for them.

But as a part time watch mechanic I'm starting to hate owners who bring me their watches and tell me their watch needs repair because they checked it on their timegrapher and it reads..blah blah blah blah.

It's fine if they bring a Rolex or Omega and expect it to run perfectly but for a 50 year watch with the accumulated wear and tear?

I just did a nice old Tissot with a cal.28. This watch has a fixed stud so a beat error of 0.6 is acceptable to me. Amplitude was strong and it kept good time in all positions +/- 5 seconds or so. This gent came back a few days later with the watch and expected 0.0 beat error (which is fine and I did fix that) and 0 seconds error in all positions. It took a while to explain why I could not get the watch in spec and it was probably worse when it was new anyway!.

But the main point is the watch was running fine when I got it and the owner told me to service it which I did, as most conscientious owners will service mechanical watches every 10 years or so. In hindsight I guess he just put it on the timegrapher and didn't like what he saw and decided that it needed a service. At least this gent didn't question when I told him I would be changing the mainspring!

I'm probably lucky as I don't do this full time but I can imagine how tough it is for watchmakers to manage the expectation of customers. 

Rant over guys.

Stay safe.

Anilv

Many customers do not understand that it is impossible to get a mechanical watch to run without an error. That is why I prefer to have a non runner watch on my bench. The very latest Rolex movement guarantee is +/- 2 secs. 

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