You want HOW MUCH to service my watch???
 

Several years ago, I took a cruise to the Bahamas for XMAS with my kids. When we stopped in Nassau, I bought a Movado eco-drive watch. As I remember, I spent almost $2500 on it. For a long time I thought I had a fake but as it turns out, it's legit. I've never had it serviced and it now needs it as a feature or two isn't working properly. I took it to my local jeweler that I've dealt with for over 20 years and they said they can't work on it...they sent it to the Movado factory service center in Houston...

They come back with a bill for $1100 to service the watch! :eek: :eek: :eek:

Now, I know that Rolexs, Breitlings and other watches cost a lot of money to service. And while not at that level, Movado is a higher end watch. Does this sound right to all you watch afcionados? If this is in line with what I should be paying, fine. But it just seems a bit steep.

I know, I know...first world problems... :leaving:

No idea what “features” you’re referring to. My Movado was just over a grand and it only tells the time.

Had it in for a battery replacement, I was warned by my wife that they’d had to send it away. No issues and I was out of there 15 minutes later.

I’d look around and see if a high end jeweler could fix it in-house before I’d okay an $1100 bill

Good luck either way :cheers:

Toss it in the trash and buy two more that way you will have a back up. :seasix:

Was $400. per to service the Rolies in Dallas. :island14:
Crystal was $140. for one of them.

When my Seiko gets dirty, I run some water in the sink and clean it up.

New battery is about $6. :DAB:

My price range. :seasix:

I had the crystal replaced on my Rolex in 2002. I also had it polished. It cost me $150. It looked liked a brand new watch afterwards.

Around 2015, I accidentally broke the stem on my Breitling Colt Chronograph. The jeweler ship it to Breitling for the repairs. They replaced the stem, did maintenance on the watch and replace the strontium aluminate (make the certain pieces glow in the dark), and polished the watch. It cost $660.

$1,100 seems high to me based on my experience with my Breitling.

Service guy cried when I wanted my old crystal back.
I suspect they were gonna polish it and resell. :yesnod:

It depends what needs to be done. I have taken a course in watchmaking, and disassembled and reassembled a really simple movement. Didn’t clean or lubricate it or anything. Believe me, servicing a quality mechanical watch is lots of work, and takes a lot of time and expertise. That said, a Movado is not a top tier watch. It’s more a fashion watch. And a grand is way too much. When Rolex, Omega and others are less money to service. A really good private watchmaker should be able to do the job for $300 or less.

Paging @Nox to the white courtesy fone.

I never understood what the big deal was with Movado battery replacements. My wife & have a couple of 30+ year old Movados, & when the first one needed a battery replacement, I tried a few watch places & they all said they'd have to send it out. I opened it with a case knife, found the right battery, & I was done. :island14:

On another note, my Movado is what they called their "Museum Sports Edition", & had small gold dots in the band links. One of the dots disappeared, & it was like pulling teeth to get them to send me a replacement dot. Cost about $20 plus shipping, IIRC, 20 years ago. They REALLY wanted me to send it in to them.

$1100 is very expensive. My Breitlings only cost $450 for servicing every 4-5 years. That being said, what exactly are they doing for the $1100? If the entire movement has to be replaced as it's not repairable, that could be the reason.

Mike, just get the usual. That's one that tells time, surfs the intarweb, has a calendar, can check email, and plenty of other things that a cell phone does.

I had my Omega serviced by a local factory authorized guy. I think it was between $500-$600. Pretty sure it would have been more had I sent it to Omega. When I got the watch back it looked brand new. All the small scratches on the band were gone. Made me feel a little better about the cost.

$1100 sounds awfully high but I don't know much about eco-drive... maybe a required the guts to be replaced?

Sell it for what you can get, and buy a Casio dig-it-all for 20 bux at Walmart....

Movado doesn’t make Eco-Drive watches, Citizen does. Is your watch battery powered or mechanical? No reason a battery change should cost that much. If it is some hybrid technology, it might need a new storage capacitor which is similar to a battery. That being said, taking a watch to a jeweler is like taking your car to a bicycle shop. Jewelers work on jewels. Watchmakers work on watches. Watchmakers on staff at jewelry stores are not always the best watchmakers.

Just buy a new Movado off their site for half of what they are asking to service it. That’s probably your best bet.

Ultimate Boomer thread.

It's the 21st century. We can carry around a light-weight device that fits in any standard sized pocket and serves as a phone, computer, music player, web browser, camera, and CLOCK.

Maybe your neighbors at the old folk's home can chip in.

Yeah, us ultimate boomers still enjoy a nice steak and good wine. We like driving nice cars and maybe even enjoy a nice cigar after dinner.

All of it’s unnecessary I tell you.

one day when the snowflake generation grows up, or maybe if they do, they'll stop worrying about what others do or like or wear or use.... and just live life and be happy with what they like or wear or use.

I stopped caring about other's unwanted opinions in high school...

exactly, movado does't make eco drive, it's citizen, i have a feeling the OP mght have meant Movado Connect which needs to be charged every 2 days or so, but even those aren't $2500, so maybe he meant Chronograph, which is the only Movado in that price range.