I'm so tired of waiting; need to vent

[ldegeneve]

My story:

I (only) have two reps: a 1680 and a DW daytona.

For the daytona:

In January, I tried regulating it and ended up messing up the keyless works. I sent it to a local watch repair guy to fix and service the movement. This took 3 weeks. I got it back, and he told me that the minute-counter wheel was not working because of a "bad wheel." What he didn't tell me was that he broke the wheel and glued the hand on the dial.

Oh well, c'est la vie. I send it to a trusted watchsmith (on another forum). It takes a month to get to my watch. Fair enough. When he finally gets to it, he tells me I'm going to need a new movement for the needed part, and likely a new dial, since the glue ruined the original one.

Well, crap. At this point it's been 7 weeks. I give up, and tell him to keep the parts. He tells me that if I have any other work, send it in and he'll work on it right away since I waited my turn (a whole month).

Lo and behold, a week later I find a donor watch. I ask the watchmaker if he still has my old parts. No response, until the day after the donor watch is sold. Luckily, a few days after I find another one up for sale. I jump on it and had it sent straight to the watchmaker's address.

It got there 10 days ago, and was picked up 3 days later. I was told on Thursday that he would start putting things together on Friday or Saturday.

Today there are no updates. No idea if my watch is even being worked on at this point.

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The 1680:

EDIT: JUST GOT AN E-MAIL SAYING IT WAS DONE! YAY!

Sometime in February I decide to have my 1680 from Josh relumed. I didn't like the yellowy patina color so I asked another watchmaker (on yet another forum) to see if it could be relumed to white. Watchmaker says it's possible, so I send it out.

A week later I see an MBW 1680 on sale at a good price, so I jump on it. I tell the watchmaker not to work on the Josh and to work on the MBW instead, which I send overnight.

With this one, it only took a bit more than two weeks for the watchmaker to get started on it. Pretty good! The watchmaker has excellent communication and notifies me of everything that's going on and what he has to do. There was apparently a significant amount of casework to be done, and fitment issues to be resolved.

In any case, after 9 days he tells me it's done. 27 days all in all, not bad! I'm very eager at this point and send him the payment. He sends me back a picture. The watch is in the wrong case. He put everything in the Josh case. No wonder there were all these adjustments! Also, the lume did not look very white at all.

I let the watchmaker know. A true gentleman, he offers to correct it right away. The day after I get a message with a picture of the dial. The lume is white, but the dial was scratched while he was working on it, right where it says ROLEX. Oh no!

Ever the gentleman, the watchmaker orders an Ingod dial, at his expense. A week later it arrives. It has no lume, so the watchmaker asks me if I want it lumed. I say yes, and offer to pay for the reluming.

Last Tuesday, the reluming was complete. But now there is apparently an issue with the quickset date. I e-mailed the watchmaker on the weekend to see if it was resolved. He said he was working on it and hoped to have everything resolved by the end of the weekend.

EDIT: JUST GOT AN E-MAIL SAYING IT WAS DONE! YAY!

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I realize this is NOWHERE near the worst of horror stories. In fact, I think I'm in a pretty good spot. I know patience is the name of the game. But as of now, I'm out $900+ with nothing to show for it. You know, the whole stop and go, two steps forward one step back nature of the thing is just getting a little tiring. I'm so close, yet so far. It's so frustrating.

Thanks for listening, and yes, I will continue to be patient.

[gran]

http://bp1.blogger.com/_OhMJ7zCCNPY/R3uovLQU-uI/AAAAAAAAAG0/lcMayWdHyIg/s320/stressed.bmp

[Guest zeleni kukuruz]

Good one Dr.Gran, i dident know that

I feel for Id, [censored] bro!

[duke1973]

I feel your pain OP, I've been through almost the exact things as you! As of right now I have 4 watches out with four (4) different modders. All of them are time consuming and when dealing with reps there are always "hidden" flaws that have to fixed. I've spent hundreds of dollars running down parts, buying extra movements, donor watches, etc. etc.

It's all part of the game, but it still sucks! The wait is worth it when the watches arrive all tricked out and beautiful though!

[spooky driver]

[Logan]

It sounds to me like you need to learn some watchmaking skills so you do the work yourself.. It'll take a bit of work but it's well worth while especially if you plan to stick with the hobby for a while

[ldegeneve]

UPDATE!

I just got an e-mail from the watchmaker working on my 1680. Looks like it's done! Yay!

[RWG Technical]

A lot of incompetence and unskilled hands at work for sure...

The lesson is simple, choose your watchmaker, then your workscope...

[Watchmeister]

Dealers are easy. Finding a good watchsmith is hard. Once you find him never go anywhere else. Same watchsmith for years on my end...everything from reps to gens to frankens. if he is busy I wait. in their own way reps are more difficult than gens-especially when it comes to parts.

[gran]

A lot of incompetence and unskilled hands at work for sure...

The lesson is simple, choose your watchmaker, then your workscope...

Do tell me when you are accepting work The Zigmeister I have a vintage watch I got form chrgod that I wish for you to have a look at