Team-BHP - Which watch do you own?

Quote:

Originally Posted by no_limit (Post 3205266)

Depending upon where you give the watch for servicing, a basic service for sending it to Rolex costs £ 550. They will charge for extra parts , if needed. At a good independent it will cost around £ 350.

However on a personal note I don't believe that you should fall in the trap of getting your watches serviced regularly unless there is something wrong or they are loosing/gaining noticeable time. I own quite a few watches and never go for a regular servicing.
One thing though I would suggest is to invest in a good watch winder for your automatic watches. Go for the one which has got programmable clock wise and anti clock wise cycles.

Went to the authorized Rolex service centre yesterday. The base cost of servicing is Rs. 30,000/, about US $500 at current rates. They will be replacing some mandatory parts in the movement, all the rubber gaskets and set the time. The service also involves 15 days of observation on their test machines.

The reason why I had thought of servicing is that over the last two years the watch does not wind properly, even though I have it on 24x7. It works if I hand wind it but on the wrist it does not wind properly, so that after full hand winding the power reserve is over in three days.

As at present I am in no mood to shell out this amount, I will carry on with regular hand winding.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aroy (Post 3206034)

Well, for better or for worse, I have just handed in my Breitling Navitimer, SE, for a full service whilst visiting my home country The Netherlands. Ive had it for about seven years. Its going to cost Euro 540 and will take about 8 weeks as it get send back to Breitling in Switzerland. I must admit I have some doubts on how usefull it is. on the other hand, I really like this watch and I donT want to end up spending more eventually.

I have several automatic watches and I keep the on a ver good watch winder. Bought it in the USA whilst we lived there. About USD600, ie just about as expensive as a Breitling full service. It holds two watches and you can program the number of turns, clockwise, anti clockwise or both. Untill a few weeks ago I had three automatic watches. Two on the winder, one on my wrist. So that worked fine. But with my latest Omega edition I will need to get myself a new winder too. Actually, when I bought the Omega, the jeweler in the Netherlands gave me watchwinder free of charge. its a plastic cheap looking thing and I dont think it will last. Getting a watch winder that lasts for years is going to cost!

Jeroen

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aroy (Post 3206034)

The base cost of servicing is Rs. 30,000/, about US $500 at current rates.

The reason why I had thought of servicing is that over the last two years the watch does not wind properly, even though I have it on 24x7. It works if I hand wind it but on the wrist it does not wind properly, so that after full hand winding the power reserve is over in three days.

That's cheaper than what it costs here. But as I said I don't think its worth the money unless there is something wrong with the watch. What year is your GMT Master 2 if you don't mind me asking ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeroen (Post 3206327)

Well, for better or for worse, I have just handed in my Breitling Navitimer, SE, for a full service whilst visiting my home country The Netherlands. I must admit I have some doubts on how usefull it is.

I have several automatic watches and I keep the on a ver good watch winder. Bought it in the USA whilst we lived there. About USD600, ie just about as expensive as a Breitling full service. It holds two watches and you can program the number of turns, clockwise, anti clockwise or both. Untill a few weeks ago I had three automatic watches. Two on the winder, one on my wrist. So that worked fine. But with my latest Omega edition I will need to get myself a new winder too. Actually, when I bought the Omega, the jeweler in the Netherlands gave me watchwinder free of charge. its a plastic cheap looking thing and I dont think it will last. Getting a watch winder that lasts for years is going to cost!

Jeroen

As I mentioned earlier, I am of the opinion that a full service is not worth the money unless there is something wrong with the watch. In over 7 years since I started collecting automatics I have never given any watch for a regular service. The only thing I make sure is that All the watches are put on a watch winder when not in use.

If you are in market for a watch winder, then may I suggest that you go for a watch winder which has got individually programmable turn table. They might cost more initially but in the long run they will pay back a few times over.

By the way congratulations on your Omega. Some how I have never owned an Omega, though some of their watches are absolute beauty.

Quote:

Originally Posted by no_limit (Post 3206865)

That's cheaper than what it costs here. But as I said I don't think its worth the money unless there is something wrong with the watch. What year is your GMT Master 2 if you don't mind me asking ?

It is not winding properly. This seems to be the problem with quite a few Rolex here. The service centre did say that insufficient power reserve is the first sign that the watch needs servicing. The watch works fine if I wind it manually.

Quote:

Originally Posted by no_limit (Post 3206865)

I've owned plenty of cars that cost less than the Breitling and I used to spend per year more on maintenance on those old banger then what I'll be spending now once every 7-8 years. Even though Breitling advises the full service every 4-5 years.

I've got one of those programmable watch winders. If you're in the market for a watchwinder, here is some information:

http://www.chronocentric.com/watches/winders.shtml

http://orbita.com/

You will find that you can easily spend as much money on watch winders as on the watches themselves!

Jeroen

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aroy (Post 3207076)

As per your previous post you said that watch keeps perfect time for almost 3 days if hand wound. This is a clear indication that nothing is wrong with the power reserve, as a GMT master 2 has a power reserve of around 50 hours if not worn.

It looks like your watch is having a main spring problem which can happen in an old watch.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shankar.balan (Post 3208204)

For General Interest. This is a nice article about the revamp of an old and respected brand.

http://www.business-standard.com/art...1301080_1.html

Wow, this is fantastic news. Now, if Titan can buy some ETA automatic movements from the Swatch group and plonk them in the Leubas, it'll make for excellent stuff. I only hope that they don't go the quartz route with the Favre Leuba brand. But at prices between 8k-25k, I'm not sure if they'll be using Swiss movements. Maybe, they can get the C1.01 that the budget Tissot PRCs come with. Or else, it'll either be Quartz or Chinese automatics, which I hope doesn't happen. Titan came up with some sweet stuff with the Ducati editions but used Chinese automatic movements in them.

Cheers,

Jay

Quote:

Originally Posted by JayPrashanth (Post 3208538)

Yes they are rather prone to using those Chinese Auto movements which I m also not terribly pleased with.
I thought if they would at the very least, use some hygiene level Swiss movements like Ronda or something it would be good.