Audemars Piguet

One day I opened my watch box and discovered this:

Aside from the dust (which is magnified in the photo), you can see the ceramic pusher was gone! I searched throughout the watch box for it and finally concluded that it fell off while I was wearing it, I didn't notice, and put it back in the box that way.

Since I love the piece so much, I figured, "Okay, I'll just call AP and get them to send me a new pusher and it will probably just snap back in. Maybe cost me a couple hundred dollars, right?" Not so fast. After much back and forth, it was established that AP Service would not sell the pusher alone and would only allow me to fix this problem by submitting the watch for a full service at $1,500.00!! I decided that I would do this because even though the watch was purchased second-hand, it probably had never been serviced anyway, so the time was right for service as it was manufactured in 2014 and it is 2021 now. So off it went to service and a 6-8 week wait began.

About 2 weeks in, I was contacted by the Service Center. They told me that they have been unable to certify the watch for water resistance and upon further inspection, they determined that the bezel, while made of ceramic, was not authentic AP and added after the watch was originally marketed!! What? Why would anyone do this? And how much would it cost to put the correct bezel on there? The answer: $2,250.00!

At this point, I contacted the seller and initiated the assertion that this was his responsibility and not mine. The seller turned out to be a "stand up" guy -- he contacted the prior owner (whom he had bought from) and, even though the P.O. wouldn't take responsibility for it, my seller did! (My seller could be characterized as an "amateur dealer" -- but now I would add that he is a friend for life!)

I am a small businessman by trade, so naturally, even though their reputation is very high, I insisted to the AP Service Center that the "fake" bezel be returned along with the repaired watch. This took some back and forth as well before they finally approved of it.

The watch came back a couple of weeks later in perfect condition. The "fake" bezel was in the package and upon close examination, I could see that the openings for the eight bolts were not perfectly milled, hence leading to the waterproofing issues. I had decided that no way would I keep this watch and I actually have sworn off ROO's that have the "rectangular" pushers -- even the new 43mm line. I like them, but I don't care to take any risk like this. It has now been about six weeks since the watch was sold as a freshly serviced piece still under warranty and the saga ended!

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