Recently sent my wife’s quartz Cartier off for a battery change. They offer a £40 battery service which seemed reasonable.
Just had an estimate that states if requires a full service at £265.
Its only 4 years old, immaculate and barely worn, the strap isn’t even broken in.
Quick phone call and yes they can just replace the battery if that is what I require.
Good for you.
These kind of sales tactics rely on the fact many people are reluctant to challenge, and feel intimidated, especially when it comes to luxury or prestige organisations/brands.
Must work as they keep doing it. Same thing with main dealer car servicing
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I wouldn't even consider a £40 battery change to be reasonable...
Quite agree but I don’t trust anyone local having had a couple of bad experiences of slipped tools and scratches on previous watches.Originally Posted by Lampoc
I thought that at least Cartier would do a proper job and there would be a guarantee against such problems.
Agreed, but like the OP I find that it is sometimes worth it for the piece of mind. If it is done by a myopic ape wearing welding gloves at least you have some come back.
Why not challenge then regarding the advice to have the watch serviced? Insist on a full technical justification, if the circuit has been tested using a v. expensive tester it’s conceivable that its drawing more current than it should due to lubrication starting to fail or ingress of dirt, but at 4 years old I’d be v. surprised.
How much is fair for a battery change on an expensive watch? Bear in mind that whoever does the job has to be confident the water resistance hasn’t been affected and they also accept risk if marking the case if a mistake happens.
I wanted to buy a battery for my wife’s Rado from a local Timpsons, wouldn’t sell me one but offered to have the watch sent away to have the battery replaced, £75! Makes the factory £40 seem reasonable?
I did source a battery myself and did the job at home, no need to water test it, watch very unlikely to get wet.
Be careful about that. I used to wear an Omega Constellation as my daily beater and I got caught in a rainstorm wearing a short sleeved shirt riding a bike. When I got home the lens was condensed up and in the evening it stopped. Being caught in a rainstorm was enough to bring the watch to a stop.
It was that incident that made me go for a waterproof Rolex.
I’ve just had the £40 battery change done at their service centre in old Bond Street. They gave the watch a full clean and condition report and returned in a nice red velvet purse. Better still though was I was staying in London overnight so dropped off on the Tuesday and asked if any chance they could expedite the work..... they did, and I picked it up the next day all done. I got the cartier ‘experience’, the battery change and full clean up etc. I thought it was good value for £40.
Not looking forward to my Breitling emergency batteries at c£500!
Seriously flawed logic, the answer was to address the reasons why the Constellation was leaking.
They don’t leak when I’ve fixed ‘em, I wear vintage Omegas most days, sometimes they get soaked.....and guess what, they don’t mist up!
Anyone who thinks their watch won’t get wet is wrong, they get splashed when you wash your hands, get caught in the rain etc.
I don't have a clue what you are talking about.
The watch leaked because the seals were presumably defective and they were replaced. When I collected the watch, I was told that the Constellation was not a strongly waterproof watch and to take it off when washing my hands etc. Certainly do not go swimming when wearing it.
My point was that watches can suffer damage in a rainstorm, is that a controversial statement?
My Mum had a Tissot, battery is flat. Goldsmiths quoted for return to Tissot, £55 for the battery and a mandatory service at £135. The watch cost around £200.
Provided the seals are doing their job and the watch isn’t suffering from corrosion at the points where it needs to seal , there’s no reason for the watch to leak when immersed. Doesn’t matter whether the watch is rated to 30 metres or 300, this is a fact.
If the seals on the Constellation had been replaced and the watch had been tested there is no reason to advise the owner to remove it whilst washing hands or going out in rain......and certainly no reason to replace it with a Rolex!
I don’t make this up or repeat what I read, I base my comments on experience of dealing with watches. Just been working on an old Constellation and a Seiko which both had water issues, both are now passing a 3 bar pressure test and both are now fine for everyday wear, I’m confident they won’t leak. Took some work to get both to pass, that includes stripping the original Constellation crown to fit a new O ring and a thicker O ring to the Seiko that’ll compress and seal against the corroded surface, but sometimes thats what it takes.
Sometimes I think sales staff are on another planet, had similar recently when asked about changing the capacitor/battery in a Seiko kinetic, decided when it fails completely I buy a new one.
My wife wears a Man’s size quartz Tag Aquaracer, the first battery change was something like £100 and a 6 week wait (I’d tried to open the back but it had been closed by a gorilla). Since then I invested in some silicone grease and a proper case back opener and have done the last 3 changes myself - batteries lasted about 3 years and the most recent one is coming up for 4 years so the movement seems to be running fine. I’m pretty careful, use a magnifier and am careful not to touch anything I shouldn’t and I’m also confident the water resistance is ok - and if the watch dies, it’s given nearly 20 years daily use and only cost £300 new. However, if I take it to a jewellers they’ll make out as if it’s a highly technical job, Swiss elves and all that. Load of nonsense, it literally takes me 5 minutes - but I suppose now the new version costs upwards of £1500 they need to keep up a pretence of Swiss made excellence needing fettling by an expert etc etc
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Welcome to Le maison de Cartier. Or something.
I’ve had several watches sent over the past few years where the owner has tried to swap a battery and the job has gone pear- shaped. Lost screws, lost battery clamps, losing the insulating washer, forcing the battery under the lower terminal, bending the lower terminal, putting the battery in upside down, damaging the circuit by slipping with a screwdriver and wrecking the coil........I think I’ve seen all combinations of cock- up.
Swapping a battery is easy in principle but some folks lack the correct tools, magnifier and well- lit workspace to do it. Others simply lack the dexterity to work on small items, that’s not criticism its a simple statement of fact.
Ideally, all jewellers and ADs would have a trained staff member who can undertake battery changes competently for a reasonable price, but that isn’t the norm thesedays. We have a local jeweller who runs a small high street shop and he still swaps batteries for £6, but he’s 80 and I'll be surprised if he continues much longer.
To be fair I’ve always been quite dexterous and seem to find working on small things much easier than a lot of people - I think it comes down to having rock steady hands and just enjoying the process of carefully and slowly carrying out a job that needs concentration. Having watched battery changes and strap changes at the likes of Timpsons I trust my own hands more than a lot of their ‘technicians’ tbh - and I’m not entirely convinced the salesman who takes your watch out the back to have a link removed, battery changed etc - either by their in-house watchmaker or more likely themselves - is all that brilliant either!
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La maison
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Changing a battery is easy.
Replacing seals and testing water resistance? Not as easy. In my mind, that's what you pay for.
Worth worrying about in a £100 watch? Probably not, I'd just change the battery myself.
Worth worrying about in an expensive watch? I'd certainly say so.
It's why I love swatch
No service needed ever
Battery change by yourself
Then they stop working and you throw them away.
Actually, at one time did they not offer free battery changes?
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Aah, ahem... yes, well one of those cock-ups was mine in fairness.
Having changed many batteries over the years I finally came unstuck with a Doxa Aquaman, where I changed the battery only to discover that I'd shorted something out resulting in the watch running backwards! Fortunately Paul was able to replace the movement for relatively little cost or drama, but it was rather embarrassing at the time!
I still change the batteries in my wife's watches, but I wouldn't do it with anything expensive nowadays.
Simon
Quartz 'service' is a con unless you need seals replacing (not important to many). I have a 30 year old Tissot quartz which is still going strong with 4-yearly battery changes at £7 a go from the original jeweller that sold it.
I seem to recall, from a thread some time ago, that Paul (Walkerwek1958) suggested a quartz should be serviced after about ten years.
I've just had a full service on my 2012 Seamaster SMP 300 quartz carried out by Omega Service Centre.
It wasn't cheap but OSC replaced the movement, battery, seals and various other bits and bobs and refinished it.
It looks like a new watch again and I'm very pleased with it.
Last edited by JeremyO; 11th November 2021 at 18:59.
Cost me One English Pound to change the battery on my wife’s Mondaine. That was the cost of the battery from an Amazon seller.
Took me less than 5 mins to do. Hardest part was replacing the back plate, but made easy with a screw clamp applying gradual pressure, and a tea-towel protecting the glass.
40...I think it costs triple for a PP 24 quartz..so Cartier is kinda considerate.
For those big brands, there is a risk to reject future service if they find out the battery was not replaced by them
I had the same experience as the OP with my wife’s Cartier. Now I change the battery myself. Easy process and cost £3 per battery. It’s not rocket science to change a battery. Wife doesn’t wear it in water so wrt not a problem. Martyn.
“ Ford... you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.” HHGTTG
Sell it and buy a vintage 1960s-70s Cartier model with a mechanical eta movement 2312 or 2512 also referred to as the Cartier calibre 78-1 or 78-x.
They are vintage so will appreciate quick in price and they are beautiful.
The movements on these will tick for a life time and are fairly accurate and easy to time regulate.
If it stops working you only need to spend between $80 to $120 for a full watch service, and if it its not repairable, than you can always buy a complete new ETA movement from the time period for about $100 and just change over the wheel bridge with the Cartier branding.
I believe its just 'the'. 😉
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