I’ve got a 20yr old Omega Seamaster auto chrono watch which I love, wear everyday. It’s started going a little slow, and I think a couple of bracelet pins could do with being replaced. Just been quoted £700 by an accredited Omega watch shop … YIKES.

I appreciate it’s a highly skilled job, but … so any recommendations of alternatives, trusted, good and cheaper!

Googling and repairs.fixmywatch.co.uk suggest £375.

And I know a £5 Casio does a similar job, but it’s a treasured gift and I love it.

Had my 20 year old Seamaster overhauled by this guy last year.

https://www.prestigetimeservices.co.uk/

Fixed price job. No messing about. £430.

Bracelet pins you can do yourself with £20 of tools off ebay.

Servicing the movement. Depends how worth it you think it is. How much time is it losing or gaining a day, and is it being worn enough to keep it sufficiently wound?

The best built automatic/mechanical watches gain and lose time more than a £10 quartz casio; accuracy isn’t the main reason for owning one I’d say. If its within 30s a day I’d just leave it. Seems crazy to spend the equivalent of 70 casio fw-93s just to gain less than a minute more accuracy a day.

Try Duncan at Genesis Watch Making or Swiss Time Services.

I’d recommend talking to Chris Heal, he serviced my vintage Seamaster a few years ago, full strip of the movement and a new acrylic “glass” and it was nowhere near that. Not the prettiest of websites, but I suspect he spends more time working on watches. If only I still had the watch, I miss that one a lot

I’d say pony up the cash and get it done by the manufacturers approved service centre.

(Also, I don’t have a watch that cost more than £800, so unlikely to spend that getting one working)

Bracelet pins you can do yourself with £20 of tools off ebay.

Servicing the movement. Depends how worth it you think it is. How much time is it losing or gaining a day, and is it being worn enough to keep it sufficiently wound?

The best built automatic/mechanical watches gain and lose time more than a £10 quartz casio; accuracy isn’t the main reason for owning one I’d say. If its within 30s a day I’d just leave it. Seems crazy to spend the equivalent of 70 casio fw-93s just to gain less than a minute more accuracy a day.

If the oils have dried up causing it to run slow then there is wear happening inside the movement and it isn’t going to get any better. How often do you oil the chain on your bike? Or do you just forget about it until the drivetrain is worn out and the chain starts slipping and then you need to buy a new chain, cassette, and chainring.

I’d recommend talking to Chris Heal…

There’s a 20 page thread about him on TZUK and it’s not exactly complimentary.

OP, when you send a watch to Omega they routinely replace any worn movement parts, the springs in the clasp, springbars, all gaskets, the crown and even the hands. The watch comes back in a service pouch along with an official Omega warranty card so there is a certain benefit of sending it to them. OTOH, if you send it to an independent who has quoted say £300 and it needs any parts you will be charged extra. It might not be much as I’m assuming it has an Omega branded ETA 7750 movement and the parts aren’t expensive, but things like a crown or bracelet pins can be hard for independents to source as Omega now only supply to accredited repairers.

Try Duncan at Genesis Watch Making or Swiss Time Services.

They’re Omega accredited so will quote the same £700 – one of the things about being accredited is that you have to follow the pricing structure that Omega dictate.

Do you work for Omega by chance? 😂

LOL. Nah, just an independent who’s experiencing increasing difficulties getting the Omega parts I need.

This
Used this chap a couple of years back for my Seamaster Quartz. Obviously a cheaper servicing cost than for your Auto, but excellent turnaround time and value.

A new battery in mine (non-auto obvs) was £130!

When it came back I got a little doggy bag with the old gaskets (X3) and the two old crowns, which they replaced for some reason.

Like you, I love mine and wear it pretty much every day, so reluctantly ponied up.

That’s some crazy inflation. I think the first battery was £25 at Goldsmiths about 15 years ago. The previous one was about £60 roughly five years ago at the current place, but before official Omega status (no doggy bag). Their doubling in price this time came as a bit of a shock. Costs less to service the car!

That said, they are friendly and it’s local so easy to drop off and collect. Maybe give them a try?

Watch Doctors

I’ve used Alsal in central London for servicing my Rolex and Brietling, both of which are knocking on a bit, never paid over £150 and they’ve done a good job every time.

Have to admit I’d pay the full price and get it serviced by Omega. Will the other non omega service places swap all parts with genuine COSC certified products? Just wondering if this would damage future value? (I’m drunk so probably talking rubbish!!)

It’s expensive, but the thing with these watches is they don’t need servicing often, my Omega has been serviced once in 21 years. The bill for the Omega was somewhere close to £600, in about 2010. I don’t wear it very often now as have other watches.
I bought my watch for £1200 new, back in 1999 (think the UK RRP was £1800, I used to live overseas so different duty regulations), so the service was close to half the price I’d spent on the watch. No idea what needed doing, but the shop had to send it off to Switzerland for whatever reason. My wife bought me the watch so she wanted me to be wearing it again pronto and paid for the servicing (I had another nice watch from pre wife days, so wife didn’t want me wearing that as she thought it reminded me of my ex!!)

It might be worth contacting these people: https://www.deacons-jewellers.com/
They have five shops including Swindon, Royal Wootton Bassett and Marlborough, and they fixed and serviced my Yema Rallygraf after the mainspring broke, and sorted some other issues as well as replacing the crystal, and they did an excellent job. Not cheap, cost £460, IIRC, but it’s a fifty year old watch, with a great deal of sentimental and personal value attached to it. It helps that not long after it was fixed, one sold at auction in London for £3800…
They have their own in-house watchmakers as well, which helps, although the Valjoux 7736 in the Yema was used by a lot of other companies, so spares may be a little more common, perhaps.
Worth speaking to them, at any rate.

My Rolex is 70 years old and I wear it most days unless I’m doing rough stuff. I had it mended in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham because the mainspring broke. It didn’t cost much but they used a non-genuine spring. It tells the time “fairly well” but that’s not why I wear it. I can use my phone if I want to know what time it is.

It’s gone up a lot. A service I had done in 2008 was £290, now it’s £630 – that’s service of a mechanical chronograph (non precious metal)

Given the watchy people are in here I have a q..

I inherited a rolex (probably 50 years old). Its only going to be used for special occasions,so the question is does it get damaged by letting it fully ‘discharge’?

My seamaster quartz seems to get serviced when it gets a new battery. Older watches have a fixed price now.

Never had a proper service in 20 years tho

I inherited a rolex (probably 50 years old). Its only going to be used for special occasions,so the question is does it get damaged by letting it fully ‘discharge’?

I’m no expert, but would have thought that not to be an issue at all. Most collectors will leave their watches not in use fully run down, in fact there are arguments that using a winder box thing can be detrimental in the long term due to parts wearing over time.

I’d rather have springs relaxed and parts not moving, as long as it’s in a decent environment.

OP, It was late last night and I thought you had a chronograph (more expensive to service) hence my previous reply. Reading it again, I think you have a chronometer? In which case the official Omega service price is £450 for a general full service.

I stopped getting my Dunhill serviced at Dunhill when they confessed they could no longer guarantee it was waterproof (on a diver’s watch!) as they’d stopped making a seal

Not quite up to the Patek Philippe tag line…

So I now use a bloke in Didcot. His online presence seems to fluctuate (it was here), but he’s called The Clockworks. He’s very good, and like the chap off the repair shop seems to be a proper horologist. Takes orders from all over, and does work for the smaller individual jewellers who can’t do it themselves. When I was in, he showed me how he measured the second loss per day; mine was good. Under 1 sec per day.

Think he charge £75 for a service, as opposed to the £300 plus for Dunhill. He’s guaranteed the watch for 5 years, and has a clock of ours in at the moment

As an aside, he knows the bloke off the repair shop (who is here – Witney and Didcot are close to each other) and really doesn’t rate him at all.

I’d pay the money and send it to Omega – just give customer services a call. They will send you all the necessary packaging to send it to them fully insured. It will take 6-8 weeks but come back like new with a 2 year warranty. You’ve had it for 20 years and if you haven’t had it serviced in that time, it deserves it. You can then look forward to another 20 years.

I don’t work for Omega but have just done similar with my 19 year old Seamaster. Cost me a small fortune (also required a new dial fitting), but the result is outstanding.

Fudd, thank you for the correction regarding Chris Heal. That made for interesting reading and I must have got away with it last time. He hasn’t had one of my watches since 2008, but that would make me think again.

Apologies also to the OP for the bad recommendation, thankfully corrected.

Another thread hijack while the watch people are on (apologies OP).

I have a Tag Heuer quartz chronograph that my wife bought me for my 30th birthday and after 5 years the battery has gone. It looks like it’s £345 for a full service on the official price list.

Is it sensible to pay up for this given the time frame and dead battery? (I think I know the answer but struggling to reconcile the cost with getting a new watch battery!)

My quartz Tag (Kirium F1) just gets dropped in at the Jewellers I bought it from to get the battery replaced. Done and pressure tested same day.Tried a Timpsons before but said he wouldn’t do it as his pressure tester didn’t go high enough to guarantee the depth rating, as if I was ever going to trouble that!

Thanks clubby. Might be worth trying that once the shops open again.. whenever that may be. I also don’t think I’ll be troubling the depth rating on mine! 😂

Edit: Can you remember how much it cost at the jewellers clubby?

Cheers

Been a while as the battery lasts ages, but £30 ish iirc. Had it 18 years and two battery changes.

Nice one, thanks 👍

Thanks all. My watch is a auto and chrono so more complex to service. On top of that, it’s titanium so that possibly adds challenge apparently.

I’ve got a couple of quotes back from some of the suggestions above, ranging from £350 plus parts, £450 at STS fixed price.

I do feel in no man’s land on this, the full Omega accredited service at £630 is reassuring, but soooooo much money. But then, without being flippant or glib, is saving £150-200 for maybe a slightly ‘less good’ service worthwhile …

Aghhhhh!!!

It might be worth contacting these people: https://www.deacons-jewellers.com/

I’d avoid Deacons like the plague, they’re a bunch of thieving ‘See-you next Thursday’s. In the past they’ve sold stuff that was taken in for repair and then claimed they ‘lost it’…..

Yikes

I have a vintage automatic omega, it’s my grandads and although not a sea master it has sentimental value. I’ve never considered servicing it, and at 800 quid I’m not likely to either. I reckon the watch is only worth 400 quid max!

Given it’s probably not been serviced in 50 years I assume the inside will be ruined?

This may not apply to your watch, but the early coaxial chronograph movement 3313a (approx 2003) had some reported issues with not resetting properly.

Anyone who sends their 3313a watch for an Omega service got their movement upgraded to the more reliable version included in the price.

@aus

seriously – give the clockworks a call. It won’t be that much there – even if you end up sending it registered or someting

Another thread hijack while the watch people are on (apologies OP).

I have a Tag Heuer quartz chronograph that my wife bought me for my 30th birthday and after 5 years the battery has gone. It looks like it’s £345 for a full service on the official price list.

Is it sensible to pay up for this given the time frame and dead battery?

In a word, no. Quartz watches are generally fine for at least 10 years before a full service is required and I’d personally leave it until it needs serviced. It might start randomly losing a few minutes, or you might find it now needs a battery every year rather than the usual two years and that’s when you need to pony up for a service. The torque on the train wheels in a quartz is miniscule compared to a mechanical so chances of any parts wearing out or breaking is remote. Also, when you send your quartz Tag Heuer for a full service they’ll just exchange the movement for a new one as it’s not cost effective to pay a tech several hours wages to strip, clean and reassemble the movement when a new one is under £100 for a chrono and £30 for a three hander.

Most official dealers will try to upsell a service when you ask for a battery change as it’s a nice little earner for them. They’ll generally charge around £70 for a £2 battery, or there’s a ‘maintenance service’ for around £150 which is a new battery, new gaskets and possibly a new crown (many watches require a new crown as the gasket inside it can’t be replaced), and then finally a full service which is £250+ for a new movement, gaskets and possibly crown and pushers.

I have a vintage automatic omega, it’s my grandads and although not a sea master it has sentimental value. I’ve never considered servicing it, and at 800 quid I’m not likely to either. I reckon the watch is only worth 400 quid max!

Given it’s probably not been serviced in 50 years I assume the inside will be ruined?

Not necessarily. It may only need a strip down and clean which a good independent might do for under £200, but if it does need any new parts the cost can quickly add up and you won’t know until the watch is stripped and you’re committed to paying whatever it’s going to take.

Hi petec – plan to call him on Monday, as you say, his online presence seems to have gone

I can highly recommend Simon freese who’s been mentioned on here before

Very good pricing and fully insured. He worked on my Rolex and the whole service from start to end was seamless.

http://www.simonfreesewatchmakers.com/services/