O/T Watch repairs

See the post above yours!

I was quoted £70 for a battery change once and it would have been sent away for two weeks. I went on Amazon, bought a watch repair kit for less than a fiver and changed it myself. It was just a run of the mill Radley watch, it didn’t even cost £70 brand new. It’s mad out there!

 

Years ago I was also quoted £70 for a Tissot watch battery, six weeks turnround. I bought a battery from KDA for less than 50p and did it myself. I'm gobsmacked that anyone actually voluntarily pays such prices.

 

Appreciated

 

Andy - I have a Breitling Navitimer 806 with a Venus 178 movement which I bought in 1964. I use a watchmaker in Barnsley who services my chronographs for £100 to £120 depending which one I send him. Goldsmiths will want £500 to £600. He services my non chronographs for £50/60. This is what he charges to independent jewellers for doing their work. He wouldn’t want me to put his details on here but if you get in touch with me I’ll ask him if he’ll service it for you.

 

Not at that sort of age, any servicing at all on a 10 years plus watch will positively impact value

 

Please send me his details as well, I can't get things done that cheaply in the trade and I'd rather the money stay in Barnsley as I'm currently splitting work between hull and Glasgow.

 

I'd always assumed you lived in the Burgundy region of France, not Northants.

 

There are a couple of citizen rarities from the 1960s that have some value, especially if they chronometer on them. Watch values tend to go by name of manufacturer in an hierarchy. With condition and rarity being secondary. Dive watches tend to command premiums followed by chronographs. Womens watches are significantly lower than equivalent male watches. There can be some overlap with makers depending on the actual watch. A movie connection helps too. I recently sold a Gucci 3000M to someone simply because it's the watch Winston wolf wore in pulp fiction. I sell a few longines dolce vita as they are the same that Hepburn wore in breakfast at tiffanys. Same with the Seiko Arnie he wore in predator. If anybody has an odd looking ancient Seiko diver that says 6105 8110 on the back that's the Willard, as worn not by the worlds worst ref but capt Willard in apocalypse now and I'd pay good money for it, especially if it has a genuine Vietnam war history. More than I'd pay for a bog standard 33mm Rolex tbh. It's a real rabbit hole mate.

 

I've divided my time between the two for the last 21 years, but now I'm officially retired I hope to be full-time resident in Burgundy from next April.

 

The only problem he has is that watch brands with in house movements are very protective and won’t supply parts even to trade suppliers like Cousins and Sellors. It’s ok with ETA (Swatch group) as the parts are inter changeable with Sellita. He is snowed under with work so I would need to ask him if he wants to take on more work than the odd favours he is happy for me to pass on to him. I have 20 watches and send him 2 or 3 a year. He is in his 70s. But I’ll have a word when I’m back off holiday.

 

I thought it was to do with the colour of your shoes.