Dean, I have several Brietlings which have the Valoux 7750 movement in them. The standard servicing on those runs over $500. I am surprised to hear you say a Rolex would cost less to service. Is that for a chronograph or just a base movement?[/QUOTE]

I have a Hamilton chronograph which has the same Valoux 7750 movement, and it was about $200-ish to have it serviced at a factory certified service center.

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

I have a Hamilton chronograph which has the same Valoux 7750 movement, and it was about $200-ish to have it serviced at a factory certified service center.[/QUOTE]

Didn't you just buy that watch 3-4 years ago? How often are you having it serviced?

Congratulations Michael, on owning AND wearing pocket watches. They are really cool, according to my daughter who is a design student. I have several as well and really enjoy just handling them and examining the movements

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Dean Albrecht
"Lead, follow, or better yet, get out of the way!"E500 owners motto

Sweet Austin, hope you guys had a great time! Were you driving the Hammer?

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Dean Albrecht
"Lead, follow, or better yet, get out of the way!"E500 owners motto

That's a good discussion on its own. I've always had newer watches that saw signifcant wrist time serviced about every 4 years. Vintage watches are serviced when they fail to keep reasonable time, i.e., gain or lose up to one minute a day. FWIW, I have a 50+ year old wristwatch that runs less than 4 sec fast a day...better than modern chronometer standards.

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Dean Albrecht
"Lead, follow, or better yet, get out of the way!"E500 owners motto

Didn't you just buy that watch 3-4 years ago? How often are you having it serviced?[/QUOTE]

My original Hamilton chronograph I purchased about 15 years ago, and had serviced by the Swatch company service center in Beverly Hills. They service all of the brands of the Swatch company, i.e. Omego, Hamilton, Tissot, etc.

A good friend of mine who is a serious watch collector took my watch with him back to his hometown in Mexico City to get serviced by his watch repairman.

He and his family were robbed by gunmen toting Ak-47's, and my watch along with his collection and all of his family's suitcases and personal belongings were stolen.

He generously replaced this watch with a newer Hamilton Chrono about 3-4 years ago, and it looks just like your IWC chrono.

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

I'd like to have my Omega overhauled. Should I send it to Omega Ch or send it to an authorized Omega repair facility stateside?

I was a big Breitling fan until this week. I have several of their chronographs. One of them I had completely serviced last year to the tune of $550. Okay, I wasn't complaining. I knew it would be expensive when I bought these watches. This same watch, the Seawolf Avenger, I believe it is called, broke a month ago. When I sent it back to Breitling, they gave me an estimate of $907! To replace a $90 crown.
Screw Breitling. The really irritating part of all this is that the repair cost is based upon the purchase price of the watch, not the cost of repairing it.
From now on I'm buying knock offs! I have a couple of nice-looking knock off watches from Canal St in NYC that are mechanical, self-winding watches I bought 4 years ago. They both run fine and they only cost $35 apiece.

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" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

Hi Austin: Its likely you will have to send it to the US service center, who will decide if the work requires a trip to the factory in Switzerland. This is required for customs purposes. Cheers,

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Dean Albrecht
"Lead, follow, or better yet, get out of the way!"E500 owners motto

It seems to me that for a company to manufacture a product, particularly one that was touted as being as fine as these Swiss watches we're talking about, which then costs anywhere from 1/6 to 1/3 or it's purchase price every four years to keep it running, is a lousy company.
I'm not complaining about the costs in dollars, but as a percentage of the original cost of the product. Does anyone else here think this is excessive and ridiculous?

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" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

OTOH, I have Chinese knock off copies of very complicated Pateks and Jaeger LeCoultre watches that keep good time, are completely mechanical, and cost less than $50 apiece. Two of them have been running for 7 years without any type of service.

What's wrong with this picture?

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

I like my Michael Kors, I got it for $170 on sale.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Travolta is an expensive pitchman.

No kidding! I wrote a nice letter to Breitling and told them they should be ashamed of themselves.

It's only a matter of time now, before they come crawling back to me, begging for forgiveness and for my business back . . . .

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles