The replica watch universe is amazing. And like the big majority of RWI members, I get a serious buzz from sourcing, purchasing and owning fabulous pieces that I'd never dreamed I'd see on my wrist.
But it's not a given that even after waiting weeks (and even months in my case) for your treasure to arrive, you'll have years of trouble free time keeping. Things can go wrong in spite of the best efforts of the TD's...
I've got a HBB Stainless Steel and a HBB All Black, both of which I've owned for less than a year. Fabulous pieces. But problems started to develop with the 7750 automatic winding mechanism on both... the rotors were not turning freely and so they were stopping on my electric winder, and eventually the SS even stopped on my wrist.
Of course Lucy wanted to see me right and offered to fix them under guarantee. But to be honest, the thought of sending the watches back to China after having stressed so many weeks of processing my orders was not doing my head any good. So my options were: either be happy with manual winding, or find someone who could service them locally in the EU.
So I went on the forums and found Natas78. He's on all the forms, very much present here on RWI and located in the EU, not all that far from me. So although he said I could send him the watches, I'm fairly new to the rep universe and therefore apprehensive enough to prefer to make the journey to his planet and hand my watches over in person.
And so I did. He's not the kind of guy who likes to chat for hours about your issues over the phone... he's extremely busy and he doesn't really do emails either. He does WhatsApp. And as long as you're cool with that, the communication works and we arranged a meeting at his place.
It's not like you're rocking up to a white room watchmaker's service center, we met in the lobby of his workplace and we spent about 10 mins discussing the problem with the watches. But the deal is that I'm a pretty good judge of character, and spending those 10 minutes with him made me feel he was trustworthy and so I left him both watches in good faith. What transpired after that made me SO happy our paths crossed.
He makes it clear at the start it's no use putting pressure on him. He's got his priorities and he'll get to you when he can and if you're willing to trust him on that level, I can guarantee you won't be disappointed. After a couple of days, he got back to me with pictures having dismantled the SS. There was a ring of rust on the rear glass indicating that the rotor bearing was shot. That kinda freaked me out, especially that the watch wasn't even a year old... but in the same breath he told me that he had an identical rotor in his spares and would change it. That made me feel a whole lot better!
The All Black didn't have the rust problem, but the winding mechanism needed cleaning and lubricating. He also put the watches on his test bench and said they both needed timekeeping accuracy adjustment. And as I had a few nicks and scratches on the bezel of the SS, he said he'd refinish that... and at my request he also said he'd mirror polish the side of the bezel to make it look identical to the gen. We didn't discuss prices, but somehow I knew that was not going to be a serious issue.
So I didn't bug him as I knew pressure was the wrong way to go. And I was duly rewarded. He got back to me only a couple of days later and told me that work was done to his satisfaction, with pictures to prove it. And the icing on the cake was that he did it all for 170 Euros. To be honest, I thought it would have cost me a lot more, especially as he replaced the rotor with bearing on the SS. I was starting to feel very lucky I'd found such a skilled... and honest guy who was obviously passionate about servicing rep watches. In the universe of rep watches, I didn't really know what to expect.
I went back to his place to collect the watches. We met at the agreed time, he was even flexible enough to accommodate my getting lost on the way and losing a half hour.
He showed me what he'd done, explaining his intervention and answering my questions... the SS he'd brushed and polished was beautiful. I was really blown away. Natas 78 is an artist who pays great attention to detail and knows his craft to the level of any certified watchmaker I've ever come across. Which I guess is normal cause he is actually an actual certified watch maker. As for the winding issues, both are now keeping perfect time on my electric winder and I'm possibly the happiest guy on the planet at the mo. And to top it all of, he's actually one of the nicest people on this planet you will ever meet.
If any of you have issues with servicing or repairing your reps, I can absolutely recommend this fabulous craftsman. You'll easily find him here. He totally rocks. And he cured my HBB's. Which makes him a saint in my view.
Sorry I made such a novel out of this... but when something impresses me as much as this guy did, I just go a bit nutz.
Long live St. Natas!!
But it's not a given that even after waiting weeks (and even months in my case) for your treasure to arrive, you'll have years of trouble free time keeping. Things can go wrong in spite of the best efforts of the TD's...
I've got a HBB Stainless Steel and a HBB All Black, both of which I've owned for less than a year. Fabulous pieces. But problems started to develop with the 7750 automatic winding mechanism on both... the rotors were not turning freely and so they were stopping on my electric winder, and eventually the SS even stopped on my wrist.
Of course Lucy wanted to see me right and offered to fix them under guarantee. But to be honest, the thought of sending the watches back to China after having stressed so many weeks of processing my orders was not doing my head any good. So my options were: either be happy with manual winding, or find someone who could service them locally in the EU.
So I went on the forums and found Natas78. He's on all the forms, very much present here on RWI and located in the EU, not all that far from me. So although he said I could send him the watches, I'm fairly new to the rep universe and therefore apprehensive enough to prefer to make the journey to his planet and hand my watches over in person.
And so I did. He's not the kind of guy who likes to chat for hours about your issues over the phone... he's extremely busy and he doesn't really do emails either. He does WhatsApp. And as long as you're cool with that, the communication works and we arranged a meeting at his place.
It's not like you're rocking up to a white room watchmaker's service center, we met in the lobby of his workplace and we spent about 10 mins discussing the problem with the watches. But the deal is that I'm a pretty good judge of character, and spending those 10 minutes with him made me feel he was trustworthy and so I left him both watches in good faith. What transpired after that made me SO happy our paths crossed.
He makes it clear at the start it's no use putting pressure on him. He's got his priorities and he'll get to you when he can and if you're willing to trust him on that level, I can guarantee you won't be disappointed. After a couple of days, he got back to me with pictures having dismantled the SS. There was a ring of rust on the rear glass indicating that the rotor bearing was shot. That kinda freaked me out, especially that the watch wasn't even a year old... but in the same breath he told me that he had an identical rotor in his spares and would change it. That made me feel a whole lot better!
The All Black didn't have the rust problem, but the winding mechanism needed cleaning and lubricating. He also put the watches on his test bench and said they both needed timekeeping accuracy adjustment. And as I had a few nicks and scratches on the bezel of the SS, he said he'd refinish that... and at my request he also said he'd mirror polish the side of the bezel to make it look identical to the gen. We didn't discuss prices, but somehow I knew that was not going to be a serious issue.
So I didn't bug him as I knew pressure was the wrong way to go. And I was duly rewarded. He got back to me only a couple of days later and told me that work was done to his satisfaction, with pictures to prove it. And the icing on the cake was that he did it all for 170 Euros. To be honest, I thought it would have cost me a lot more, especially as he replaced the rotor with bearing on the SS. I was starting to feel very lucky I'd found such a skilled... and honest guy who was obviously passionate about servicing rep watches. In the universe of rep watches, I didn't really know what to expect.
I went back to his place to collect the watches. We met at the agreed time, he was even flexible enough to accommodate my getting lost on the way and losing a half hour.
He showed me what he'd done, explaining his intervention and answering my questions... the SS he'd brushed and polished was beautiful. I was really blown away. Natas 78 is an artist who pays great attention to detail and knows his craft to the level of any certified watchmaker I've ever come across. Which I guess is normal cause he is actually an actual certified watch maker. As for the winding issues, both are now keeping perfect time on my electric winder and I'm possibly the happiest guy on the planet at the mo. And to top it all of, he's actually one of the nicest people on this planet you will ever meet.
If any of you have issues with servicing or repairing your reps, I can absolutely recommend this fabulous craftsman. You'll easily find him here. He totally rocks. And he cured my HBB's. Which makes him a saint in my view.
Sorry I made such a novel out of this... but when something impresses me as much as this guy did, I just go a bit nutz.
Long live St. Natas!!
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