My Panerai 00372 is running a little fast and I think it is due for a service. Any suggestions on a good independent in / around London who could undertake the work please? I would rather avoid the risk of postage if possible.
Is it a Valjoux / Unitas based movement or PAM in house?
If in house I am guessing it would be Panerai only.
If Valjoux / Unitas I would have thought any watch maker could have a look.
If you need OEM parts you may have a problem though.
So I guess I am saying go to Panerai if anything but a basic service is needed on an off the shelf movement.
Though this is something I often wonder about - I've had a handful of ancient vintage movements serviced without any replacement of parts - just a stripped cleaned and reassembled. If an independent attempted that here, what would the worst case scenario be? That they found something amiss that they could not resolve, and the owner had to pay for two services? I wonder what the likelihood of that is. Do Panerai still have a reputation for ....carelessness during servicing they had a few years ago?
It’s a nice intresting point
I too have thought about it.
If just a strip and clean I guess it would be possible but very rarely have I ever had a service where parts of some sort were not needed. I realise you could argue that the manufacturer is only saying parts are need to bump up the price but most of us have no way of knowing this as fact.
The warrantee following any service will likely to be restricted / void if you ask them not to use replacement parts and put the “worn out” bits back in. The watch is likely to have a fault in most cases anyway so parts are likely needed to sort the fault.
Gaskets etc are more than likely only available from Panerai for example which means the maker is the only option in a lot of cases.
If it was just a strip down and clean an independent would be much cheaper and in my experience do just as good a job. (Not all watch makers are equal).
I pretty much agree with your assessment - spare parts is the biggest pain and stuff like gaskets are pretty much always changed out. Also a lot of watchmakers may not have worked on the Panerai in-house movements, so may even be uncomfortable with a strip down.
This is the biggest 'con' with 'in-house' - you pretty much always will have to send it back to manufacturer. It's an additional revenue stream for them.
Der Amf - on Panerai servicing, I think it is a bit random. My own past experiences have been pretty decent, if pricey. I have a 190 that will need a service - that has the JLC movement and am a bit torn if to go independent or back to Panerai.