When you go to purchase a vintage watch and see “serviced” in the description, ask yourself what does that mean? Generally, it means BS. You can open the back of a watch and look for dirt and called that serviced.
If I were a retail customer I wouldn’t buy a watch unless it has been cleaned, oil and adjusted (timed). Timing is the hardest part and requires a skilled watchmaker to work with the hairspring also known as the balance spring.
I found this little bit of BS in a description of a vintage watch.
All of our vintage watches have been serviced by our Master Jeweler and are working . We go one step further and time them for 12 hours.
This is basically insane. Notice, it says serviced by a Master Jeweler – not a watchmaker. If he really serviced it, you would use a ‘timing machine’ to check it and make sure it timed with the wrist up, down, to the right and the left. What’s this 12 hours BS?
Approximately 25 new watchmakers will enter the job market this year. Add those to the 2200 known watchmakers working in the US and you can see the problem with getting watches “serviced” which should mean COA.
One problem with vintage watches: people buy them for let’s say $175. A proper COA service runs more than $100 and buyers won’t typically pay that up front, so the dealer has no incentive to have his or her watches worked on.
You’ll wind up with junk after a year or two if you want to wear it and don’t have it properly serviced. Without proper servicing, you might want to wear it daily, so give it 30 days before it fails. Then you can spent $275 – $500 dollars to get it fixed properly. The mall stores that fix jewelry will charge $400 and will promise to have it done in about 4 months.
For my needs I prefer to buy non-working watches and fix them myself. If they’re in good enough shape, I’ll restore the cases, dials and crystals and put them up for sale. If not, then I’ll put them in the collection.
Moral of the story, you get what you pay for. Well, you can spend $5000 for a contemporary “name brand” watch or get a great vintage watch for $500. Of course, I prefer the latter.
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