Quote:
Originally Posted by boa2
I suspect you're right, in that the watches are waiting in a queue to be serviced. And there are very few people who are capable of doing it. When you are talking about a 40-yr-old perpetual, for example, there aren't many people who service them, let alone restore them.
I know people with modern Patek watches, and outside of the occasional 7 or 8-month anomaly, most don't seem to be without them for that long when serviced.
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Yeah, some even older. Not sure when the first ones are from (mid - late 1800's? No time to Wiki it now
). Let's say for example a 1901 pocket watch, with complications... Now THAT will most likely take sweet time and be a hefty bill. Only a select few watch makers can work on it I would assume too let alone restore it just as you mentioned above and again, Patek makes like 40,000 - 50,000 watches a year (half Mechanical, half Quartz, some womens some mens etc). Although they are limited, due to the fact all are going into Geneva they must be so backlogged. Not to mention the special care, attention, research etc required when working on something that is 100+ years old etc.
Who knows though, the prices might not be as bad as some of us are thinking but they have to be steep. On their site it shows the maximum service amoutns (per movement categry) in CHF including VAT and it is not so bad considering they are all Grail watches. That being said is my ONLY drawback to a brand like this. More common brands of course have more of a service network to back those numbers, and it might not matter to some but the day your watch fails on warranty (possible for any man made, mechanical item) and you have to wait several motnhs to get it back from Switzerland you might be pretty upset. Atleast me, i'm one of those people who wants my stuff yesterday. Feel so odd having one of my watches off for service even when it is 3 - 4 weeks, can you imagine several months or 2 - 3 years? LOL By the time you get it you might not even remember buying that watch ever...