EDIT NOTE
ON SERVICE & ELIMINATING COMPETITION
If you buy a new mechanical watch that you intend to keep
for some time, it will eventually need service, repair, or both. If
anything goes wrong while still covered by the brand’s own warranty
you would expect to send it right back to them to render service
in a timely manner and return your timepiece in perfect working
order within a reasonably short time. Fair enough, but what about
modern mechanical watches that were bought pre-owned, or a new
watch that is now out of warranty? What are your options now? Your
choices are likely more limited than you might believe.
In recent years several major brands have taken a hard look
at service and repair from a very clinical perspective, viewing it as
a profit center more than a customer service issue. While on one
hand you can go to brand X’s web site that calls for an annual or biannual “service” to keep your mechanical watch running perfectly,
more brands are now cutting off the pipeline of critical components
to watchmakers outside of their own company, effectively keeping
this potential source of revenue to themselves while hamstringing
the “competition.”
It’s one thing for a brand to want control of all warranty covered
work. As the manufacturer they are responsible for the initial construction quality and may even discover faults or solutions based on
a particular watch or movement service profile. But once any product you buy is out of warranty and the money to repair or service is
coming out of your own wallet, wouldn’t it be nice to have a choice?
Not according to some brands.
I’ve heard specious arguments about “special” training and
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WRISTWATCH | 2016
tools that are needed to fix “our” movements as justification for
restricting parts availability to anyone outside the “family” but have
spoken to enough industry members to see through that screen.
Even if capable of replacing something so simple as a worn pivot or
a tired mainspring, the independent watchmaker has been targeted
as an ostensibly unworthy service provider that could somehow sully
the image of a brand.
I’ve spoken with several of the few independent watchmakers
left in America as well as retailers with an in-house watchmaker and
the story is all too often the same: of-course I/we can fix this simple
problem, but brand X won’t supply the part so you’ll have to get in
queue with them, pay whatever fee they ask, and wait.
Imagine buying a car, driving it a few years and well beyond
the warranty coverage. You know it’s time for a brake job and as
you attempt to make an appointment with your fully accredited and
certified master mechanic down the street, he informs you that he
can’t fix your car because the manufacturer will only supply parts to
their own service centers; anyone up for a game of monopoly while
you wait for your brakes?
Keep Watching:
Gary George Girdvainis