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Vintage Watch Repair at reasonable cost

wandererz

I have a 1906's Omega Seamaster and a Girard Perregaux that I used to get serviced by a horologist in Scotland at a reasonable price.

He has since retired.

Is it worth keeping these serviced/repaired considering the cost of servicing is more or less the value of the watch?

Any recommendations of watchmakers anywhere in Europe that would service/repair them at a reasonable price?

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Wibbs

I remember the Scottish chap. 🙂 He was very reasonable. Old school prices. He must have had near zero overheads with a big stock of old parts. He was also before the watch collecting thing went mainstream which brought a lot more spending money into the hobby and more of an acceptance of higher prices, including the costs of servicing(plus the hobby massively shifted from vintage to new). Driven by Swiss brands who also throttled supply of OEM parts to independent watchmakers.

Vintage watch servicing can be an even bigger pain to watchmakers because of spare parts supply, a supply which has gone down a lot in the last ten years. From what I've read from some on forums it's just better business to concentrate on new or newer stuff where if a part is broken you're not spending unbillable hours online looking for a part last made in 1960 that might take weeks to source while the customer is wondering why.

From what I can tell the days of 50-100 quid services are long gone and the best price you're going to see for a time only vintage watch service is 200 quid, 3-400 quid for a chronograph.

As for service intervals? I've long been of the opinion to not worry until the watch starts acting up, losing, or more usually gaining time, or stops. That's vintage. If I owned a newish Patek that's worth eleventy thousand quid I'd be following the recommended service intervals a lot more, especially if they've any complications. Older movements tended to be more robust with much wider tolerances. Rolex a good example. A 60's or 70's Rolex movement is a very well built tractor, damn near unburstable and I'd barely think twice about servicing unless it stopped. Ditto for vintage Seikos and Omega's for that matter. Tanks.

Trigger Happy

Michael Swift was yerman in Scotland. He retired and his son focuses on clocks now. Its a real pity as he was proper old school. I have yet to find an alternative that I am happy with.

There is somoene in kilkenny that a few have recommended but I have not tried him out. Repair Prices - Vintage Watch Repair

I used to be of a mind to service at regular intervals but given the prices and with a larger collection I have adapted the Wibbs-way...wait until it really needs it.

Eoin

I just got a watch back from John (linked to above), and happy with the work done FWIW.

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121255393#Comment_121255393

Yep, all I've heard about John in Kilkenny has been extremely positive.

banie01

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121255393#Comment_121255393

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121256463#Comment_121256463

I've used John 5 times at this stage and I've always had a good job done. My most recent bit of work his way was my Omega GMT, which needed to go back to him for regulation as it was losing time. It was adjusted and back my way FOC, he didn't even accept the postage I offered to pay for.

I've had him work on a VC, Omega, IWC and a Tudor and I've been happy with his work and his comms every time.

H_Lime

I understood John was great so he was lately my first port of call when my sister asked me to find someone to service our grandmother's heirloom watch which is of great sentimental value to her.

Sent him pics but unfortunately he responded he didn't repair that type of watch, I asked if he might recommended someone and he said he couldn't.

When I enquired what it was about the watch (which is running and losing about 20mins) I got no reply. Tbh I was less than enthused with his two one line emails and then no answer.

I can only assume the watch being about 100 yo and having no brand name (movement just marked Swiss made) perhaps meant sourcing parts, if needed, would have presented a big problem. Still and all an answer would have been nice.

Can anyone here recommend a place on the island where it could be serviced? Like I say its running...

Wibbs

Odd, given he gives a specific price to service pocketwatches, many of which would be of that vintage and older and notes "Obsolete, damaged or missing parts can be remanufactured in many cases". I seem to recall he's serviced trench watches of that era, but that could well be my bad memory.

Your grandmother's watch looks pretty good quality for the time; 15 jewel, looks like a Fontainemelon movement of some nature. The balance sounds to be OK. Then again maybe it's a scale issue? It's a tiny movement, so fixing things like beat errors would be a lot more finicky than on a similar vintage pocketwatch or even a man's trench watch. It not being an obvious calibre another issue. if it were an Omega, Zenith or Longines of that vintage the type of movement would be pretty easy to look up and go looking for things like mainsprings, with your grandmother's watch, a watchmaker would have to do a very deep dive taking a lot of time to figure out what was the base movement, never mind finding spares if required. Or maybe he's had bad experiences with such watches before and they're not worth the hassle? I get that tbh, though more of a better reply to you wouldn't have cost anything. .

H_Lime

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121257481#Comment_121257481

I think that's exactly it Wibbs. I'm kind of put off from ever using the man as a result, which is to my deficit as he's clearly very good at what he does:(

Another one line email would have been all it took to explain.

The watch was bought here

Which I believe may have evolved into The Happy Ring House and was quite an expense back then being 9ct gold.

If you can think of anywhere let me know, she would love to wear it again for special occasions.

dragratchet

John @ the vintage watch has serviced two of my vintage pieces, really happy with the work but i didn't find him hugely communicative bar the most basic info. he'll continue to get my business nonethless

H_Lime

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121332835#Comment_121332835

I've no doubts re his abilities, glad your watches are serviced. Mind if I ask what they were?

dragratchet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121333355#Comment_121333355

1950's Record Datofix Triple Calendar Moonphase and a 1970's Citizen Parawater Diver.

H_Lime

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121334091#Comment_121334091

Just googled, deeply beautiful and cool both!

saccades

Will send you details of a horologer that might be able to help.

H_Lime

Thanks so much!!

MrCouperin

Just spotted this thread now. I can't help with servicing recommendations, but the movement looks like a Sonceboz 232, if that helps. There's a small bit written about this movement here (in German). It has a very distinctive train bridge layout that makes it fairly easy to identify. I'm only a hobbyist watch repairer and I've only been at it about 12-18 months, but to me it looks like it hasn't been serviced in a long while so that'll most likely be what it needs.

MrCouperin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121257442#Comment_121257442

Sorry, that last post (identifying the movement as Sonceboz 232) should have been a reply to this.

H_Lime

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121401584#Comment_121401584

Thank you very much for this post MrCouperin! Appreciate it it hugely, I see parts are available!

My sister is going to contact a watchmaker I was advised of here by pm to try and we shall see how she gets on.

Tell us about your journey into watch repair if you don't mind? What are you working on and how are you learning?

useless

Is John still working? Google says the business is “permanently closed”.

banie01

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121423729#Comment_121423729

I've used him as recently as August if that's any help.

useless

Just to follow up for anyone wondering-I spoke to John last week & he’s still going strong - “ah yea I must get on to Google to change that” when I mentioned the permanently closed thing. 😀 He has my watch now so looking forward to getting it back in January

useless

Watch arrived back last week, looking immaculate after John gave it a bath & polished out the scratches. More to the point, the winding mechanism is much more fluid than pre-service and it’s not losing time any more.

Delighted with the outcome, at a price approx one third of going to Omega directly.