Patek Philippe

of real gentleman (or woman) here at PuristSPro. There is a reason why I have chosen to stay here at PPro, after attending other forums as well.

It is all about sharing (good or bad), but also about gentle behaviour and realistic expectations. None of us here are working for the watch industry, but all of us spent "free time" here and we should enjoy it.

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Oliver,

Oliver, with all due respect; your comments are out of line! People sometimes vent, and are not necessarily looking for help. It helps to listen only, at times.

welcome at PuristSPro.

Oliver

Thank you, Oliver. But I have been a member here for many many years. Now  I noticed my older posts are not there. I had been away from the hobby for a few years too.

I don't really see a point to discuss servicing time and pricing. "I will not wait X months" well I think the OP will have to wait whatever Patek is willing to offer.  Patek and other luxury brands will take more time as they want to do the best job and not necessarily the fastest. 

Maybe discussing it here is a bit pointless, guess it's just to vent, but OP should complain to AD and Patek, otherwise what motives do Patek have to improve?

This would be useful and "good to know" for prospective buyers. The inevitable true is that all luxury watch makers have more resources dedicated to production of new watches and maintenance or repairs can be a lengthily (and expensive) affair.  This said I think that Patek (even more than other brands) has a lot to do and they want to do it right - not in record time. 

For sure everyone put more resources on making new watches instead of repairing them, hopefully Patek will hire more resources to strengthen the repair department. 

Thank you Sir. You've just highlighted the point I made before - namely "I will have to wait". 

I am sorry that my comprehensive reply via PM didn´t reach you, but it seems it got lost in the system. Unfortunately it happens from time to time. Our IT team is aware of it and tries to fix it.

To write it again is impossible now and doesn´t make sense to me. Your form of expression changed and I would like to say Thanks! because of this. I am not in the position to help you with your case, as I am customer like you - nothing more, nothing less. But I know that some people at PP (headquarter and at least one market) think about the Service processes, including timing and communication.

Is it perfect like it is? No. Will there be improvements in the future, as serious changes need time and funds? I believe in it. Will it happen tomorrow? No.

All the best!

Oliver

I wonder if the AD added his cost to the price of the service? Would it be cheaper if you sent/dropped it off directly with PP?

You can do everything you can yourself, but at least you will have transaction costs. The latter can be quite high, depending on your market. ADs need to be paid for what they do. I don´t know your business, but it should be the same if you have to deal with processes like this.

Best,
Oliver

Well written post murcielagoboy, although some pictures would have been nice.

Service times really are a problem.  I waited ten months (!) to get my 5056P back from a routine service.  Originally was quoted 6 months, which I made me gulp, but what choice is there?  I called at about 6 months to find out when they would be shipping and was told another month - it appeared that the watch had just entered the actual service queue.  I called in a month later, and was told the watch needed some case work and would have to go back to Switzerland for that.  About 3 months after that, the watch was sitting on my wrist.  When the watch comes back, you almost forget how long it took.  During that time, a friend also sent an annual calendar in and was told 6 months, so this doesn't seem to be a temporary condition.

Interestingly, the service receipt did not detail anything that was not on the original service estimate.

People often say, well, it takes time to do the work properly.  True... once the case is opened and the work actually begins. The fact that it takes so long to get the work started means that there are not sufficient resources available to handle the work load.  True, you can't just open up a new box of master watchmakers but this is a "quality of ownership" issue that Patek (as well as many other brands) needs to pay better attention to.

Like you, I love their watches and have 3 (although no chronograph, unfortunately).  And I also support your decision to get the case polished - it's your watch and should look the way you want it to.  I also had the case polished on mine polished because there was some uneven scuffing that just annoyed me.  It came back bright and shiny and delightful.

Here's a picture of the watch.  This reminds me - time to wind and reset it and get it on my wrist today!

about the processes needed. What goes wrong? What is missing? What is not efficient or effective? Is it silly in all cases? Is there a difference depending on the market you are based in? ... "Silly" is the last word that would come to my mind.

Let me give you just one example:

China needs service for PPs, it has to be top notch, quick and low-cost. Shipping of each piece to Switzerland is not easy (to say the least), time consuming, risky and so on. OK, let´s do a local service center. Unfortunately experienced service people are not available in the market. You can hire some people and you can send them to "school" in Switzerland, but only if they can speak French or English. Most of the time this is not the case and therefore you have find another solution. You found your own training center in China, which means you need all the resources you need for teaching once more in China. I have lots of respect for the people in charge of such a challenging project.

There are much more examples and or challenges, but most of us don´t think about because it is not our daily business.

Waiting for something you love is pain, I know it very well. Still I think we have to look closer, before judging too easy.

Best,
Oliver

and certainly Patek takes testes for each incoming watch even if the case appears crystal-clear. But often it is not... This takes a turn-around toll on every watch sent in even if your specific watch just needs a polishing.

The service time is ridiculous. Your luxury car (which I may add has an incredible amount of parts, electronics, etc.) gets serviced within days. Let's not excuse luxury brands - we all know the reason for 6-9-12 months wait is not enough people assigned to repair the watches. The problem is capacity, not ability. Well, as a brand that makes over 700mln EUR net profit per year, I would think Patek can afford to have a few more watchmakers on the task.

For buyers of Pateks, it's about supply and demand. We will pay more for a watch in short supply. I wish Patek did the same. Instead of complaining there are not enough people who want to enter the watch repair/service business, pay up. We do it.

Naturally I am not privy to the internal workings of Patek service.  Nor should there be any need to be.

As a client / customer / proud Patek owner, the original 6 month turn around time did seem excessive. A lack of communication from the service center (note in my post that I initiated all contact at approximately the time they indicated) is disconcerting.  Lack of details about what the problem was / what was done to solve it / etc was surprising (and yes, I asked the pleasant and polite person on the phone).  Is it not my business to have a good idea about what was done to my watch? 

Providing PP service for the China market is indeed a tremendous challenge for the reasons you describe.  Despite my screen name, I am not in China; my manufacturing business does a lot of projects in China and I travel there frequently. However, the service was in North America. 

The word "silly" was used to mirror the OP's language.  Perhaps "annoying", or "frustrating" would have been better.  But having a watch sit in a box at the service center for 4 months (after 1 month for the initial cracking of the case and preparation of service proposal / approval, which was done in the time frame promised)...  well, as a manufacturing guy I will maintain that that is a resourcing issue.  Was that a temporary issue or a long term thing?  Have no way of knowing.  But I do know that there are ways of doing excellent work and managing customer expectations (extremely positive experience with H. Moser & Cie and one end, and Ball Watch at the other) under a variety of circumstances.

Cheers, Z

It's a good thing, Patek shouldn't expect us to just "take" it because they are Patek, they really need to work on their after service. With that said, it's not just a Patek problem, plenty of other brands are so slow in service. It's almost like, "not only are we going to charge you an insane amount of money, we will also make you wait".

I can understand your feelings and frustration, but, do you think that your expressive post will help you to get your watch earlier?