While the figures you quote here are not among those which came from me, I think it is worth bearing in mind just how few Rolexes go back to Rolex themselves for service. As watch forum members we are a totally unrepresentative sample. As a retail jeweller I am well aware that most Rolex servicing is done either by approved or unapproved third party watch-makers rather than Rolex or their territory offices.Originally Posted by Huertecilla
With kind regards,
Haywood M
How does it feel to be bitter? Not sure if you think you're providing some ground breaking information here, but informed Rolex owners know that Rolex make 700-800k watches per year. And they don't care.
I don't buy them for their exclusivity, I buy them for their other qualities; build, accuracy, legibility, useablity, reliability, cost retention.
Impressive, huh?
I think £400/500 for a full Rolex service is a fair price, I also think that £1,800 for a replacement SS bracelet is an absolute rip-off!
I'm sure the Deepsea or ceramic sub bracelets will be even higher in price
I'll certainly need to adjust my sums if I need to buy bracelets for another load of stickered Rolex heads like this naked bunch :
Now where did I put that contact for the NATO straps again.....?
Haywood
WOWI'll certainly need to adjust my sums if I need to buy bracelets for another load of stickered Rolex heads like this naked bunch :
Now where did I put that contact for the NATO straps again.....?
Haywood
WOW also!
According to Post #10 it was not SS but bi metal, so you've got the gold to consider
If servicing your watch costs less than servicing your car, then you're doing alright in my books!
Haywood very impressive my friend.
Are they all unworn pieces?
Did you buy them in without their bracelets?
Dan.
Yes and yes.....someone here already posted a thread :
http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.ph...ht=Miltonaires
All gone now, barely a thing of interest in the safes except the old tatty ones you saw.....
H
Very interesting Haywood.
Cheers.
Dan.
At the end of the day, comparing a car service to a watch service as some people have in this thread, isn't exactly apples for apples.
Most cars cost £200-300 for a service each year, where a technician spends 30 mins replacing an oil filter, some oil, maybe some plugs and having a quick check over the engine. So over 5 years (using 5 years as an example for average watch servicing timescales), that's anywhere between £1000-1500, or perhaps even more on an expensive car.
A watchmaker has to totally dismantle a tiny watch movement, comprising of tiny parts. Clean them, re-lubricate them, replace any worn parts, re-assemble the watch, polish it, test it for water resistance and timekeeping, and make sure it will carry on working for years 24/7 with no other maintenance; for £430 including a two year warranty.
I'm not saying £430 is cheap at all, but comparing it to a car service is just a little pointless and tedious IMO.
If only if cost £200 to£300 to service the car id be happy
Okay well cars outside of the TZ forum
You should compare it to a full engine rebuild not a service.
Yes that definitely makes more sense. I think too many people get caught up with the word "service" but don't really think about what it involves with watches.
Tedious and perhaps over-simplistic the comparison may be, but I used it here to support the good value that watch servicing often represents, not to belittle it.
To that same end, I find it most commonly stops in their tracks any customer who begins to object to paying a few hundred pounds for a full watch service. They may have little interest in what either the car mechanic or the watchmaker actually does to their machine, but they can understand the comparisons about cost, intervals and running time.
HM
They don't understand what is undertaken in a watch service due to the name "service", and probably the crap salespeople in jewellery stores who don't have a clue about what they're selling or offering for the most part. I think "overhaul" is the term that sounds much more suitable and makes it stand out a little.
If you spend £5k on a watch and don't expect maintenance costs, you must be mad.
But hey are rarely (if ever) told what it involves - I once overheard 'a good clean, polish and oil etc. = be good as new" which TBH is a reasonable summary but there is some detail missing!
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Who are rarely told this... the public or the sales staff? If you mean the sales staff, then this is clearly not great training from the store the person works at. Even when I take my car in to the garage, I'm at least told what will be carried out, and then what has been carried out once completed.
It makes even less sense for the owner of a watch to send it in for a full service if they don't know what's going to happen to it. "It'll come back like new" isn't really a detailed explanation from a salesperson and I would personally expect more.
I think this is all deviating from the context of this thread which is suggesting £430 isn't a lot for a watch service, and, in the grand scheme of things, I would agree.
I agree Wayne - cars are viewed differently by most. Cars are necessary, awkward and a money pit for most folks (TZ-UK excepted!), whereas a 'nice' watch is a treat and something to be proud of etc. On this basis the high street can pretty much get away y with what they seem to do (mostly). When your major customer base is naive and has decent disposable income the training need is no burden - 90% of watch 'fans' fall into this category IMO.
Poor TBH but unless the 90% complain then little will change.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Yeah I agree. To me, there's not many things worse than going in to a store of any kind, and the buyer ends up educating the salesperson on what they are buying. I have to accept I can be a geek lol, but this has happened to me so many times. In fact I tend not to notice it now, but I do notice when a salesperson has good knowledge of what I'm buying.
To me, that's the difference between a salesperson and somebody that just wants a wage. I once applied for a car sales job and was told that a guy had been working there fore 25 years and had no idea about cars. I find that amazing.
In no way is this a slant on hard-working sales people. It can't be easy and I myself fall into that category. But it's also not so hard to learn about the products and indeed services you're providing customers with. The purchaser wouldn't be too happy if they were informed incorrectly about something by a salesperson, and then repeat it at the pub only to be laughed at; which I'm sure must happen quite a bit!
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