Horological Meandering

Here's an interesting article that begs the question: how many of you have had movements replaced instead of servicing in your sub-$1000 watches? www.fratellowatches.com ...  

Which I happily paid to my independent watchmaker, then gifted the watch to my nephew. I hate to see broken watches sitting in drawers!

Tudor does this as well. Fratello has been publishing so many rubbish articles the last few years, simply to create more topic, more engagement, to boost their numbers and $$$$. It's sad.

This article assumes and implies people who buy these watches don't consider these costs when they buy the items. Sadly, the author is probably right. The smart consumer should think a little like a chess player. A chess player knows to research these kin... 

a Toyota Corolla will cost US$120,000 and you can drive it for only 10 years... sigh

What was I thinking? Yes, the Certificate of Entitlement alone is indeed $70K! Yikes!

Ironically though, I have had bad experiences with servicing cheap watches, but I feel like dropping in a new mass produced movement isn't a big deal. Local shop around NYC swapped a part and the stem ended up falling out and getting lost, haven't been ab... 

Try to fix it yourself, lose stems and screws in a thick carpet, cut your fingers, swear at not having the right tools, failing eyesight and after a few hours or days, throw it away yourself basking in the feeling that this is really best left to professi... 

I tried on my worst mechanical watch (leaky seal, scratched mineral glass) with the wrong tools, I used a toothpick with silicone grease to lube the pallet jewels, and it actually worked! Scratched the crap out of the screws and rotor. Tried the rotor bea... 

I have a Frederique Constant that I payed (I think) 675 € back in 2005 ... had it serviced for 180 € .. and later on had it it fixed for 375 € .. bought a very nice high end leather strap for 50 € on Ebay .... so to me it's now valued at 1280 € ;-) ... . ...  

. . . occasionally. Both watches were roughly 15 to 20 years old; one had an uncommon movement, the other common enough that Seiko has replacement movements readily available. My watchmaker's recommendation was to replace the movement Seiko had in stock t...