A question for any watchmakers on the forum ...

Hello all,

It's been a long time since I posted ... I wondered if I could get some feedback from any watchmakers reading the forum. I currently have an Audemars Piguet ultra-thin (Cal. 2003) from the 1950s in the hands of a local watchmaker. I used his services once before with excellent results. My Audemars was left with him at the beginning of March for a full service of the movement. At that time, he estimated returning it to me in 6-8 weeks. Now, almost eight months later, I still don't have the watch back. I have spoken both with him a few times, and he has indicated that it is very delicate work, and is simply proceeding more slowly than he had anticipated. So my question is, could it legitimately take this long to do the work properly? I don't believe he is waiting for parts. Could anyone offer insights into what could cause such a delay? I am fully prepared to wait as long as it takes, but it's hard for me to believe that he has not put my watch aside to do other work ... I've simply never had to wait this long for a watch to come back from service, including experiences with both many indepedents as well as factory service from Audemars, Rolex, etc.

Hope that this is a legitimate and fair question for the forum. Any feedback would be very much appreciated.

Kind regards,

Garrett

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It can be hard to set aside a block of time to do work.

By: mkvc : September 21st, 2009-19:08

It doesn't take that long to do the work, but sometimes a watchmaker will choose not to start a delicate job until he knows he can set aside an uninterrupted block of time to get it done. When a watchmaker is busy that can take a while, especially since s...

No offence intended towards any watchmakers but...

By: BDLJ : September 21st, 2009-20:12

....perhaps Mark Twain's maxim applies: "When your watch gets out of order you have a choice of two things to do: throw it in the fire or take it to the watch-tinker. The former is the quickest."

The view of a watchmaker...

By: 1440 : September 22nd, 2009-07:57

As noted below, when a watch is received it does not mean that it gets worked on immediately. However if the work was promised in 6-8 weeks, and it is now some 8 months later, the reasoning you have been given does not make sense to me. Although I have no...

Cal 2003 info.

By: adrianmoles : September 22nd, 2009-17:28

Hello: The AP 2003 ultra thin is based on a JLC 839 or 849 wich is the thinnest mechanical movement in the world. As a watchmaking apprentice that I am, and after watching the technical solutions used on the movement to be as thin as possible It's clear t...