Hi guys,
Firstly, thanks again for the kind comments and good to see Tongsui here also helping provide some work for the members here.
I really should have started with this a long time ago but better late than never. So just on me, watchmaking is a pure hobby and not my main job. Doing it as a hobby has its positives.
1) I get joy helping and getting the right result for you guys as its not laborous for me (well not yet anyway though its been a decade!).
2) I also tend to think about other solutions outside of usual path to solve for a problem. As you can imagine, world of reps is far from perfect and different factories make things ever so slightly different. Sometimes it requires slight shaving of parts to make them fit well. Sometimes it requires hands broached open or tighten to make existing hands fit the movement. Sometimes, I need to remove or add printing to the dials. The list goes on. What i'm saying is, we can get more creative vs. your brick & mortar watchmaker who doesn't handle reps.
Long way of me saying, I enjoy doing what I do here and you guys working with me have contributed to making it enjoyable.
Now my 2c on the debate of shipping vs. local.
More than ever, shipping is becoming the preferred option as its easier for me to balance my weekly schedule (work, life, hobbies, watches). Imagine having to schedule pick up and drop offs on the fly and trying to fit in work meetings. Its just becoming hard. Now I totally get the extra costs associated with shipping but I want to make it clear that I:
1) don't make money on shipping - I charge $15 for express shipping (with signature if you are in an apartment) with often my own bubble wrap, time and effort to get to post office, etc to make sure it gets to your door safely.
2) In more recent times, I have also tried to price in shipping to my overall quotes as well so we "share" the costs.
Another way to think about it is, considering we often have to wait for a package from China, the domestic shipping here shouldn't be too hard to get our heads around. It should also be easier for you to just get a package delivered to your door rather than having to drop off / pick up.
While i'm here, a few housekeeping reminders if I may, respectfully.
1) my prices are generally very competitive. I sometimes do discount if there are bulk work but as you can imagine, there isn't really any synergies doing 1 watch vs. 5 watches. I have to dissemble each and every one of them so there is no real scale benefit. I do try where I can and if you are a repeating customer I do take that into account. But please, no haggling. Its hard work and sometimes the work is very precision based, I'm at risk if an error occurs so I have to account for all of this.
2) I rarely touch A7750 chronographs given the existing issues with it so apologies in advance if I can't help you here (I acknowledge a number of you guys have asked). Saying that, I do sometimes do DW swaps, reset, etc but its really case by case - worth running it by me first in any case but I don't do servicing for A7750.
thanks for reading this and hope it helps!
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