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Cost of full servicing


Samurai

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Been thinking of getting some of my watches serviced. Took my HBB to the watchsmith....he quoted Sing$250 (appx. USD 165) for a full servicing of the watch.

Is this a good price? How much do our resident experts charge for a full servicing?

Thanks for the help.

Cheers

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Who for ?

.

Is this is a good price / going market rate for a full servicing of a 7750...I need to get some watches serviced......is what I meant :D

If it is a total strip down, sonic cleaning of parts, correct oiling and regulation, then I would say it was about right, the A7750 is not an easy movement to work on.....

It really depends on the guy doing the work, like any profession, is he any good? :p

The guy seems to be decent enuff (worked in Rolex Singapore for about 11 odd years and then started his own shop) ....I get some minor work done from him from time to time....for which he has very reasonable prices.

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That is a good price, but it's quite a bit lower than the standard going rate for a commercial shop, in fact it's less than 50% of what most commercial shops charge for a chronograph service.

As long as your confidant he's not going to perform a "swish and dip" service, it's a good deal.

I would be very interested to hear what his comments are when he is finished the service, the A7750 presents some "interesting" challenges to anyone who tears them down...it's no ETA...

RG

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Of course the Zigg is totally right. In addition, you should ask your watch smith if he performed a service on ASIAN 7750 before or not. Like The Zigmeister said, the A7750 has more challenges. If your watch smith had dealings with the A7750, that will build some trust.

Most times they estimate their rate based on the real ETA, which has far less small problems en challenges during service than the asian.

and indeed it is quite a low price. my watch smith quotes 250usd. And if I remember correctly, The Zigmeister is around 200usd and he has lots of experience with the A7750, so he will probably spend less time with a service than a watch smith who never or had just a few dealings with A7750.

good luck.

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Thanks guys. I had left the HBB with the watchsmith...he wanted to have a look @ the movement before quoting a rate. Called me today and said the watch is perfect from outside and has a shitty dirty movement (no surprises there :p). Then quoted the price.

I might just take the plunge and see what it's like.

Will keep you guys updated on how it pans out.

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Damn! i didn't know servicing would cost this much

i'd buy a whole new rep for that price!!!

It depends if you want a rep for just 1-2 years working or for a longer time. Most A7750 need a service out of the box, even if they are running 'well enough' in terms of power reserve and time keeping.

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To each his own, some will simply buy a new watch vs ever having it serviced, or as you say, get it taken care of on site where they are produced (although not everyone has that option).

There is no right or wrong, it's what works for you...I know many who never service and have no problems with their A7750's...

RG

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My guess is that for a lower price you could have a new Asian 7750 installed but then you still have a dirty movement that will may crap out.

If you have 20+ reps you are a fool to service all of them at the cost of a full service.

I recommending selecting a couple that you love and want to keep forever and have those only serviced.

Or a rep with a bunch of mods that would costly to replace.

Anything $250 US or under is a fair price. $250 seems to be the professional average, of course if I have to shp back and forth than my goal would be to pay less than $250

Anything less than $175 US and I would slightly worry that it would not be a full teardown.

And it goes without saying I would trust someone who has worked on the asian movements before more so than most that only have previously serviced ETA's. Most end users would not service an Asian becuase the service costs more than the movement.

Non-chrono reps should cost a good deal less for servicing.

Another point: if you may resell the watch later on, an asian 7750 rep that has been serviced by some watchsmith we don't know may command $50 more or so than an unserviced one, vs. the same movement that was serviced by a known modder on this forum would have a higher resale value.

Just thought I would throw that fact out there the $50 you may save today may cost you more than $50 down the road.

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To each his own, some will simply buy a new watch vs ever having it serviced, or as you say, get it taken care of on site where they are produced (although not everyone has that option).

There is no right or wrong, it's what works for you...I know many who never service and have no problems with their A7750's...

RG

One thing I can say for you The Zigmeister. "you are a very honest person". No bs thats for sure. We are very fortunate to have you here :) Mike

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My guess is that for a lower price you could have a new Asian 7750 installed but then you still have a dirty movement that will may crap out.

If you have 20+ reps you are a fool to service all of them at the cost of a full service.

I recommending selecting a couple that you love and want to keep forever and have those only serviced.

Or a rep with a bunch of mods that would costly to replace.

Anything $250 US or under is a fair price. $250 seems to be the professional average, of course if I have to shp back and forth than my goal would be to pay less than $250

Anything less than $175 US and I would slightly worry that it would not be a full teardown.

And it goes without saying I would trust someone who has worked on the asian movements before more so than most that only have previously serviced ETA's. Most end users would not service an Asian becuase the service costs more than the movement.

Non-chrono reps should cost a good deal less for servicing.

Another point: if you may resell the watch later on, an asian 7750 rep that has been serviced by some watchsmith we don't know may command $50 more or so than an unserviced one, vs. the same movement that was serviced by a known modder on this forum would have a higher resale value.

Just thought I would throw that fact out there the $50 you may save today may cost you more than $50 down the road.

Thanks mate....I do own well over 60+ reps @ this time (it's a floating inventory) and would like to belive that the comment about 'being a fool to service all of them at the cost of a full service'.....was not meant to offend and was said in general.

Incidently.....I have never ever gotten my watches serviced till date.....doesn't much make sense to spend twice of what a new movement costs (especially for Asian movements)..especially true in my case....where I get bored of a watch after a while and then put it up for sale.

I might add that I have been fortunate enought that none of my watches have died on me (if they have ....it's been withing the first few days of getting them....e.g. Ingenieur sec @ 6, Skyland....and I got them replaced by the dealers)

It's after reading The Zigmeister's comments about getting a watch serviced is that I decided to get a few watches serviced.....the ones that I think are keepers.

I fully agree that the re-sale value of the watch may increase if it's been serviced by a known/acknowledged expert......but that is not my end objective. If I was to ultimately sell the watch....i'd probably won't get it serviced :p

In any case...I am still deciding whether to get the watch serviced by the watchsmith. I definitely plan to send a few to The Zigmeister as and when he starts taking on more work....not only servicing but some killer lume as well.

Cheers

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My comment was definitely not aimed at you, just as you said a general statement.

I think we are on the same wave length. If your local guy can service the HBB, he may prove to be a valuable resource for you.

It is great to have someone local to be able to work on watches when needed. My experiences in the local search have not been too great, but that is not to say your experience may differ greatly.

With a collection as large as yours, it may be worth it to give the guy a try and have him service the HBB and see how it works out.

If you have many watches it does not make sense to service them all when a service costs more than the movement itself in many cases, I do find value in full servicing a watch when you absolutely love the watch and selected that watch and maybe a couple of others that you deem worthy.

I also understand my some members would never service a rep.

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I just took mine in for servicing and to have a part replaced that will correct the minute chrono action. The watch maker picks them up on Wed, so I won't know until then what to expect... :unsure: Durning my conversation with the woman who took the repair in, she was very nonchalant about it being a rep (though I had to tell her). This guy works on anything with hands and could be worn on a wrist. From what she told me, he does all the work for our local jewelers and has a great deal of experience working on reps so I'm not worried. As far as putting more money into a rep, if the watch is good quality as far as all the non-working parts go, then to me it's worth putting a little extra into it. I'd much rather do that then go through the hassle of getting a decent rep that doesn't or kinda works and returning it for one that you hope will. For any other watch, I wouldn't have bothered, but the HBB to me is worth the trouble.

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One thing I can say for you Ziggy. "you are a very honest person". No bs thats for sure.

Why thank you.

Sometimes it works, but other times the truth is not so popular, like a show and tell that reveals a modder who is doing shoddy work and hasn't a clue, or when a particular movement or watch is crap and I do a detailed post...in those cases the response is not so flavorable (Little Hero stuff comes to mind as I type this...but lets savor that one for another day...).

RG

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