How to find a watch repair person

[Wiss]

Hello all,

When sourcing a replica watch repair person, what are the right questions to ask? Does:

[gran]

Never expected this elementary question from an individula with the distinquished name of WISS

This is how you do it:

"I have a wtach X with Y movement is it within your capabilities to service this item for me. How do i ship and label my item for service. Do you accept paypal?"

Optional here to really tell him that you know your watches well and have a sense of humor is to add also

"Sheeesssss horologists" at the very end of the post

All the best of luck to you WISS

Your obediently

Granulator

[freddy333]

To avoid embarrassment and minimize the potential loss of your contraband (replica) watch, I would be honest and up-front. The only question you need to ask is if the watchmaker will service a replica watch. You will nearly always get a simple yes or no. In my experience, most smaller shops need the work and will happily accept your watch. On the other hand, I would steer clear of any shop that sells the gen version of your rep watch. You are asking for trouble if you take it there. No matter how good you may think (or have been told) your rep is, the watchmaker will identify your watch as a rep the second he opens the case (if not before).

Beyond that, any competent watchmaker will be familiar with and able to repair whatever movement is in your watch, so there is really no reason to ask if he services a particular movement.

[deltatahoe]

When sourcing a replica watch repair person, what are the right questions to ask?

that's easy. it goes something like this:

----------------

dear ziggy,

would you put me on your schedule so you can have you look at one of my reps when you get back from your break? i have an ETA 2836 that is [running too fast].

thanks, and have a nice holiday

WISS

----------------

deltatahoe

[jkerouac]

I agree with all of the above suggestions.

I also like to try them out on small tasks to get a sense for whether or not I want to trust them with something more complex. For example, there is a guy a couple of miles from my house who does watch repair but I would be reluctant to let him do much more than resize a band (if I am unable to resize it). Farther away, but not that far from my office, is an independent watch repair guy who I will use for slightly more substantial projects. I've talked to him a number of times about watches and reps, and I think he enjoys the projects that I have brought to him. I'm still not sure whether I would use him for an overhaul, though. For that my first choice would probably make The Zigmeister my first choice.

[RWG Technical]

It is very hard, and getting harder to find a watchmaker anywhere...

Where there used to be dozens of watchmaking schools in Canada, today there are none...I only know of a "Jewellers" course in the whole country, and it's 22 months of jewellery work, and 2 months of how to change a battery...

Those that have gone to professional schools, or are self taught (like me), tend to either work for a large company, or have their own business and are kept very busy with local genuine work (waiting times up to a year I have heard in some cases).

So finding someone who is actually competent at fixing mechanical watches, is far and few between. In my city of 300K people, I think there are 2-3 real honest to goodnest watchmakers...

RG

[TeeJay]

I've found going into independant jeweller's/watchsmiths and simply asking if they do repairs on automatic watches, to be a good opening gambit. I them mention that the watch is a replica, and gauge their reaction. I've only had one person unwilling to actually work on a rep watch, but, that was because I'd asked them if they could build a watch from parts ordered, and they were unwilling to undertake work where they were unable to guarantee the end result. Other than that, they were reasonably competant, but, their slow turn around forced me to find another watchsmith, and they have been much more willing to work on my reps. I guess patience is the key requirement

[vtx]

I simply nip across the border to China -there is a great watch repair guy there just as you cross - he does my repairs. While waiting for the repairs to be finished my wife and I shop for more replica's and other goodies. Few weeks back he repaired my sub - cost US$13 - now works perfectly

This post is not intended to make you feel envious - honestly :-)

VTX

[FxrAndy]

I asked at my local small opticians and jeweller if he worked on watches, he has an old watch smith that comes to the shop the odd day a week and does works, he was happy to work on reps, i am trying to work my way round to meeting him but his working times co inside with mine, i would like to sit down with him and see if he would like to pass on his trade to me.

[warburg]

It is very hard, and getting harder to find a watchmaker anywhere...

Where there used to be dozens of watchmaking schools in Canada, today there are none...I only know of a "Jewellers" course in the whole country, and it's 22 months of jewellery work, and 2 months of how to change a battery...

Those that have gone to professional schools, or are self taught (like me), tend to either work for a large company, or have their own business and are kept very busy with local genuine work (waiting times up to a year I have heard in some cases).

So finding someone who is actually competent at fixing mechanical watches, is far and few between. In my city of 300K people, I think there are 2-3 real honest to goodnest watchmakers...

RG

The Zigmeister: How does one reach you? I have tried several times to send a PM and received the message: "The member has chosen not to be contactable by the board messenger."

[freddy333]

Don't hire one, be one.

For the unaware (this will be old news to many of the more senior members here), let me add that Rolex is so desperate for competent watchmakers to service & maintain their watches that they will put YOU (assuming you have the required aptitude & mechanical dexterity) through Watch School (which is located in Pennsylvania). Of course, you will need to house & support yourself while attending the 2-year school, but you are almost guaranteed to be in HIGH demand upon (or even before) graduation.

[archibald]

Like the general population, watchsmiths can be roughly divided into two groups---those who are cool and those who are di*ks. Cool watchsmiths couldn't give a [censored] about repness or genuinity, they just dig watches, and sometimes tend to marvel at the ingenuity of our Chinese pals. Di*k watchsmiths get all snippy when you present them w/ a rep. Since I find it pretty easy to play dumb, what's always worked for me is a don't ask don't tell policy--I just bring it in and say, "can you work on this?" The cool guys say, "Sure." If the guy's a di*k, you will observe the beginnings of the that-watch-is-fake sneer form around the lower east side of his grim Tutonic mouth. I reccomend you say, "I guess you're not cool enough to work on fakes" before he says, "I do not work on fake watches" but then again I've had four Makers Mark and gingers and you may not have.

I use two local watchsmiths--one of them secretly loves reps, I believe. The other guy, sort of a partial di*ck, has never acknowledged any of my watch's fraudulence and unhappily works on them because he knows I will overpay him to do work on crystals which nobody else I know about in the US (yeah, except you know who and the booked 'til forever Flav) will do it.