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Jaeger-LeCoultre

JLC service - utter disappointment...

 

We like to discuss watches on this website, but I find it that people rarely talk about the "ugly" side of owning a mechanical watch - the need for servicing. Here's my unfortunate experience I had with it so far (sorry if a bit long)...

I own a JLC Master Hometime, purchased it new in 2007 - it was my engagment present. By 2012 I decided it's about time it get serviced.

In Aug 2012 I went over to my local AD - the watch needs to be sent for servicing to the Manufacture in Switzerland, they can't do it here, the price of the service will be known upon the watch arrival there. I patiently waited for a couple of months for the servicing price - it was stunningly high (~20% of what I payed for the watch), but that's beyond the point. I thought that getting the service at JLC facilities is probably worth it - you are getting the best there is, right?

Months went by, come Feb 2013 - I'm getting the call - "Your watch is here". Waiting for half a year seems to become a new norm nowadays. I ran to the AD office - the watch looked like new. I strapped it on my wrist without even suspecting that something could be wrong. It's only when I got home and decided to set the watch properly and noticed some weirdness - the second time-zone hand and the home-time hand were not properly aligned. Just by a little, but still annoyingly noticeable. Then I noticed that the "jour/nuit" hand was completely off of where it was supposed to be. Eventually I discovered that it was completely out of sync: sometimes it got stuck, sometimes it just leaped several hours forward.

You can only imagine my disappointment - the watch was immediately returned to the AD, they tried to figure out what to do with it for several weeks and eventually decided to send it back to JLC for repairs. I demanded compensation. Fast forward, 5 month later - the AD call: "Your watch is back and you got a new strap as a compensation for you troubles from JLC". Sounds good - it's been a year since I last had to wear my watch - I was eager to get it back on my wrist.
Back at the AD's office - this time I'm inspecting the watch closely. The hour hands aligned - check! The "jour/nuit" hand moves in sync with the hour hands -check!Wait, but what's that??? It misaligned again! According to it, midnight happens at 3AM now! It's apparently a small thing, but shouldn't be missed by the JLC technicians. Can you believe my anger? Did I wait more than a year for that?!!

I can't imagine waiting for another 6 months for them to fix this. How come JLC allow for such a low quality of service??? This is beyond disappointment from a manufacture that I held in such a high regard for maintaining their originality, quality and loyalty to their long standing traditions.
I've got another JLC watch (Ultrathin) that needs to be serviced and I'm really apprehensive about doing it now, although I don't have many choices...

Did anyone else here have similar experience with servicing their watches at JLC or any other place for that matter?

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