HOW MUCH?! HOW LONG?! Seiko Service Shock!

hello and welcome to just one more watch if this is your first time here wait have you been you're a bit late my name is Jody and I'll forgive your tardiness if you hit the subscribe button slightly different format to today's video it's not the usual watch review instead it's the review of a service literally the service that was conducted on this Seco sod or 33 by the Secret Service Centre in Sydney so different format there's gonna be a bit more of me talking I will go back and forth to some top-down shots of the watch before and after the service we've got an accuracy report time graphic various photos and bits and pieces today and this one has been a long time coming five months in fact perhaps you guessed from the thumbnail on the title of the video this one didn't exactly go as planned so let's start at the beginning now the beginning is December last year I got an email from a subscriber called Tyler from California he said hey Jodi love your channel I've got a great idea for a video I've got to see Co sarbs I bought one used it and it started to run slowly so I put it in a drawer and bought a second one this was before the witness continued they were still only about 300 US dollars at that point why don't I send you my old Saab and you can get it serviced great idea for a video I said Tyler thank you very much you're a generous man that does indeed it sound like a great idea for a video I think YouTube watch guys myself included we're guilty of not talking about servicing enough we encourage you to buy all these watches but we don't exactly talk about how much it's gonna cost when it comes time to service them or how much it costs if something goes wrong occasionally if it is mentioned your hero or well you should buy a sequel because they're much cheaper to service than their Swiss movement counterparts but is this necessarily the case that's what we're here to find out today sooo let's flip to the first of the top-down footage today get a look at the sod the way it arrived to me in Sydney in January this year the way it was before I took it in for service with the Sidney Segal service center so before I take this bad boy into the sequel boutique for our service let's have a look at our starting point then let's see what Tyler very generously sent me from California you've all seen this are both III before so I'm not gonna spend too long with it full box tag I already added one extra link into this from where he had it that one spare for me if I ever get really fat and there is one sob or three three the legend itself and I must admit I have really been enjoying wearing this one over the last week or two I think the fact that it has been seriously pre loved by Tyler I mean check that bracelet that thing is moolaade look at the link that I added in already got a couple of scuffs there but yeah it looks like a litter it's at a proper screep at some point but no problem there I'm not sure that secret are actually gonna do anything about that I wouldn't necessarily expect them to if it's just in for a general service let's see though I did wanted to get it on camera just in case they were extra generous and did decide to give this one a bit of a refinish but let's pop up the timing chart let's see how sick this six arm movement really is so this is the chart over the course of a week or so in the Boxee winders and yeah it is one sick puppy this six r15 movement from - 66 seconds per D can take up a little bit better than two - 33 seconds a day and then blue back out again so I found these six hour movements to be a little bit inconsistent obviously there's an argument that I could have taken the case back off and attempted to adjust the time of myself but that wouldn't really have made for a good video with it so let's take it into Seco let's see what they do with it let's see how much they charge me for it and let's see what I get in a couple of weeks time it's the 10th of January at 10:00 to 10:00 I'll see you shortly so that's what the watch looked like in January then pretty rough around the edges clearly had been well-worn 10th of January I jumped on a train headed into the seagull boutique in Sydney's air Queen Victoria building just near town hall station and I dropped in to watch now it turned out that I was missing one of the haulers for the pin and collar system in the bracelet and I asked for them to pop in a new one fix up the bracelet at the same time now they quoted B 228 Australian dollars that's at least 150 US dollars given the current exchange rate for the service they also wanted $20 more for the collar which I thought was a bit rough so I can have haggled a little bit with them I got there the grumpy old Chinese watchmaker with the loop glared at me through the window but he eventually agreed to do that one for free so three to four weeks they said you'll have your sequence are back 228 Aussie dollars was the price on the 20th of February I got a phone call from the Seiko boutique in Sydney saying very sorry Jody your watch isn't gonna be ready until the 26th of March so it had blown out from the 10th of January when I put it in now I was expecting it back on the 26th of March apparently they had to get some parts in in order to conduct the service I was like it's a 6 on 15 you sell thousands of watches I'm sure were six ar-15s what parts could you possibly require that will take 8 to 10 weeks to get to Sydney they even sold the Saab or 33 at that psycho boutique before it was discontinued anyway what can I do so I said ok that's fine I look forward to seeing the watch on the 21st of March 5 days before my watch was due to be returned I missed a call and then got a text from the CEO Sydney boutique saying good afternoon Jordi we regret to inform you that your repair has been delayed due to awaiting parts the estimated completion will be the 7th of May 2019 so we've blown out from the 10th of January to the 7th of May four parts to service a standard C core movement I wasn't asking for anything outrageous here just a basic service sorry for the inconvenience best regards Sydney seagull boutique now at this point I phoned up the secret boutique and spoke to the guy who sent me the text I asked for an explanation they told me that they were waiting for parts and for the first time ever I pulled that don't you know who I am card but they didn't know was what I said was that I was making a video around the service it was a video about the service and the scope and tone of the video was now changing somewhat as the deep-blue out further and further is there anything they could do about the time or the price that they were gonna charge me for I don't think that's unreasonable if something's gonna take twice or three times as long as it should have getting a bit of a discount back unfortunately the guy said there was nothing he could do but by the way what was the name of my YouTube channel I then sent him a text message follow-up a couple of days later hello did you have any luck speeding up the service on my Saab Jodie uh just one more watch and he said he tried his best but unfortunately couldn't do anything that password needed for the service I was still awaiting a row arrival very sorry for the inconvenience anyway not much I can do I just had to wait and I got the phone call yesterday so a little earlier than scheduled not the seventh of me but the 30th of April the watch was ready to collect from the seeker boutique I got on the train again to pick the watch up it's on my wrist and they charged me two hundred and twenty eight dollars for the privilege no discount for the fact that they took nearly four months to service the watch so let's flip the camera again have a look at how the watch returned to me did they do anything about the bracelet and the scratches here and there and crucially is the watch now running within tolerances so better late than never and two hundred and twenty eight dollars later its back and they did precisely nothing to the case the bezel the bracelet the clasp eccentric cetera all exactly as scruffy as they were when it went in I should give them some credit I suppose they did put a collar in there and didn't charge me $20 like they wanted to but the watch is an identical physical condition to the way it went and really then it all becomes about the time Grapher I took it in there because it was running you know minus 30 to minus 60 let's see how it's running now so then the moment of truth I paid enough and waited long enough is the watch now fixed saw beer a automatic lift angle of 53 which is what it should be for the six arm movement let's see what happens plus nine seconds plus 11 seconds per day B era is zero which is great amplitude seems reasonable plus 11 it's okay well it's certainly within tolerances or for the six ar-15 movement in general they even state on the docket the automatic watches run plus 25 to minus 25 on the service docket you know it certainly is better than the - 60 to minus 40 that it was running before it went in plus 10 seconds am i satisfying with that I suppose I'm reasonably satisfied with that so they did what they said they would do they service the watch is running within the stated tolerances plus or minus 10 seconds you've got to be reasonably pleased with that from still not particularly expensive movement even though the six ar-15s are supposed to be great if you get a good one I actually bought a Saab or three three perhaps you saw this video inspired by my time with this one in early January this year and my Saab the one that I bought from Japan is running perfectly better than the one that I just got serviced from this eco boutique now when I was in there I got a little bit cheeky and I peered over the counter and I looked at the service price and I said oh I've got some more seekers that need serviced one with a 7 s 26 and one with a four-hour movement can you give me a look at the service costs please and the even allowed me to take a photo this isn't a secret document it's just they're priceless now I'm gonna pop that on screen there for you most of the watches at the top are their kinetics all's various other things those coolers there as well the ones that I'm interested in and perhaps you're interested in are heading down the bottom automatic mechanical please forgive the glare but I'm sure you can make out what's going on now all prices in Aussie dollars obviously and all prices are the minimum now it says that in the very top line there this is the minimum you'll be charged for a service depending on whether there's other work needing to be done so 7s 20 six-hour basic cycle five is going to cost you a hundred and forty three dollars to service the skx it's gonna cost you a hundred and seventy three because it's a diver for our calibers 200 plus divers that's two hundred and forty the six are 15 their prices actually went up on the 1st of April two hundred and forty dollars or if you go for one of the divers with a six hour movement 269 Australian dollars so what are the take-home messages from this one today then well if you buy a sequel five and then take it into secretive service it's gonna cost you more than the price of the sequel fight if you buy an esky X it's gonna cost you half of the price of the SK X if that movement buggers off outside the warranty period or if you wear it for so long that the movement naturally needs a bit of a refresh does that therefore become not economically viable are these essentially disposable throwaway items now I appreciate that I took it to the seco service center it's kind of like taking your car to a main dealer to get it serviced you're gonna pay more than if you took it to an independent mechanic or in this case if you took it to an independent watchmaker but the Seiko Saab is a nice wash you know they're really pretty good I've talked about why you should probably pick one up before they get discontinued they're very versatile and I think they punch well above their weight even at the inflated prices that has been commanded now for them you're gonna want to look after that watch and you're gonna want to take it to the secret boutique perhaps to get it serviced 240 bucks for a basic service though is a ton of money and I don't think that means as much of a gap between servicing a sequel and servicing a Swiss watch so the take-home message is then you're gonna be paying through the nose to service any watch from an official dealer whether that's a seeker or indeed one of the supposedly more expensive Swiss watches make friends with your local watchmaker and make sure that you get a quote from those guys before you take it in to a Seco service boutique anyway and have a good think about whether there's enough money in the watch that you want to spend that money on it or whether you're better putting into a memory box and buying yourself something new life is this portable these days so much of what we buy is not designed appeared it's just designed to be recycled and replaced bit of a shame North Watchers I guess they want to sell you a new one but I was hoping it would have been cheaper I was also hoping it would have been quicker or I was really hoping that they gave me a discount to make up for the time but they didn't thanks for sticking with me on this video adventure through a secret service I would love to hear your comments in the section below how have you got on servicing seekers are these six ar-15 movements are bit dodgy in the first place they seem to go off rather too frequently do you have a local friendly watchmaker that does all of your servicing or are you expecting to put these watches in the bin in five years time when they start running dodgy let me know I look forward to reading the comments thanks for watching see you in the next one you

Channel: Just One More Watch

Views: 149,604

Keywords: watch service, watch repairs, watch repair, watch review, seiko watch, seiko sarb033, seiko sarb035, seiko service cost, just one more watch, just one more watch seiko, seiko watches

Id: 5gZ35PnBDkA

Length: 14min 30sec (870 seconds)

Published: Wed May 01 2019