We are thinking of offering watch repair in Biel, Switzerland as an agent. What have been your experiences with getting watches serviced. I would like to hear about the out-of-warranty experiences you've had and any suggestions you could think of.

How much did you pay?
How long was the watch gone?
How well did they perform the service?
Did they replace parts?
Did they re-lum dial, brush, polish, or customize?
Would you have them service it again?
How did shipping work?

We think we can offer a competitive pricing and the highest level of repair, but we have to consider the shipping costs. Since we are an agent, we do not need much per watch to make it worthwhile.
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Moses, how does "agent" differ from, say, sending a watch directly to manufacturer?

I have only dealt with local repair and all I can say is that every repair seemed to only "work" for about 10-15 days. I gave up and next time I'm in NY I will simply bring the watch with me.
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The manufacturers often send them to agents too. The difference with us as an agent is that we take a less "cut off the top" and can offer additional services like PVD coating, different dials, customization, one off part fabrication if required, and hopefully cheaper prices and faster turn-around.
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While it may be great to offer such a service, there are some really good US horologists/watch service people that do well. I think the big hang up for many people would be overseas shipping. Customs can be a real pain sometimes.
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What was included in the $150? That sounds pretty cheap if you consider most factory services are $350+ Did they do a total disassembly of the movement? Did they provide a ticker of before and after to show the accurancy improvements?

I am working on the shipping part with Customs. I think we can declare the item as something we worked on (with pro forma invoices) and customer already owned (along with the sending watch to us). Normally, I had been just carrying them on a plane, but then thought "why don't we actually do this as a service rather just favors for friends" and make a couple of bucks?

Another route is to target just complicated movements and old watches. We have one guy who is a watchmaking rock star, but we'll have to expand beyond him. We can retain one or two more guys similar to him and actually "sell" that they are working on the watches. It may make it more expensive, but for the watches that need that level of expertise could work. He actually teaches students who'll end up at Rolex, etc...

Not sure where to go with this. I don't think we could get to a 100 watches a month just due to their pre-existing commitments. When Patek or Longines calls, we get bumped unless we start paying top for services then goes any kind of profit.

Please keep your stories and ideas coming. Thanks so far!
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Yeah, $150 is on the cheap end. Before I found these last two guys, I was paying $300-$500 based on what I was needing done.

However, the work has been fantastic. They are using ETA's own guides to disaasembly, oiling, etc. They provide any information I need (ticker, pictures, watertesting shots) One guy even does video documentation to further prove each step he takes.
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Not exactly related but..... I have a Citizen Eco Drive Titanium that has stopped working. What to do? Do I send it in to Citizen? I don't think I have had it for 5 years but maybe I have. I also don't think that I have thre warranty paperwork.

How much are they gonna charge? Maybe I just chuck it :-)


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There are a few places you can send it. Look online. My guess assuming it's Quartz that the service could be $150. If you get an estimate, can you update the thread? I think a few of us would be curious.
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Funny thing I checked the website (citizen usa) and they say that they can't give estimates because different parts, repairs etc. If it's $150 I would not get it fixed it's only a $300 watch, which is enough but I would just buy an Invicta and be done with it.
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