'The Religion of Service' vs. Informed Decisions About When to Service Your Watch

On the net you can find many advices about servicing your wristwatch. Some are based more on faith then on facts. In this video you'll find 5 myths around watch service plus some informations how to trade serviced and unserviced watches

[mrfuriouser]

Hear, hear! Thank you for being the voice of reason in an era, within which, common sense seems non-existent.

[crappyluxurypdx]

Best dressed watch guy on YouTube. Always good content.

[eusupporter]

Du bist eine Stimme der Vernunft (You are a voice of reason). 👍 👍 👍

[iluvtheblues]

Thank you for your honest and frank comments. I also think it is worth mentioning that there are competent watchmakers outside the major brand service departments. I'm not sure how that effects a watch's warranty, but the cost can be half or less for the same service. That's exactly what I did with an older Seamaster that I purchased used. Sent it to a small, established watchmaker who took it apart, cleaned and lubed it, then timed it, for $175 US.

[NicholasSpartan]

The best comment was at the end Tim. Watches are the worst investments.
Even though purchased few for that reason in the past I never sold them.
And as someone said... “ I have a passion for watches, I have to convince myself of stop buying more...”

[briancarpenter]

Great video. My take on this is like the old saying " Don't fix it if it isn't broken". Really enjoy your video and Channel.

[johnbarclay]

Makes a lot of sense, with humour, as always.

Your comment about watches vs. shares as an investment apply equally to property. People never count their maintenance costs, taxes, etc., when they consider how much they "made" on their flat or house.

[AaroKeipi]

The real problem is when you buy a cheap vintage watch--it's really hard to justify a 200€+ service for a 50€ watch. So I'm happy I found a watchsmith in Estonia who services watches for 15€ (really). I send him all of my <80€ vintage watches. Would I send him a Rolex? No way. But all my cheap vintage watches are still running and I have no regrets so far.

[Freco]

Thank you for another great video, Tim. I humbly suggest your audience considers investing in an inexpensive multifunction timegrapher. For anyone who buys vintage watches, a timegrapher can be a wonderful tool in letting you know if a service should be considered.

[auberginemethod]

I got a 1981 citizen automatic watch at a pawnshop for about $25.00, and sure enough it was running awfully fast, + about one hour!, useless. I live in Mexico though, and the watch guys service cost was only $40.00, now the watch runs perfectly. I don't have any luxury timepieces and I don't know if I would take an expensive watch to them, but I think I'll take advantage of the low cost here for sure. Great video!

[jet-settingrogue]

Very interesting video as always Tim. Thank you. My titanium Breitling aerospace really scratches easily. It's lightweight as well as hard but just seems to scratch.

[watchchat]

I almost didn’t get my zenith because I’ve heard their services are expensive but I’ve been wanting and pulled the trigger regardless - I love it!

[wigennazarov]

Great programmes and I really like watching your channel.
I have a question. Where to service your watch? For example are most manufacturers do their own service or is it contracted out? For example does Tissot do their own service, or do they contract it out. Is it better to send to Tissot watch manufacturer or any good service person will do a reasonable service. Long question, but appreciate an advice from you.
Many thanks
Wigen

[SmokeRingsPipeDreams]

$650 ... $650 ... $650 ... $650 ... $650 ... $650 ... Had me smiling. SUBBED! (and thumbs up!)

[davidcoleman]

This helped me I have a vintage Bulova automatic from 1950 . It is running 1 min fast a day . I'm going to sell it the way it is .

[scottparis]

If you have a watch with one of the common movements (Seiko, Sellita, ETA, Miyota) and it just stops working, it may be less expensive to buy a new movement than to do a major service. I've done this twice for older watches that I really liked, and both times managed to find replacement movements with black date wheels, fixing the annoying white date on black dial.issue.

[Conundrum]

One other comment for the cheaper end of the spectrum (where a full service might cost more than a new watch) -- If you like your watch and don't want a new one, look into the cost and difficulty of just swapping out the movement for a new one. Given so many watches use NH35 or NH36 movements, these can be bought for less than $100, and you can either install it yourself, or pay a watchmaker to do it. Given most of the cost of a watchmaker is time/labour, it is much faster to swap a movement than tear down, replace parts, and rebuild one.

[louis]

i found your channel via your analyses of youtube personalities and really liked your channel in general


keep the good content

[jonathanlloyd]

Mechanical watches have an inbuilt service indicator. They stop working. Then you service them. Unlike a car engine, which will suffer badly from lack of maintenance, a watch has such low dynamic load it simply stops or keeps poor time when it needs servicing. Then all you have to do is decide if it's worth the cost. Seiko 5, maybe not, Rolex yes, but it will cost!

[zekethedego]

IMO, If you can afford a Patak, Lange & Sohne, or Rolex or any other watch over 10k at the bottom of your list of concerns, right below which dog foot to buy, is the cost of servicing them. On the other hand, if a collector of high end vintage pieces then that item on your concerns list is considerably higher due mainly to the scarcity of parts. Lastly, if you own just a couple of high end watches but collect more mid range vintage stuff then you may want to learn to service them yourself, which is what I did. In doing so I opened a can of worms because now 10 years later I absolutely love working on them and have learned a so much about the many different facets of watchmaking, it's history, and the industry in general that it blows my mind. It's truly my favorite hobby but certainly I'm no "professional" by any means.

However, I did pick up a friend's 1979 Rolex Datejust non-runner the other day and am having the time of my life servicing it. My bet advice is find some old beaters buy some great tools and start taking things apart and put them back together but most of all enjoy the failure.