Reply With Quote£1400-£1500
How much should I pay for a good condition 3570.50 speedy? They seem to vary hugely?!
£1400-£1500
RIAC
Or, go through an airport and buy one using your signet cad for an additional 10% on top of the 16.66% off. Or try and get the best possible discount locally.
It's just a matter of time...
Thanks but I no longer buy new......Originally Posted by Omegamanic
I would have thought that with box and papers in good condition £1400-£1500 seems rather optimistic.
Too cheap or too dear?
Well I just sold my minter for that and thought it fair
RIAC
1900/2000 euros
If it is a normal used one you can get it arround 1500€ down here in Spain, later on if it is an special-limited edition it changes a lot
Too cheap.
Obviously it depends on age etc- but if you could get someone to part with a fairly new
Moonwatch for £1400+ you've done very well.
With papers? I was thinking more toward the £1800 mark but this seeks like a very good price. Might have to dip into the market again.
Good condition with all the bits, i'd say £1500-1600, which is excellent value IMO. Anything under £1400 and you're laughing.
Think theres an Ernest jones in Stanstead airport so that clever! 16.66% off +10%
Or Iconic have it for £2240, a saving of 22% according to their website...and no need to trek to the airport.
My advice with the Speedy is to go for the newest you can afford, provided the condition is good. Can`t see the attraction in a 15-20 year old when a 5 year old can be bought for not a huge amount more.
Also, look for recent servicing. I think Omega charge around £400, and the top-name independents charge >£300. A new crystal and crown are usually required, which pushes the price up a bit.....and it is a chronograph after all (twice as much work!). Cosmetically, they're quite easy to refinish; a new bezel is around £120 if I remember rightly.
As with any rule, there are exceptions. If a nice older watch, in really top condition with evidence of recent(ish) servicing comes up, buy it.
As with anything, beware of bargains!
Paul
Why so expensive for a service?!!! Seems outrageous!!!!
Shameless plug for my recently serviced watch now sliding down the pages on SC
I was looking for one recently, and £1400-£1500 seems about right. I ended up paying a bit more though, but for a 4-year old sapphire sandwich, box no papers.
Yep, according to their site it's £470 from Omega if it's on a bracelet. It includes a case and bracelet refinish. For that price I would want a new bracelet!
Out of interest how long does it take to do a service on one? I was reading a watchmaker blog the other day and I was amazed how quickly he seemed to do it - 4 in a day, couple of hours each?
http://davethewatchguy.blogspot.co.u...-do-today.html
I guess it's possible if you're really familiar with the watch in question....but in my opinion it's pushing it! Limited time for careful inspection if you're doing them so quickly. The trick is to be stripping one watch down whilst another's in the cleaning machine (if you own one).....but you'd still need to be working v. quickly. The temptation is to take short cuts and only strip the movement partially. This happens, but it's not ideal.
I think 2 or 3 movements/day is more realistic. Clearly it takes longer to service a day/date automatic than a simple hand-wound with no date.....the more parts, the longer it takes. That's why chronographs are dearer to service, they take twice as long to do. It also takes longer when problems arise; generally speaking this afflicts older watches which have been worked on several times in the past.
I`m a great believer in doing them slowly and checking at every step; that's the traditional Swiss way and they also advocate that every single part must be removed. Rushing them is OK but if you find a problem at the end it's a long way back to establish what's wrong.
Just had one this morning that illustrates the point, an Omega 1120 (ETA 2892) that's straightforward; I`ve assembled 15-20 of these in the past couple of years, never had a problem. Found an issue stripping it down when the centre seconds wheel stuck in the train bridge. The pivot was 'stuck' in the jewel.....never seen this before!. I put this down to dried up lubricant and moved on. On reassembly the train wheels were sticking intermittently instead of revolving very freely. Inspection revealed the culprit; under high magnification the end of the second wheel pivot was found to be slightly mushroomed. This has been caused by a previous repairer applying excessive pressure when pressing the second hand home....can`t think of another way this has happened. If I`d been rushing I wouldn`t have spotted this; the watch may have run OK or (more likely) shown an odd intermittent problem. The watch must've run OK previously, but I`m surprised. I reckon a sharp knock would've stopped it. Thankfully this can be rectified cheaply with a new part.......that's the beauty of ETA stuff!
The devil really is in the detail; I`ll settle for doing one movement /day.....or however long it takes because I do it as a hobby. Each to their own, I admire these guys who can do them so quickly, and you have to do that to make a living from it. I certainly don`t envy them .
You can`t assess the price of servicing solely on the labour charge; overheads have to be taken into account. Lubricants and cleaning fluids are expensive, so are tools etc. However, it's not hard to see where the money can be made......it's called 'Rolex accreditation'. Not hard to see why the Rolex-accredited guys aren`t always keen to work on your grandad's 50 year old Rotary unless they're short of work.
Paul
It's a lot more involved (and time-consuming) than servicing cars! Imagine if the car engine had to be completely stripped to component parts at each service.
I would argue that car servicing is outrageous considering what actually gets done thesedays......but that's a different debate.
Paul
Edit. The damaged pivot I've referred to has a diameter of 0.15mm. Assessing the condition of such small parts isn`t a simple job....... can`t be done quickly and it isn`t easy. To some extent that's what you're paying for. Just because watches are small and don`t seem to do a great deal (other than tell the time) folks often struggle to accept the costs involved in fixing them.
Last edited by walkerwek1958; 19th March 2014 at 13:50.
Good write up!
I do find your comments very informative Paul.
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