ETA Swatch group parts availability

[Mircea]

Hello

I very recently bought an pre-owned Hamilton Jazzmaster Chrono ref. H326160 With a black dial. Found it on the internet at a good price, as the bracelet was pretty much scratched… (people buy mostly watches for their appearance, I bought it for the Valjoux 7750 inside to make my future project!). The dial is nice, but as I found, there is also a white one in the same model, that looks more appealing with me. But… impossible for me to find a source…

my question to you, and I am including the ones for whom watchmaking is their profession, how do you find such a part? I do not have usually any problem with movement parts, but this one, I cannot even find a reference number… the same with case parts, unfortunately… very frustrating indeed…

attached are two photos, I own the black one. The white one I would like to have… photos are from chrono24.

Thank you

 

[JohnR725]

The simplistic answer is your screwed?

This is the age old never-ending problem in watch repair. For variety reasons parts information is not available never was. There is a assumption by people that every single part has a part number and they don't.

Now then there's the other little problem which is for instance I once did a database program for material house who had a Seiko parts count. The particular database had 50,000 casing parts. The material house owner was unhappy because each year they were dropping old parts he actually needed multiple generations of the database to look up older parts. Now realistically think about it if you stocked 50,000 casing parts for the current generation Seiko watches how many of those would you never ever sell? Would it be in your best interest to stock all of them? From a watchmaking point of view yes we want them to stock every single casing part they ever made but they can't. Yes I worked briefly in a material house there's no way in hell of material house can stock every single part of every single watch ever made it's not practical even though it disappoints everyone in watch repair.

Then next problem is Swatch group. Swatch group doesn't like watchmakers they tolerate them at best. They want to make watches they don't want to repair them it depends upon which brand as to how helpful they will be. Even if you had access to Swatch group databases and the brands some of them don't even have data for anything  old. Which means there's no way to find whatever it is you're looking for. Then suppose you did have access did you order the part if you can look it up not necessarily access comes at different levels. It means conceivably somebody can find the part number for you but can't order it it's restricted you're not authorized to purchase

then what if you get a part number what you going to do with it are you going to be happy or angry? The anger aspect comes along the lines of sometime in the past somebody had to vintage Omega watches they were looking for the crystal. Fortunately Omega for casing parts as a wonderful database. I never said the individual where I looked up my part numbers but I looked up the part numbers and I gave him the crystal members was he happy hell no we was angry why? Part numbers didn't seem to correspond to anything in the known universe? In other words some unique parts older parts whatever they might not have ever been reproduced it may have never been distributed they aren't out there at all. I don't know why he was complaining we currently have a watch at work that we have a crystal number and we Find where to get the crystal from either not unique to the people on this group

so if you were to find some kind soul who had Swatch group axis they could take your number and discover that it refers to nine different watches?Then looking for anything that resembles a white dial we get two of them. If you look carefully it appears to be that they're both identical it's just the strap.

But just to make my point I've attached the image of that.

Then Figure out what exactly you're supposed to be looking for dial is listed as a case component versus the movement components. Then you would probably get something like that apparently it's a chrome dial not white and he gets reference numbers zero idea what you're going to do with those although? Sometimes newer numbers might show up on eBay or relatively new because some of the companies actually did supply parts to the world like Omega's a lot of the Omega parts are out there. As a guess you're going to have to find somebody who's camel boys to watch or?

The owner would be find somebody who has Swatch group access at the movement level or whatever level is needed to order dial components and see if the order a dial for you. As a wild guess it should cost less than $100 but you do have to find the right person ask nicely and see if they'll actually do it.

For your original question yes it's a problem for everybody. The newer stuff databases were never released into the public like the older stuff there's no parts references out there for anybody. Companies like Swatch group being restrictive of course there's no access by anyone except the authorize chosen few at the proper level. Doesn't really matter who you are basically you're screwed.

H400.326.530 | Dial Jazzmaster AC42 chrome

Dial Jazzmaster AC42 chromeA

REF :H400.326.530

ACSIS :H400326530

 

 

 

[Mircea]

 

38 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

The simplistic answer is your screwed?

This is the age old never-ending problem in watch repair. For variety reasons parts information is not available never was. There is a assumption by people that every single part has a part number and they don't.

Now then there's the other little problem which is for instance I once did a database program for material house who had a Seiko parts count. The particular database had 50,000 casing parts. The material house owner was unhappy because each year they were dropping old parts he actually needed multiple generations of the database to look up older parts. Now realistically think about it if you stocked 50,000 casing parts for the current generation Seiko watches how many of those would you never ever sell? Would it be in your best interest to stock all of them? From a watchmaking point of view yes we want them to stock every single casing part they ever made but they can't. Yes I worked briefly in a material house there's no way in hell of material house can stock every single part of every single watch ever made it's not practical even though it disappoints everyone in watch repair.

Then next problem is Swatch group. Swatch group doesn't like watchmakers they tolerate them at best. They want to make watches they don't want to repair them it depends upon which brand as to how helpful they will be. Even if you had access to Swatch group databases and the brands some of them don't even have data for anything  old. Which means there's no way to find whatever it is you're looking for. Then suppose you did have access did you order the part if you can look it up not necessarily access comes at different levels. It means conceivably somebody can find the part number for you but can't order it it's restricted you're not authorized to purchase

then what if you get a part number what you going to do with it are you going to be happy or angry? The anger aspect comes along the lines of sometime in the past somebody had to vintage Omega watches they were looking for the crystal. Fortunately Omega for casing parts as a wonderful database. I never said the individual where I looked up my part numbers but I looked up the part numbers and I gave him the crystal members was he happy hell no we was angry why? Part numbers didn't seem to correspond to anything in the known universe? In other words some unique parts older parts whatever they might not have ever been reproduced it may have never been distributed they aren't out there at all. I don't know why he was complaining we currently have a watch at work that we have a crystal number and we Find where to get the crystal from either not unique to the people on this group

so if you were to find some kind soul who had Swatch group axis they could take your number and discover that it refers to nine different watches?Then looking for anything that resembles a white dial we get two of them. If you look carefully it appears to be that they're both identical it's just the strap.

But just to make my point I've attached the image of that.

Then Figure out what exactly you're supposed to be looking for dial is listed as a case component versus the movement components. Then you would probably get something like that apparently it's a chrome dial not white and he gets reference numbers zero idea what you're going to do with those although? Sometimes newer numbers might show up on eBay or relatively new because some of the companies actually did supply parts to the world like Omega's a lot of the Omega parts are out there. As a guess you're going to have to find somebody who's camel boys to watch or?

The owner would be find somebody who has Swatch group access at the movement level or whatever level is needed to order dial components and see if the order a dial for you. As a wild guess it should cost less than $100 but you do have to find the right person ask nicely and see if they'll actually do it.

For your original question yes it's a problem for everybody. The newer stuff databases were never released into the public like the older stuff there's no parts references out there for anybody. Companies like Swatch group being restrictive of course there's no access by anyone except the authorize chosen few at the proper level. Doesn't really matter who you are basically you're screwed.

H400.326.530 | Dial Jazzmaster AC42 chrome

Dial Jazzmaster AC42 chromeA

REF :H400.326.530

ACSIS :H400326530

 

 

 

Hello JohnR725, and thank you for the time you took to answer my question in the littlest details. It is much appreciated indeed. I was expecting the answer is not easy to formulate given the actual state of the big horology world. Furthermore, it confirms very much what I read here on WRT and elsewhere. 
Thank you also for giving me the references for the watches, that was something that I didn’t succeed in having by myself. Now I have the guts to go see an AD and ask very nicely if they could help with it. If not, well, I still have a very nice watch to play with and wear it as such.
One think I wasn’t aware of is the immensity of needed databases and also that they even exists. For vintage watches I always relied on searching for the same model and cannibalizing parts, or with a little luck, find the exact part in NOS stock at a seller in the world. I raise my hat for the material houses that can and still maintain solid stocks and much needed databases on their expense…

This watch, however, is a much recent one, I suspect like 2011-2012, old generation of actual line of Hamilton chronos. That was the reason I asked you, as my mentors and helping minds. Maybe one of you had the access to Swatch databases, and also the clearance to order, and also willing to put in play his Swatch licence to help me. But no hard feelings are here, I can really understand all the situation and once again I thank you for helping me out as much as you could. I will continue to learn from you and the other members as I did before, you are so valuable for us beginners.

If somebody wants to add in, your comments would be appreciated as much!

Thank you again!