Reply With QuoteI have just placed a recommendation for you across on MWR.
I need a watchmaker who ideally is familiar with the Certina 25-651 movement. Any recommendations?
The date starts to change but fails to click into place. The hands then stop when they get to about 12.10. It turns over if I turn the hands manually using the crown, but not when left to its own devices.
Watch is a Certina DS Super PH1000M
I have just placed a recommendation for you across on MWR.
Rich Askham is your man. He does an excellent job (he's serviced and restored quite a few watches for me) and a quick look on his website brings up:
http://thewatchspotblog.com/?tag=certina
"A man of little significance"
Thank you chaps
I have a similar Certina project in the offing.
I asked Rich about this very movement last week (in a different watch, my watch). He declined to take it on, and stated he was without spares for the movement.
I have approached Duncan, Richard and Oli so far, and no-one can touch my watch before June.
Good service and restoration folk are thin on the ground these days.
Dave
Funny, I was going to ask you who you had got to service your new watch Dave. I was hoping they'd be able to do two of them :-)Originally Posted by sweets
I'd go so far as to say those three are excellent at what they do, and as far as I'm concerned Duncan covers both 'Thewatchbloke' and 'Genesis', both Duncans I've used and will use again. I've come to the conclusion if I want my watch serviced or repaired properly by one of the best, I have to go on a waiting list.
"A man of little significance"
I think you are probably right, but with a watch I have just bought, I dearly want to get it done and wear the thing, not wave goodbye to it for 4 months.........
D
Having seen some of your watches on here I can understand why!
"A man of little significance"
Anyone who’s looking to make a living out of watch work is better sticking to fairly modern watches which usually just need cleaning and re- lubricating. They can be turned round quickly and there’s less chance that a monkey’s worked on them previously. Once you start looking at 40-50 year old watches you can expect problems, caused by extensive wear or damage from previous work (or both). Even a simple job such as removing a degraded caseback gasket can take time, I’ve had to dig them out with a blunt screwdriver sometimes. Working on old stuff is time- consuming and parts can be difficult to source, I’ve often spent a couple of hours trying to track parts down on the internet. Buying second- hand and new old stock parts carries a risk, and the repairer is the one who takes a hit if the parts end up being no good. You win some and you lose some, buying whole movements for parts us sometimes the only way to get the bits you want but that can turn out badly.
Its no surprise that repairers turn some jobs down, the folks who work on a hobby basis are more likely to take the old stuff on because they’re not relying on the income. There’s a sense of satisfaction in sorting out a challenging job but trust me the novelty can wear off!
What’s needed is more repairers, particularly the ‘hobbyist’ type who has lots of enthusiasm and isn’t primarily concerned with making money. That’s not a criticism of the professionals who are making a living at it, they have my utmost respect, but there definitely seems to be a shortage of repairers who are best suited to working on the older lower value watches.
If I had the choice of sending my watch to someone like Oli or Rich or Duncan rather than an enthusiastic hobbyist,I would accept the wait.
It’s not always a case of choosing a repairer, sometimes the repairer chooses ( or refuses) you. Pointless trying to argue against a sweeping statement like that.
Not sure what category I fall into thesedays.
Enthusiastic?.....depends which side of bed I’ve climbed out of on any given day.
Hobbyist?....... maybe.
Good at it?........couldn't possibly comment.
What sweeping statement? This..?
How exactly is that a sweeping statement? Its a statement of fact...the fact being that I would rather send a watch to a proven repairer rather than an enthusiastic hobbyist.
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