[beshannon]

Update four:

After speaking to Patek about the estimate and the failure of two parts after 3.5 years, I was told the following by Richard, who by the way is very helpful and thorough with the explanations.

Patek says the watch suffered a shock, with no visible signs on the case. I did not damage the watch in any way. Richard says it could have been at any time.

Richard agrees that the barrel bridge which was wearing (and now out of tolerance) and should NOT have worn this way even with the loss of clearance, especially given the age. The reduction wheel has a broken rivet, again they say because of shock.

Richard will now look into more of an explanation as he was just looking at the notes provided for the initial estimate.

I returned the estimate form giving my approval for the repair and Richard says that if there is an adjustment they will change the invoice accordingly.

I will continue to update as I get more info.