watchsmithin uk . might have found one..

[livil]

i have been looking as many other i guess to find a watchsmith in uk willing to service , fix my rep . as far as i gathered on this forum no uk based rep friendly watchsmith had been found .

imagine my surprise today when stolling down my local mall to see in the "cheap crappy quartz watch and plastic telephone cover, i unlock your phone while you wait " shop a elderly indian guy on a work bench with his magnifier glass taking of wheels with a tweezer of a automatic movement .
i obviously stopped to have a look at him and he was too focused to see me standing over him until one of the young lads behind the counter asked me if i needed help
i just said i needed the old man .


i had my pam 111n on my wrist so just asked him bluntly if he was willing to service a replica manual watch .
he just said no problem , let me have a look .
fiddled a bit with the crown and just told me that it was a very nice quality rep and that nothing was wrong with it .

i just told him i wanted the movement dismantled , cleaned and oiled ,
started to talk about movement with me and i asked him if he could fix a broken 7750 movement to which he replied he could have a look at it but would depends where the problem was ....

i decied to take the plunge and leave my beloved pam with him for a full service which would set me back 35£ , should be ready by saturday according to him ,.

old fashionned guy who said he was always far more interested into the mechanism side of things than changing batteries

so before i start passing his details around i would need from you guys a few pointers as to what to look for when i get the pam back to make sure he actually did a good job on it , a 6497 is probably a quiet easy movement to service , i ll have to decide if i go ahead and give him a bit more tricky 7750 chronograph .

i ll post pic of the movement when i get it back

will keep you posted , hoping i found someone who can be usefull to us uk based rep lover
finger crossed

EDIT: to avoid you reading all posts.
1/ my experience with this guy was inconclusive
2/ several new possibilities emerged in this thread .
a. fizzle has got a watchsmith in uk who will take care of your rep , contact fizzle
b. member allexwaller is a full time watchsmith in uk and is in talk with admins to have a spot on this forum ( see last trailboss post in this thread )

things are looking good for uk based guys .
cheers
oli

 

[Rubberj00]

To be honest i'm not sure i'd leave one of my watches with someone who offered to do it for 35£ - not sure what you should expect back but fingers crossed he does a good job (no idea how you'd tell though)

 

[smudgerooo]

Was this in London?

 

[Danny007]

Was this in Birmingham ladypool rd

 

[rooster133]

Cool. Keep us posted.

Last time I left a watch with one of those battery-changing heel-fixing key-cutting guys, hey screwed it up and couldn't put it back together properly (it was a fairly particular movement, granted). So I dropped off another watch exactly like the first one, so they could take a look and get the first one right. They managed to screw up the second one too. In the end they sent them both to a "specialist", and after a month they were returned to me seemingly fixed. One of them was broken again within a week...

Really hope your experience is better than mine!

 

[Bonesey]

£35 is a tad cheap...

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

 

[Fez]

Thanks for the watch!

I shall wear it well..SUCKAAAAA!




.
I joke, hope this turns out well for you!

 

[livil]

Was this in London?

yes north london

Cool. Keep us posted.

Last time I left a watch with one of those battery-changing heel-fixing key-cutting guys, hey screwed it up and couldn't put it back together properly (it was a fairly particular movement, granted). So I dropped off another watch exactly like the first one, so they could take a look and get the first one right. They managed to screw up the second one too. In the end they sent them both to a "specialist", and after a month they were returned to me seemingly fixed. One of them was broken again within a week...

Really hope your experience is better than mine!

which is why i only left him a 6497 movement , not too difficult for a watchsmith , definitely wouldnot have trusted him with my daylight 7753 the first time

Thanks for the watch!

I shall wear it well..SUCKAAAAA!




.
I joke, hope this turns out well for you!

obviously crossed my mind , got a receipt , phone number( he asked me to call him to save my number ) ... obviously no garanty there but i made him understand that if it turns out well he could get a lot more works if he dont mind working on replicas ,

exactly i do hope it turns out well and that might be usefull for uk based forum members.

lets wait and see , it obviously would have been a bit more clever to leave him a cheap 21j mineral glass rep ....

 

[livil]

£35 is a tad cheap...

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

indeed . which is why i would like to know what to look for in the movement to see how far he has gone exactly . i would have guess that a proper service where all gears are disassembled would take at least 5 hours work and that a watchsmith would go for 20£ an hour minimum ,,, so 100£ would have been a minimum .
the guy is the owner of the shop and has got a few of them apparently , probably just doing this more for the fun of it than for a load of £££ .

 

[kash3838]

Where in north London ?


Kind regards
Kash

 

[Ceramica]

This is a real long shot but maybe ask him if he has done or can do tourbillion watches as it seems nobody wants to service a REP tourby.

 

[livil]

well .picking it up tomorrow morning before being off to work , i will keep you updated about the results .
i ll ask him he he knows what a tourbillon is long shot indeed .

i got a cheap 21j based watch to which i wouldnot mind induce a fault voluntarily just to see if he can fix it . might sound stupid but it might be a good way to see if the guy can do more than servicing .
any one got an idea as to what can be done in the movement .
please refrain from posting something along the line of " drop it on the floor and jump on it " or "shake it like an idiot until it stops " i am pretty sure someone will comes up with something along those line anyway . fire away

 

[ShiroTenshi]

maybe screwing up the keyless?

 

[richardzx9]

My watch-smith is based in Durham and works on all reps. Post/Paypal.
PM me if you want his details

 

[SmqSub]

Interested in this, keep us posted.

 

[livil]

My watch-smith is based in Durham and works on all reps. Post/Paypal.
PM me if you want his details

interesting ! which movement has he successfully fixed/ serviced for you ?

 

[livil]

maybe screwing up the keyless?

so basically pulling the crown to set hours position before releasing the stem ,
pushing the release button to the max .

and apparently screwing up the keyless is reversible so he should be able to fix it if he is a proper watchsmith .

 

[smudgerooo]

Any more news on this? My noob Pam 029 just stopped after less than a month of ownership

 

[mikeyp]

we badly need a decent rep service in the uk

 

[livil]

hi
sorry havnot posted in a while as i was in france for a few days

got the pam back , all in good working order , i havnot had time to take the mvt out to inspect it properly , a it inconclusive test of the watchsmith i got to say unfortunately .
his name is raj and he has his little watchsmith counter set up in the watch shop in wood green shopping center the mall on the first floor a couple of shop after the entrance of the cineplex .
still tinkering with the idea of messing up a 21j rep to see what he can do . unless someone has got a cheap faulty mvt to send over so i can give him to fix to see if the guy can pull it of .
as i said before i saw him working on a automatic mvt before ,removing wheels from it so i assume he knows his stuff
you can pm me for his mobile number if you want
cheers
oli