Natas78 repaired, serviced, waterproofed and frankened my Noob v3 Daytona

[mytux]

Hello,

I'm quite new to the rep world, and I only bought 2 reps for the moment.
1st rep was for my wife, everything went fine and she's pleased with it.
Few weeks after I decided to order a Noob v3 Daytona for me.
I wanted to have it serviced upon arrival, so I started to search for somebody not too far away.
I had discussions with a few watchsmiths and found Natas which lives in Belgium like me.
He's specialized in Panerai but I saw he was doing some Rolex as well, so I decided to give it a shot and start a conversation with him.
He seemed friendly and was willing to help me. He was always replying to my messages fast, even tho his messages were not containing many words

 

[mytux]

Whilst waiting for the Daytona to arrive from China, I saw a gen crystal and a gen crown on the M2M section, and decided to buy them.
When I received my Daytona (22nd of June), I was disappointed because it didn't work at all.
I told about it to Natas and he told me he would get it working. He asked me to place a paper with my name, RWI username, postal address, etc
I guess he has many watches to repair/service, and he is then sure to who it belongs.
He told me it's his full time job, so another reason to trust him with my watch

 

[mytux]

I shipped it to him the same day, and he received it the next day (that's a big plus to have a watch smith living in the same country)

1 week after (30th of June) he told me by message he started working on my watch, he double checked with me what needed to be done.
I also added few things to the list I previously made : he could also do a water proofing, and check a strange behavior my watch had upon arrival.

The same day he told me the watch was working, the chrono works was not set correctly and this caused the watch to stop working
The next day (1st of July) he told me it was advisable to not use the GEN crown, because it was sitting too close to movement, and he was not sure it would work. He would also have to cut the stem and thus after that the rep crown couldn't be placed anymore. I told him to not place the crown and go on the safe side

 

[mytux]

He sent me a pic of the timegrapher

and also a pic of the watch submerged.

Today I was surprised to receive my watch already (he didn't tell me the watch was shipped yesterday, which was a nice surprise).

I really recommend his work, because he is meticulous and he knows what he's doing. He will also always ask what you want before doing something, and he will also give his opinion or propose solutions but you have the last word.

I recently bought lots of equipment to try service watches myself (didn't receive everything yet), but I didn't want to start on a chronograph...
If I see servicing is too complex for me, I know to who I will send my other watches or the one from my wife

 

[mytux]

sorry for posting on mutiple posts... but I had the JSON error I couldn't post everything in 1...
Here is a wristie shot :

 

[QuirkyOrc]

Really pleased you had a good experience with Natas78. I have bought a couple of watches from him and saving up for another. His service is top. Interesting reading the advice he gives, gives me confidence to use him again. Thanks for posting.


Sent from my iPad using RWI

 

[mytux]

small update more than 2 years after : the watch still runs perfectly and I wear it almost daily.
I'm really happy with the work Natas did !