Repairs and Servicing.

Free inspection

For specific repairs I might need to inspect the watch before giving a quote. If you choose not have the repair done then there will be no charge. You will only need to pay for the return postage.

Full Service price guide

These are guide prices only, excluding cost of parts and postage:

• hand-winding, no complications £90

• hand-winding, calendar £100

• automatic, no complications £110

• automatic, calendar £120

• chronograph £180

• Re-lume hands £20

• Re-lume dial £40

Full service means a complete strip-down, cleaning all parts ultrasonically in specialist watch cleaning fluids, re-assembling and lubricating with synthetic watch oils. Dials are generally left as they are, bracelets and case parts are also cleaned ultrasonically. If the crystal is badly scratched it is replaced. Gaskets are replaced where possible.

The watch is then run for several days to test it for timing, and regulated accordingly. The aim to is to get it running to original specifications, generally within 25 seconds per day.

The watches are all-original, unless otherwise stated.

Re-luming

There is some debate in the vintage watch collecting community about the merits of re-luming (replacing the luminous compound). The concern for some is that it might compromise the originality of the watch.

The conclusion that I have come to is that if the lume does not look bad, then it's best to leave it alone, even if it no longer “lumes”. If the lume is degraded, crumbling, mouldy, or generally detracting from the look of the watch, then re-luming might be a good idea. In this case, the point of re-luming is make the watch look better in the day time, not so that it can be read at night. I say this because even after re-luming, many watches will still be hard to read in the dark, because the lume plots are very small or because the luminous compound used today is different to that used originally (google “radium” and “super-luminova”)