Cartel repair, would you do it?

[woody]

Hello all,

So to keep a story short, I have a black Breitling steelfish (with square marker second hand) that had suffered stripped crown, and I cannot screw it down anymore.

I sent it back to Josh, and was told the whole case needs to be replaced, at a total of $100. Just wanted to check and see if you gents think it's worth the repair. No, I've owned the watch for quite some time. Is it wear and tear? Sure. But I really have worn the watch a handful of times. And I am afraid if I repair it, it will suffer the same fate. Josh told me it would come with 6 month warranty on the case. What do you guys think? Should I have it repaired? Or cut my loss and just sell it broken instead?

[SSTEEL]

It is a known problem, and seems a little extreme replacing the whole mid-case, I would of simply replaced the tube.

[woody]

Josh told me that it would not be possible. He said that is what the factory told him. Do you think they could be wrong? I would think however that they would be the only place that can fix this. I don't think an ordinary watch shop can fix something like this without parts. Can they?


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[SSTEEL]

The factories cannot be trusted at all whatsoever, they are only interested in getting the most money out of TD's customers.!

The likes of myself carry out repairs on gens, and replica watches.  I have a comprehensive collection of new, and used parts collected over the years.

[woody]

Thanks for the feedback. The problem is I would not know how to go about fixing this. I can't take it to a Breitling AD. I certainly don't have the parts for it either. I'd be content to not fix this at all. Any other suggestion on how to go about addressing this? I don't think I will ever buy a steelfish going forward. So perhaps I should just cut my losses then?


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[SSTEEL]

There is an alternative that any rep friendly watch repair guy can do for you without having to buy any new parts, and that is to simply shorten the stem a little so that manual wind position is in the (what would of been) screwed down position.

[woody]

Interesting tidbit; I might just take that approach. Thanks. Hard for me to spend $100, when the problem could possibly resurface again.

I just recently found a watchmaker in my home town. Don't know if he's rep friendly or not. But might be worth a shot!


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[stray_cat]

Here seems to be an assortment of crowns/tubes and sizes to fit many breitling models:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/sis.html?_nkw=Breitling+Factory+Crown+Super+Ocean+S+S+7+0+mm+with+tube&_itemId=231776962741&_trksid=p2047675.m4099

If it were me, and Josh already had my watch (that I bought new for >250, I'd probably bite the bullet and do it but ask for the old case/parts back. For me, getting it sent back to China would have been the biggest hassle.