Scratched dial on new Patek

[z32turbo]

Originally Posted by Preacher

Okay there's a bit more to add to this thread... Last week I noticed a problem with my new (second) Aquanaut. When it's held on its' side with the crown facing down, the crown wouldn't wind the movement. It just spun freely. Something was shifting inside with gravity and disconnecting the crown from the 'winder'. Also the winding didn't really feel as smooth as my first one either.

Anyway, I took it straight back to my AD and they compared it with an Aquanaut on a bracelet and lo and behold, today I am wearing my third brand new Aquanaut! lol

I'm extremely happy with this one thanks to my AD who are simply wonderful to say the least! They went out of their way to make sure that I'm 100% happy with my purchase by sourcing another one for me straight away!

I never would have thought this could happen again. Two bad Aquanaunt's to the same customer.

Glad your AD was very easy to work with in your time of need!!!!!

Congrats on finally getting what you wanted.

[Preacher]

Originally Posted by z32turbo

I never would have thought this could happen again. Two bad Aquanaunt's to the same customer. :banghead

Just seems to be my luck recently with alot of purchases I've made over the past month or so. A stainless water bottle delivered with a huge dent, a bike that was never delivered, a lighter that wouldn't light...

[z32turbo]

Originally Posted by Preacher

Just seems to be my luck recently with alot of purchases I've made over the past month or so. A stainless water bottle delivered with a huge dent, a bike that was never delivered, a lighter that wouldn't light...

Definitely has not been your month. I hope it only gets better point forward.

[FeelingTheBlues]

Originally Posted by Preacher

Just seems to be my luck recently with alot of purchases I've made over the past month or so. A stainless water bottle delivered with a huge dent, a bike that was never delivered, a lighter that wouldn't light...

Say, why don't you buy yourself a lottery ticket?

I'm sorry you had to have so many problems but I'm really glad it ended well, I hope that third Aquanaut will be perfect!

[Puffy]

Originally Posted by Preacher

Okay there's a bit more to add to this thread... Last week I noticed a problem with my new (second) Aquanaut. When it's held on its' side with the crown facing down, the crown wouldn't wind the movement. It just spun freely. Something was shifting inside with gravity and disconnecting the crown from the 'winder'. Also the winding didn't really feel as smooth as my first one either.

Anyway, I took it straight back to my AD and they compared it with an Aquanaut on a bracelet and lo and behold, today I am wearing my third brand new Aquanaut! lol

I'm extremely happy with this one thanks to my AD who are simply wonderful to say the least! They went out of their way to make sure that I'm 100% happy with my purchase by sourcing another one for me straight away!

i would have demanded a refund there and then. what a farce

the second piece they got you must have been refurbished to a dubious standard

[Psmith]

I think my patience would have run out long before yours... let's hope it's third time lucky with this particular Aquanaut

[Passionata]

seems the guys at PP's QC need a good brush up

BTW your AD is great ,that s the way how a customer should be served instead of BS

[Top_Clock]

I was going to get Aquanaut...But your first+second story just broke that deal
And sad thing is that all this s**t happening to greatest Patek...

[007bond]

A company of PP stature cannot afford such quality lapses without its reputation being damaged. For the kind of money charged, the product better be flawless.
It's a good thing they seem to take care of the customer.

[gwozhog]

Your AD IMHO is incredible giving you a 3rd Patek. I don't think you would have gotten the same level of service if you bought another brand. Just comes to show that nothing man made is perfect. Why we expect things to be I don't know. I know I'm not perfect all the time so how could anyone else be too. But what makes the bad companies from good ones is how they own up to there mistakes and make things right. Third time is always the charm right.

[masterserg]

Agree with the comment above ... your second was probably a (badly) refurb. Was the third a brand new one right out of AD?

As long as they keep resolving the issue I guess it is ok. Mistakes happen, it is all about they are fixed.

I hope third time is the charm.

[Preacher]

Thanks for the comments. Though I must point out that it was my AD who were adamant in making sure I was one hundred percent happy with my watch. Patek UK were actually quite reluctant in helping me when I called them directly. To quote Patek UK.. "It is not in our policy to replace watches. Send it in and we'll repair it."

Something else I noticed with the second watch was that on the checkered dial, under certain lighting, the two center rows of squares were clearly darker than the surrounding squares and did not blend perfectly with the surrounding squares. I believe that this is a flaw in the finishing of the dial. The contrast between the two center rows and the rest of the dial is very clear and defined and does not look nice imo. It takes away from the beauty of the 5167's dial. I've also noticed photos of a few other 5167's on this site as well as other sites whose dials show the same two darkend center rows. It seems to be a hit and miss with these. Maybe it was from a particular batch of dials because I've examined about eight different 5167's (including my three) in three different cities and two of the eight watches had the dakened center rows on their dials.

Pleased to say my third one has a very beautiful and uniform dial. It certainly is a charm!

Only problem now is that I want a second Patek. A Calatrava 5196g or a 5296g!

[Lol-x]

Third time lucky

Sorry to hear about your unfortunate second experience but it was a great outcome in the end and thanks to your great watch dealer

[Rags]

Glad to hear it all worked out for you.

[homathetes]

This is a completely bonkers story, glad you got a happy ending.

[Daniel Tan]

Yes... Its very very true that if u send it back to the service centre to claim the warranty it would come back with more issue... Like unnesscessary scrathes on other parts !

The only way is to sell it off and buy a new one !

[ChristianN]

Originally Posted by homathetes

This is a completely bonkers story, glad you got a happy ending.

+1

Makes me wonder if I really want a patek at all :(.

[rolexperfect]

This thread has just killed a bit my dream of buying a Patek. What a mess.


I am glad for you that they replaced it instantly, and hope you don't get any more problems later on though! It must feel bad that after paying 25k your watch it had to be replaced so many times. From Patek you expect perfect watches, on the first time, not the third. :-(

[malarky_hk]

Wow, quite the story. Thank you for sharing.

[ndsleep612]

Very interesting story. It kind of makes me reassess whether or not I should go for an Aquanaut or bypass it entirely for a Nautilus.

[FrogmanFreak]

Agree with Billy. not acceptable for a 25k price tag!

[CharlieMae]

Having owned about a dozen pateks in as many years, I have happily almost completely sold out of my Patek collection.

I felt that the quality control was getting worse and worse. I felt that once they dropped the Swiss seal and opted for the PP seal that they turned the corner to the dark side and now they didnt have to account to anyone for anything. Plus, the reasoning for not desiring the Swiss Geneva stamp after 100 years of having it kind of turned me off to the new stuff.

Add to the fact that the production numbers have gone through the roof and they increase the price of the watches by 20% annually and you essentially just priced out the entire world, except Hong Kong/Chinese which is where 75% of all of these watches end up, regardless of which country they originally shipped to. Now that they make in house movements they can bang em out fast and furious and the movements themselves are nothing special and the quality control, well you can read all about them on any Patek forum.

I have had 3 watches fail upon cutting the plastic bag and all 3 ended up being problems for me. That's another story but, in the end I will keep one or two pateks, primarily the lemania 5970's and original nautilus', but that's it. No more new models, no more in house movements for me.

Dont mean to rain on your parade but, if you have one that actually runs and keeps time chances are it will continue to do so for many years to come. Enjoy.