Breguet

Hi All,

 

My La Tradition developed a problem where the hour and minute hands would intermittently be out of alignment. This occurred after the two-year warranty period expired, which is the story of my life! I procrastinated before putting it into service because of the time away and the cost involved, but I found I was wearing the watch less and less, so this defect was impacting on my enjoyment of the piece. So I bit the bullet and got a very pleasant surprise:

 

I delivered the watch to the local Swatch Service Centre early in the New Year. Within a week I was informed that it would have to go to Switzerland, which I expected. In another two weeks I received an email and quotation for the work with the following: “during the analysis we noticed that the motion-work pinion was unriveted; this is the reason that the hands were out of alignment. We will proceed with a complete overhaul and correct the defect free of charge.”

 

I separately asked if any replaced parts could be returned to me. After initially responding that this was not their usual practice I received an email message that the crown (routinely replaced to ensure water resistance) would be returned to me with the watch.

 

The entire service took 10 weeks. I was informed by email at each step of the process. The watch came with a 2-year service warranty and a complete written report of what was done.

 

I should mention that at no time did I make mention of my association with PuristS or watch collecting; as far as Breguet were concerned I was just a Breguet owner. My opinion of Breguet as a company (and the local Swatch Group service centre) has risen tremendously. And secondarily, so has my appreciation of the La Tradition; it’s nice to have her back home.

 

Andrew

 

The La Tradition was returned in a Breguet padded travel pouch

Well wrapped up and protected ...

And I now have two Breguet crowns!

Perfect ...

This message has been edited by AndrewD on 2011-04-01 17:07:00

but quite encouraged to hear of the response from Breguet!

It's looking wonderful, as always, Andrew.  Glad you have it back.  One day, we'll take a double wrist shot of La Traditions, I hope, or even a triple with Ed!

 

Best,

 

CaliforniaJed

good to hear Breguet looks after there people maybe the other brands in the swatch group can learn a big lesson on how to treat there customers glad you got your watch back in great health

I had a similar excellent experience with Chopard but unfortunately, my experience with Swatch after sales service was not as pleasant as yours.  Great pics and enjoy your Trad.

thank you for sharing such a wonderful story. It is glad to know how serious Breguet handles its customers with great professionalism.

Things worked out well.  I only heard of bad service stories re: Breguet, so it is nice to hear something nice about them!

Thanks for the note. To be honest, the negative reports we read on the internet were one of the several reasons I delayed getting the repair done. Perhaps Breguet have improved their service, perhaps we get to hear of the problem cases and forget about the many satisfied customers, or perhaps I was just lucky. I will probably never know, but I wanted to add this story to the information out there.

Andrew

Hi Andrew,
Great to hear that you had such a positive experience with Breguet's service center.  Thanks for sharing, I was getting nervous about ever having to send my own La Tradition in after hearing a few bad stories on the net. 

Hi Jed,
Yes, would hope to do a trifecta shot of LaTradition when you get yours




Regards,
ED-209
This message has been edited by ED209 on 2011-04-10 21:04:09

Still as photogenic as ever.

And the La Tradition is keeping excellent time. No appreciable deviation of the minute hand after two weeks of continuous use.

Andrew

With regards to the time frame: Would you be satisfied with 10 weeks of service time for a repair under warranty of a non-watch item? Probably not. For a luxury watch it's better than average of course.

Returning the crown only is interesting. One can imagine returning the crown to someone that paid for service since it is made of a precious metal, but returning it for a warranty repair? Very strange.

The important thing is that they satisfied your expectation and (even more importantly) that you can enjoy the watch again! Congrats!

_john

Hi John,

One day it would be interesting to discuss what the minimum service time required is. It is hard to know if watches sit around from months , are worked on for a few days and then returned to us.

F.P.Journe recently pushed through my RdM so that it would be ready for my next visit to Hong Kong. But they certainly had a minimum time required to go through the cleaning, adjustment, quality control periods.

I probably wasn't explicit on the service costs. Breguet serviced and repaired the movement without charge because of the pre-existing problem (even though the watch was 5 years old and out of warranty). However, I paid for the crown as they indicated that this is always changed at service to ensure water resistance. Normally they do not return the crown, but on this occasion did so at my request. At least that's the story I was given.

Andrew

I just checked back through documentation, and here are the time intervals:

 

Day 0: Watch dropped off at local Melbourne Swatch Service Centre

Day 9: Notified by local service centre of need for watch to go to Breguet, Switzerland

Day 43 (6 weeks): Quote received from Breguet for work required

Day 78 (11 weeks): Notified of watch arriving back at Melbourne Swatch Service Centre and awaiting final Quality Control check.

Day 83 (12 weeks): Watch picked up from Melbourne Swatch Service Centre.

 

So really, the key period of service (Days 43 to 78), including transit from Switzerland to Australia, took only 5 weeks.

 

Just one persons experience, but it seemed pretty good to me.

 

Andrew

... I really am very pleased to see that there is a strong difference from then to now!!!! Congrats!!!
Tassos

I believe Jack had a couple of issues. One was with a sticking rotor on a 5817 Marine that required two visits to Breguet to rectify, and the other was with a 5707 Reveil du Tsar that got lost in the system but was found. Some was related to issues at the local Australian service centre. The repairs also took several months.

The difficulty is that one never knows how many dissatisfied customers there are. For every 100 watches serviced there may be one, or 50. Breguet, or any other company, are not going to tell us that! In my limited personal experience I don't expect to see a watch in anything under 3 months if it has to go back to the 'motherland'. If I do, it's a bonus. And I have had a JLC and Zenith that had to go back a second time to rectify problems caused by the first service. Breguet came through on this occasion, both at the local end and in Switzerland. Just another individuals experience.

Andrew

 

Time and time again, we seem to hear more bad stories than pleasant ones, it's great that you don't take the pleasant experiences for granted. 

Thank you for offering this objective viewpoint Andrew!  Much appreciated! 

 

 

Knowing how much you love your La Tradition, it is great to learn that Breguet is making a comeback in their after sales service, which will definitely give you more confidence to wear and enjoy your watch knowing that in case of any mishap, they will be there to back you up.

Kudos to Breguet and keep up the good work!

Cheers,

Alex