The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: God or Mammon? on April 23, 2014, 02:48:20 PM
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I have a (fancy brand) watch I bought 15 years ago for $x, and it stopped working two days ago.
When I called authorized dealers to find out how much it would cost to repair, which they predicted would require shipping it to the manufacturer and doing a movement overhaul, they estimated about 70% of $x (apparently the cost of a new one has gone up 4-5x in value since I purchased).
Anyone have any advice on repairing expensive timepieces on a budget? Or know how much a nice watch in good condition (once fixed) would go for vs new retail price?
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Your best bet might be selling it on eBay or some website for used / collectible expensive watches. Let someone else bother about repairing the watch.
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How do you know what's wrong with it? Is it an automatic watch or battery? Who manufactured it?
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great time to learn watch repair? Assuming it doesn't need expensive parts replaced.
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People still wear watches? With the ubiquity of time pieces all around us (desktop/notebook computers, tablets, cell phones, microwaves, DVD players, coffee machines, and just about any other electronic device), it seems that a watch is largely unnecessary. I haven't worn one in maybe 10 years?
If it still has some value, sell it. Replace it with nothing. You will probably find that you don't miss it a bit.
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great time to learn watch repair? Assuming it doesn't need expensive parts replaced.
Personally, I'd practice on a watch you don't mind FUBARing before trying to repair one you've had for 15 years.. But I agree that getting into watch repair is a good idea.
It might very well be that it just needs a good cleaning (assuming it's an automatic watch). If it's a quartz, then it might just be a dead battery, though I expect it wouldn't have lasted 15 years to begin with.
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I would seek out a second opinion from a local watch repairman. My pops has had great luck with this in the suburbs, and my husband (who inherited a number of fancy watches from his dad) has also had great luck with our local old timer watch repairman (in the farmer's market at The Grove if you happen to be in/near LA). He actually told my husband not to bother with fixing one watch that's so old and fragile, the fix would probably break soon anyway. Great, honest guy.
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People still wear watches? With the ubiquity of time pieces all around us (desktop/notebook computers, tablets, cell phones, microwaves, DVD players, coffee machines, and just about any other electronic device), it seems that a watch is largely unnecessary. I haven't worn one in maybe 10 years?
If it still has some value, sell it. Replace it with nothing. You will probably find that you don't miss it a bit.
Yeah - I still wear a watch, it feels weird not having a watch. I really don't want to pull out my cell phone to look for the time. I've been wearing the same watch for about 35 years (Seiko). Just get a new watch and sell your current watch.
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I have a drawer full of broken watches of assorted values. Fixing them is always a losing proposition and costs more than they are worth. Yours is probably worth 20% of what you paid for it, if it were in perfect condition, so paying 70% of retail to fix it is crazy. Buy a new watch.
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There are lots of repair options outside of sending it back to the manufacturer. I second the above advice to seek out a local watch repairperson and get an estimate.
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People still wear watches? With the ubiquity of time pieces all around us (desktop/notebook computers, tablets, cell phones, microwaves, DVD players, coffee machines, and just about any other electronic device), it seems that a watch is largely unnecessary. I haven't worn one in maybe 10 years?
If it still has some value, sell it. Replace it with nothing. You will probably find that you don't miss it a bit.
Yeah - I still wear a watch, it feels weird not having a watch. I really don't want to pull out my cell phone to look for the time. I've been wearing the same watch for about 35 years (Seiko). Just get a new watch and sell your current watch.
My watch is one of the last anti-mustachian things I purchased with some bonus money. Not sure how much I can sell it for, but purchased it for about three business days' worth of take-home salary. For that price, even though it's an overpriced timepiece, I'm inclined to keep it. But it's also the sort of thing that you are supposed to send back to the manufacturer every 3-5 years for a few hundred dollars worth of service. Not sure how I'll handle that...
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Whether you should fix it depends on how well it meshes with your values now. Allen Edmonds shoes are popular on the forums, even though they cost ~$200/pair and resoling and reconditioning them costs over $100 (i.e. the repair costs more than most dress shoes do new) -- but they are a buy-it-for-life type of item.
If you see the watch as worth having in your life, pay for the repairs. If it feel like a money pit, sell it off. Does a lucury watch give you cognitive dissonance because it reminds you of your unmustachianism? Or does it feel like a trasure that you have and should take care of? If you were on the other side of the equation, considering buying a broken watch and paying 70% of $x, would you feel like it was a good deal or like it was a waste?
(Personally, I love my wristwatch and feel naked without it, but it's a relatively cheap $60 Seiko quartz watch with a battery. Keeps great time. If it broke I would totally pay $60 to repair/replace it.)
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Seek out non-authorized dealers who have been in business a long time. Get multiple quotes.