New Automatic IWC Mark XVI Running Really Slow....Normal?

[rikramer]

So after loosing my awesome Tag Heuer Calibre 1 rep a few weeks back (stupid me, I left it on my car while putting on sun screen at the grand cannon and drove off), I decided to hop back into the rep game.

 

I purchased the version 2 of IWC Marck XVI Spitfire from a trusted dealer. I am very happy with the look of the watch but it is running VERY slow. I've been wearing the watch for about 10 days now and still no improvement that I can find.  I watched it the past 2 hours and it lost ~30 seconds in this time.  I emailed the dealer and his response was to manually wind the watch for 5 days and slap it against my palm. I've done this now for the past 4 days but nada.  Some questions:

 

1)  I want to make sure that I am manually winding this correctly.  To do so, I am unscrewing the crown to position #1.  Position #2 changes the date, position #3 changes the time.  Then, in position #1, I am spinning the crown clockwise 30-50 times.  Is this correct?

 

2)  I read online that it sometimes take 30 days for the oils to spread out through the gears.  Is this correct?  Would I really expect a watch this slow to slowly fall into a good rhythm over 30 days?

 

3) in my QA pictures the AMP was shown as 327.  That seemed high to me and I raised my concern with the dealer. The response was: "the higher the better....we have now sent you this watch".  Could the high AMP be to blame?

 

4) Assuming the watch remains this slow, do trusted dealers ever take care of this issue (either through an exchange or paying for servicing)?

 

Thanks all for the help!

Edited May 19, 2013 by rikramer

[rikramer]

Thanks for the info.  I'm going to give it a couple more days of constant winding and 24-hour wearing and see if it improves.  I'll then contacted the trusted dealer about next steps.  How much does it usually cost to service a slow watch?  I am in Chicago and found a place near my home with great reviews on Yelp but I am concerned about cost.  Also, are there any issues with bringing a rep into a repair shop?  Thanks!

[icoopernicus]

You're going to want to find a watchmaker who is willing to work on a replica, it shouldn't be too hard as long as you stay out of Authorized dealers and just find a guy that fixes watches. I had a movement repaired, cleaned, oiled and regulated and the guy charged me $80.00. shouldn't be too pricey to have it fully serviced and after that you will have a great movement ready to give you a decade of reliable service.

[rikramer]

So an update:  I'm in DC on business and took the IWC rep to a local watch smith.  His findings:

 

• The movement was okay as long as the watch is facing upwards.  When facing downwards, the machine goes "off the charts"
• He said that in order to diagnose the problem, he will need to go into the movement which will cost $75.  I could be an issue with the "pivot or the jewel"
• He said that it was clear the movement had been worked on before. 
• He recommended that I contact the seller first before embarking on any potential costly repairs.

He also mentioned that this was the nicest rep movement he has seen and doesn't understand how a genuine 2829 movement could be sold for <$300.  I do not know enough about the rep game to answer that question though.  Nonetheless, kudos to Andrew for that.

 

I have reached out to Andrew at Trustytime to see what can be done.  It's clear that the calibration results shown in the QA pictures were accurate, however, those numbers do not apply when the watch is in a different position.  Once again, I would appreciate any help that anyone can offer.

 

Thank you!