Bad quality or bad luck

[Zormin]

During the past year I have ordered four watches. These are my experiences:

1. ARF DateJust - After 3 months the winding mechanism broke causing the rotor to spin while winding the watch. Sent back for repair.
2. ZF Bathyscaphe - Not working properly on arrival. The rotor did not move by gravity. You had to shake the watch to make it spin. This caused the watch to stop even when worn. Additionally the decorator plate had greasy fingerprints all over it which was not visible in the QC pics. Sent back for repair.
3. ZF Portuguese 7 days - Not working properly on arrival. A screw in the decorator plate was loose and obstructed the rotor from turning. This caused the watch to stop even when worn. I managed to open the watch and tighten the screw myself.
4. GF Master Ultra Thin Moon - Not working properly on arrival. Strange power train problem. Even when fully wound the watch stopped after about 20 minutes on a table. If you gave the rotor a spin or two the watch ran for 20 more minutes. It was working as log as it was worn, I guess because the rotor was moving constantly. Sent back for repair.

Now to the millon dollar question: Is this level of quality to be expected from the chinese manufacturers or have I been extreamly unlucky with my watches?

All watches were ordered from top rated TD's. I personally think quality problems 2 to 4 should have been caught by the TD's quality control. It seems that all they do is to snap a few photos.

 

[Mike116]

Personally ive only had one watch from a td that i sent back for repair so i think you've had bad luck. Ive had a lot more trouble with undisclosed issues buying via M2M

 

[csthe]

Bad luck mate. I've reps that working more than 5 years...

 

[CollectorAtHeart]

4/4 with Problems is bad luck for sure. This can and will happen every now and then, but this is way more frequent than expected


Gesendet von iPhone mit RWI

 

[libero2]

As far as I'm concerned, 2/2 with problems

 

[Spitfire63]

Just bad luck, I've had 5 watches and all have been fine, guess I'm really lucky

 

[efajri]

Bad luck. I have over 50 reps and all work just fine.


Sent from my iPhone using RWI

 

[freediver]

Bought around 15 reps last 2 years, one was DOA and sent to my watchsmith, rest were fine

 

[r0b9502]

Not attributable to bad luck as you have a rate of 4/4 negative. You have to analyze, or give up, or live with it.

You have been purchasing smaller facory products (ZF and GF) which do no have the QC of Noob. ARF (which people say is basically JF) is better than the smaller factories, but still not as good as noob. And most TDs will just check datewheel operation, shake, wind a few turns, if it runs enough to get a timegraph pic, will ship.

My experience with Noob products has been excellent. With JF mixed. With smaller factories, downright bad. If you want watches which good functionality, first buy from the right factories and second, find a TD who will commit to putting extra effort to QC the movement.

Now, having sent back 3 for repair, you should post your experience of the repair experiences.

 

[TESLA760]

Maybe this hobby is not for you

 

[shortyNL]

I think you just had alot of bad luck. But it is allways a little bit of a risk when you buy a rep ofcourse.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G975F met Tapatalk

 

[Zormin]

Thank you r0b9502 for a good answer. I will do a review of the returns in the appropriate TD sections when everything has been resolved. A teaser so far is that I'm not very impressed how the TD's do business. Total chaos. But they are helpful, so I'm confident it will work out eventually.

BMW760, I was kind of expecting that answer in this thread. I'm not lucky enough for this hobby? Can I ask what you would have done in my place?

 

[kryckan13]

I have had 5/8 watches with movement issues over the last 2 years. Since then the watches with issues have been fitted with swiss movements. Now they run perfectly.


Skickat från min iPhone med Tapatalk

 

[Tompa]

I have bought around 30-35 reps the last years and only ONE has been DOA. And most of my reps are A7750, and so far so good all of them is working fine


Skickat från min Sputnik satellit

 

[Art Tic]

Like you, I tend to buy reps from TD's, but my luck has been about 50/50, meaning that 50% of my new purchases last (run) more than 6 months. I have come to accept the statistic (my luck on reps).
I buy a lot less these days.

 

[GingerBubba]

I'd say it's bad luck mate. I've had about five problems from fifty ish watches. Never big problems, but pissy things like yours. I sent one back and it was fixed fine, but with the rest I was too impatient and fixed them locally (and cheaply). QC is basically snapping a few photos and, with a good TD, letting it run for a couple of days to ensure its working.

 

[Rx4Time]

I've had about 70 total, 20 in my current collection, and over time a few developed issues. My usual rule is swap in an ETA and call it a day. I avoid the "superclone movements" beyond the sh 3135/4130 for this reason...no parts are available.

 

[Percymon]

Bad luck i'd say - bought about 12 reps from various sources in last 18 months and only one has an issue (a £50 Yachtmaster from DHGate). Other £30-40 DHGs have been fine (2 x subs, an AirKing thats been on my wrist for 99% of the last 8 months without missing a beat). I have barely worn some of the others (ZF Blancpain 50fathoms , ZF IWC Spitfire Chrono for instance), but they seem to be fine so far.

 

[VitZan]

Maybe this hobby is not for you

Why? Explain please...

 

[Zormin]

Here is my first repair review https://forum.replica-watch.info/forum/intime-buyer-reviews/8347228-repair-debacle-with-intime

The repair for the GF Master Ultra Thin Moon has not yet been solved. More updates will follow.