Quote:
Originally Posted by krayzie
The dude I used to work with bought a new $120 bucks Seagull automatic once just for kicks. When we try to wind the crown, it felt like there were a bunch of sand inside the movement lol! Maybe they've improved a lot these days.  |
Seagulls can be tricky because there's multiple quality grades and fakes. My 120 dollar skeleton wasn't from the factory so it could've been a QC reject, it tells the time with no problem, but the stem seal didn't quite work (the watch fogged up after wearing it in the shower). The 6 beat per second ST16 movements have a very distinct "click" when you turn the crown, whereas the ST23 (ETA2824) makes that "zzzz" grinding sound, which is kind of like sand, but I read on WUS that ETA2824 movements aren't really meant to be hand wound and you can break them if you do too often. (
http://forums.watchuseek.com/f6/eta-...ng-565378.html) That may have been the issue.
However I'm still impressed with that watch because I heated it to try to get the condensation out (I do dumb things), the crystal popped off after the inside reached probably like 100C, and then bounced into the trash can, I dug it out of the trash, reused the crystal gasket and pushed it back on using my hands, and it kept on working, until a piece of debris got caught in the movement. Ended up sending it back to the factory to get it fixed LOL. From the stains from the water that were still there, I could tell they didn't replace the whole thing (which they sometimes do, I think), but it somehow still works like a champ, but I am very careful about taking it off when showering now.
My 819.351 (ST23/ETA2824) was secondhand but the PO bought it from the factory dealer. I had to get it fixed after I slammed it into a table really hard soon after I got it, and then again 2 years after. I heard that's not an atypical service interval anyways though...and I do subject my watches to a lot of shock. The watch is freakishly accurate so I don't mind coughing up the maintenance money.
I plan on getting the 818.900 (basic hand wind tourbillon) as my last Seagull watch, because it looks awesome and is only 60 bucks to fix if something goes wrong lol. A guy at work has a Blancpain which he says costs 800 every year when he sends it to the factory for maintenance, ouch.
Quote:
Originally Posted by krayzie
The Swatch Group service points be it locally or in chocoland don't seem to know how to service their vintage models either (Tissot's CEO gave me a written apology for destroying my Tissot Heritage chronometer from the mid 90's, they tried to repair their mistakes 5 times over 2 years without success and I ended up with a check in the mail).
Everytime I visit the Swatch service point I see angry and frustrated people with newer Omegas that ain't working right lol but I digress.
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Well, hardly surprising given how crappy Swatch brand watches are isn't it? I've had 2 Swatches, one of the cheap plastic ones (case simply cracked open after a few years), and one of the ~150 dollar metal ones (the metal band broke apart and the watch disappeared into a grass field lol).
If you say Rolexes are like this too...what isn't? Do Pateks have this problem?