Why Won't Most Watchmakers Repair My Vintage Watch?
Regardless of whether you’re an avid collector or just a casual watch-wearer, nothing is quite as exciting as finally scoring a vintage timepiece at a thrift shop or receiving an old family heirloom. Nothing is as disappointing, however, as latching it around your wrist and realizing that the hands aren’t ticking.
Oh well, you might think. It’s an old watch; that’s to be expected. You’ll just send it to the manufacturer for a repair. If you have a vintage Rolex, surely their repair techs can service your vintage Rolex repair.
Unfortunately, many of these manufacturers are multinational companies who dismiss intensive, time-consuming watch repairs out of hand—even if their company made the watch. They’ll often claim that watches made before a certain year “no longer fit their product specifications.”
And even if they do take on the repair, your watch may fall into what the New York Times described in a 2020 article as the “Black Hole of Luxury Watch Repair.” This refers to the frustratingly long time manufacturers can take to perform needed repairs, often because they’re overwhelmed and understaffed.
So if you can’t count on the watch’s manufacturer, what about a private repair shop? Unfortunately, many local repair shops will turn you away upon seeing your vintage piece. Maddening as it is, there are many reasons why.
Slim Market and Slimmer Supply of Technicians
The average watch-wearer on the street isn’t going to be wearing a vintage. Just by nature, there are far more modern watches in circulation than vintage watches. This means a low demand for vintage watch repair technicians and, in turn, a low supply.
The older the watch, the more outdated the techniques to service it. Repairing vintage watches takes a special level of effort, precision, care, and passion because of the extra training required. As a result, there just aren’t many technicians who have mastered the art. It’s nice to think that you could walk into your hometown repair shop and ask them to take on your vintage Omega watch repair. But chances are, they aren’t going to have one of those rare, specialized technicians to handle the job.
Vintage = Risk
Even if a shop were to have that rare vintage watch repair pro, they may still turn you away simply because of the risk factor.
Repairs on modern watches have a much higher success rate. It’s a far more straightforward process to repair a watch crafted in 2020 than it is for a watch that was made, say, 50+ years ago.
Nowadays, most watches are built via automated machinery. Even hand-crafted ones are built with a certain standard in mind. But older watches were often built with customized, proprietary techniques from before the days of automation. These vintage builds can be much more complex.
This complexity drives up the chance for errors. In the repair process, the watchmaker might accidentally break something else. Without the knowledge of the specific techniques to fix your watch, the technician could return it to you broken beyond repair. Most watchmakers would rather not take that risk with your vintage watch.
Poor Condition
Old things get damaged. That’s just how it goes. The same applies to vintage watches. It might be rust, scratches, or structural damage, but sometimes the wear and tear is just too bad to be fixed. Polishing can only go so far. Sometimes a vintage watch comes out on the losing end of a repair “cost-benefit analysis.”
Vintage Parts Sourcing
Because of the watch’s age, its components and the tools first used to make them are very different from the parts used and circulated on the market today. Many likely aren’t even in production anymore. As a result, tracking these parts down ranges from difficult to nigh impossible.
Sourcing for parts is tedious. It’s something most watchmakers don’t have the time, energy, or resources to do themselves. Could they find that vintage minute hand or bezel from some parts supplier somewhere? Maybe. But it could take countless hours.
Sure, you could try to find the parts yourself, which could make the watchmaker more willing to help you out. However, you’ll face the same problems finding parts, and you likely have less access to parts networks than they do. (Most watch repair shops cultivate strong relationships with parts suppliers.)
Poor Past Repair Jobs
A vintage watch has likely received multiple services in the past. That also means there’s a higher chance that it’s been poorly serviced. Because of this, the effort required to repair your watch multiplies. A technician could spend hours trying to fix a former repair job that wasn’t up to snuff. In the meantime, they could spend far less time on a modern watch.
How Can I Find Someone to Fix It?
If you’re a passionate collector, your watch has sentimental value, or you paid a pretty penny for it, you won’t want to trust it to just any old watchmaker. Vintage watches are often delicate, easily scratched, and easily broken. Just because someone will fix it for you doesn’t mean that you want them to.
But don’t lose hope—the right service center is out there. It’s crucial to find a shop that has extensive experience repairing vintage watches, especially those of your watch’s same brand. It should have highly qualified technicians, preferably Swiss-trained.
Even with the expertise, not every shop will be able to fix your vintage watch simply because of the parts needing to be replaced. That’s why you should look for a shop that’s willing to hunt down replacement parts or even build new ones if necessary.
Get Your Watch Ticking Like New
It may not be easy to find a repair center that’s willing and able to repair your vintage watch. But when you find one with the tools, expertise, and dedication to treat your timepiece with the care it deserves, the reward is well worth it. After all, owning a vintage watch isn’t just about keeping time. It’s about preserving a piece of history on your wrist.
