Service
Elliot55 shares a cautionary tale about servicing an Antoine Martin Tourbillon Quantieme Perpetual, highlighting the risks of entrusting complex independent watches to unauthorized local watchmakers. His experience underscores the critical importance of specialized expertise and direct communication with original manufacturers, even for seemingly simple repairs. This narrative serves as a vital lesson for collectors navigating the intricacies of high-complication watch maintenance.
Like many of us who participate in this forum, I am a watch collector with a variety of timepieces from a variety of manufacturers. There is a small lineup of examples from the more favored brands, as well as an eclectic list of watches from Independent watchmakers. For one reason or another, I feel compelled to share a recent odyssey with one of the pieces - The Tourbillon Quantieme Perpetual (TQP) - made by Independent Swiss manufacturer, Antoine Martin. When the company was manufacturing timepieces, the TQP represented the brand’s flagship creation; a perpetual calendar with five-day power reserve and over-sized tourbillon (w/silicium escapement) at 6:00, featuring an hour chapter ring at 9:00, regulator minute indicator, retrograde date indicator at 3:00, day/month/year indicator at 12:00, and power reserve indicator (on back).
There was an issue with my TQP related to properly setting the date. Knowing where to turn, I directly contacted the original watchmaker, Martin Braun. After about a minute into our conversation, Martin told me the problem was with the date pivot [mechanism] as this was “a known issue” [with other TQP’s]. He also believed this to be a fairly simple repair and suggested I give the watch to a local, trusted source and he (Martin Braun) would guide the servicing watchmaker, as well as provide any part(s) as necessary. Being clearly hesitant with this approach, Martin assured me the crystal, hands and dial were the only parts requiring removal in order to expose the part in question. There would be no need to remove the movement from its case, nor any necessity to disassemble the movement.
I know I’m likely to get some push back here, in the sense that I ought to have just sent the watch back to Martin in the first place. While in hindsight that is now obviously true, at the time weighing all the risks (and possible costs) of shipping a fairly expensive Swiss watch back and forth through US/Swiss customs simply to replace an "easily replaceable" part just didn’t make sense; especially since the timepiece’s creator regarded it as a very straightforward repair. The only part needed was the date pivot, a small spring-like mechanism that bends back during the month to provide the necessary torque to retrograde the date indicator back to “1”.
In May of 2016, I handed the timepiece over to a so-called “trusted source”. This “trusted source” expressed the utmost confidence of being up to the task. In fact, he had been sent another TQP around the same time (with the same issue) back in June, 2016, by famed Silicon Valley jeweler, Stephen Silver. When well over a year had passed and there was still no word on when my TQP would be returned, I contacted the “servicing watchmaker” in San Jose, CA, to inquire about the status of my watch. The servicing watchmaker said the watch still wasn’t ready and insisted he had "...contacted Mr. Braun on several occasions..." - a fact Mr. Braun disputes, stating he had only heard from the servicing watchmaker one time and he (Martin) had made it very clear about how to proceed and what course of action to undertake.
After making plans for my annual pilgrimage to our Purists Motherland of Switzerland in July of 2018, I directed the servicing watchmaker to kindly return the watch to me in its current state as I had plans to hand-carry it to Martin Braun. After much reluctance, he finally agreed and about a week later a small box arrived via FedEx. I did not open the package.
After arriving in Switzerland, Martin and I visited his workshop. I will never forget the look of astonishment on the timepiece creator’s face when we opened up the box only to discover:
Against the advice of the master watchmaker himself, the “trusted source” chose to break the watch down into its 386 separate components. Per the creator, all that needed to happen was to remove the crystal, then the hands and dial, which would in turn expose the date pivot. Jeez, Martin almost made it sound like I could do it. The fact of the matter is, there are some folks reading this who have probably done business with the “servicing watchmaker” in question. Please know he essentially destroyed my precious timepiece. What’s worse, after giving him ample opportunity to make good on this (and other items), it would appear he has now closed his shop in Almaden and run for the hills.
No one likes to have to “play the heavy”, but at this point I've been left with no choice but to engage legal counsel with the overriding goal of mitigating a portion of the watch’s worth. According to Martin Braun, a fully assembled movement is available for roughly $25,500 CHF, or almost $26,000 US. And yes, he said he’d be happy to put it back together for me. So that’s good.
Going forward, I would suggest that under no circumstances should anyone do business with this particular “servicing watchmaker”. If you are a member of this site who lives in Northern California and you know who I am referring to, get your timepieces back NOW. Under advice from Counsel, it has been requested his name not be posted in a public forum under my alias, and as far as I know he has now closed his shop and moved onto gemology. Whether it is watch repair and/or anything having to do with gemology, based on a total lackadaisical approach with other people’s possessions, this individual does not have the fitness to be trusted with anything of value. If you are interested in additional information, please PM me. I look forward to hearing from you.
- Scott
Sorry to hear about the difficult journey in getting your watch fixed. I'm also from the SF Bay Area and only trust 2 watchmakers in the area and both are located in the city.
... Great places in the city. I am partial to Shreve on Post. Lots of goodies for people like us. - Scott
... Something tells me there will be a painful resolution.
It’s almost as if he was overcome with cuiriosoty and took apart for taking it apart sake. I used to do that when i was 8. Wheeew... that was an expensive lesson my friend, i trust it will all work out.
... Martin's mandible smashing on the workbench. I think he took it apart because he wanted to try and reverse engineer it.
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