Revisiting long service times.
We all had an experience with ridiculously long service times, especially with our beloved brand PP. After having to wait 9 months for the service of my 5140, I was happy to get a turnaround time of only 4.5 months for my 5550. Then I thought, wait a minute, 4.5 months is still a lot. So I decided to start this thread to re-discuss the topic which has been discussed several times before. Perhaps with new forum members fresh new ideas can emerge.
Long service times may be the way things are in the mechanical watch industry today, but it is frustrating for sure.
First, we all know the general sequence of events in service.
1. 1. Watch is received for service, its movement is recorded and a service technician examines the watch. This sometimes can take 1-2 weeks unfortunately.
2. 2. The watch is generally disassembled with each part carefully examined and placed in a separate bin and a list of problems are identified. The owner informed of costs, again takes 1-2 weeks.
3. 3. Service is then performed by replacing parts, lubrication and calibration. This takes anywhere from 2-10 months unfortunately.
This service model, especially steps 2 and 3, was necessary in the early days of mechanical watches as each piece was individually made and fitted by individually made parts. However, this model is obsolete now. Through improved production processes each part of a watch is now made with greater precision and reproducibility thus they are completely interchangeable between the same calibers. The parts may still be individually hand finished, nevertheless all parts at the end are interchangeable. That is, there is really no need to give to the customer the ownership of every gear, spring etc. Just like replacing all the screws, the crown, the stem and hands during service why not replace everything else as well. Except of course the piece with the serial number on it. Frankly, I don’t feel an emotional attachment to a specific gear or a spring in my watch. The watch as a whole is what I care about.
So my humble suggestion to PP is to stock a sufficient number of mechanisms, e.g. 240 and 324, that are already calibrated and ready for use by the service department. When a watch is received for service, especially under warranty, they can just swap the mechanism except the piece with the serial number on it and send it to the user in a matter of few weeks -instead of 2-10 months. The mechanism that need the service will be then send out for repair and calibration and back into the pool of stock mechanisms ready for the next service job. This method of service undoubtedly will decrease service time.
Of course there will always be exceptional cases. Thus my comments are meant for watches in regular production or were in regular production.
Yes, this is an industry wide problem which is also related to the unavailability of quality technicians. That is why I made the above suggestions to partly remedy the problem.
Hope we will have a productive discussion.
Cheers.
Jim
Well, this is an issue today in watchmaking but I wouldn't see it as you do
- pick-up by the shipping company (1 or twice a week)
- customs controls exit of the country and also before entering Geneva (can take a long while there)
- technical checking at the manufacture as you mentionned
- cost estimate sent to AD, which then sends it to the client who sends it back to the AD who sends it to Geneva
- overhaul work performed (considering the type of complications which can be handled only by very trained watchmakers, especially regarding complicated pieces)
- period of testing (at least 2 weeks)
- back to customs again (1 to 2 weeks, with leather issues if with strap etc...)
- arriving after a few days/weeks at the final destination's customs with their own regulations and checking (US with leather, taxes etc... for instance)
- shipped to AD.
This can take a long while added to the servicing time and the watches they already have to service.
If you also have a specific technical issue they have to solve it and thus can be much longer.
It is a bit unrealistic
Mark, I have sent several watches to Geneva for service. The wait times for customs inspection is no where near 1-2 weeks. Patek uses a Customs agent and due to the VERY high volume of endangered species straps, (which they have CITES paperwork for) the time a watch spends in Customs is very little. I spoke with HSWA about this when I sent my last watch into Geneva for service. They explained to me that if I send it in, it WILL spend significantly more time in customs.
Thanks for the info :)
Relevant Anecdote
Your suggestion to drop in a functional, tested, calibrated movement rather that servicing and returning the original movement would certainly shorten wait times for those calibers available, but I foresee some issues.
(A) Inspection. Some inspection would still be necessary to ensure that the movement sent in had not been altered or damaged, but this would take no longer than current inspection time.
(B) Warranty. Implementing this idea would impact warranties. Would all but the movement carry the date of sale warranty, while a replacement movement would carry a warranty from time of replacement? That's not too dissimilar from a service warranty and might work out.
(C) Concern for originality. For a brand for which originality, tradition, history, and completeness are important to many owners, this seems to me to pose the greatest barrier to implementing your idea, as illustrated in the anecdote below.
In the early years of Richard Mille production, I accompanied a friend whose RM005 FM stopped working to Beverly Hills, where service was said to be available. The watch was gone for less than 8 hours while we shopped and had lunch. When a fully functioning watch was returned to him the same day, we asked how this was possible and were told, "Simple. We keep a supply of Voucher movements on hand and just dropped in a different movement."
This was the most convenient service experience imaginable and the quickest turnaround I've ever encountered, but it left me thinking that the watch was a soulless piece of junk, and I lost all interest in the brand. It had the same effect on my friend, who traded the watch away at the next opportunity.
Efficiency is not the only value at play in servicing watches, and for Patek Philippe buyers, particularly those who bond with individual watches and their history, there is an emotional attachment that could be destroyed by a change to the proposed service model, to the detriment of the brand. I'd rather wait until they serviced my watch the way they've always done it.
Park