• All Our Personal Watches Broke In 2024
  • All Our Personal Watches Broke In 2024

    A Year of Horological Heartbreak

    Peter
    Words by: Peter
    December 26, 2024
  • It has been over three months since we wrote out last article, which is a fact that strongly bothers me. Over those three months we have seen tremendous support from many watch brands who are sending us watches to review. Typically we average two reviews a week to keep up with the amount of watches being sent in. This has resulted in a lack of time to write articles, which in 2025 we're going to try to remedy by trying to write at least one article a week moving forward along with our reviews and daily new release stories.

    Now that we've got that out of the way, I can talk about a topic I never thought I'd have to cover at the start of 2024. Although I've been collecting watches for pretty much 25 years, I've never had a watch break on me or even require service. This trend came to a harsh end in 2024 when three of our watches broke and two required a major service.

    All Of Our Watches Broke In 2004 Youtube Overview


    I thought that closing out the year it would be interesting to talk about what happened to these watches as well as how they were repaired. Even more interesting would be to talk about where the watches were repaired, with one going to a local watchmaker and the others going to a larger watchmakers in New York and one having to be repaired by the brand itself.

    For the most part watch manufactures suggest you get a mechanical watch serviced every five to ten years. While this might be the best practice to follow, I more tend to be in the camp of only getting a watch serviced if something in noticeably wrong. We did purchase a timegrapher that we use for watch reviews that can instantaneously tell you if something is wrong with a watch's accuracy and movement, but normally it's pretty obvious when an issue has crept up with a watch.

    The first watch to a bit off this year was my Sinn U2. I purchased the U2 pre-owned from a watch dealer and upon first look the watch was in great condition and was a full set. I had always liked the U1 and U2 series from Sinn especially that they were constructed from German Submarine steel and were pretty much impossible to scratch. This particular U2 came up at a great price and I bought it with very little pause.

    I generally rotate my watches fairly frequently, so it's pretty hard to notice if something is off unless it's glaringly obvious. This is what happened with the U2. I ended up taking the U2 on a weekend trip to a resort where we would be in the pool a lot. I thought ht U2 and its 2,000 meters of water resistance would be ideal for maybe getting one meter underwater.

    Sinn U2 Worn Out Main Spring
    Sinn U2 Worn Out Main Spring


    On this trip I had the watch on my wrist constantly and something became very obvious… the watch was losing minutes of time per hour. I came back from the trip I little down and started to look around at local watchmakers to see if I could have the watch serviced. The watchmaker I decided on had great reviews and was also the closest watchmaker to us.

    The owner of the shop knew about the watch sales company I helped start and we hit it off well. He mentioned he could have one of his watchmakers look at the watch right away and said if it was an easy fix that he could repair it in an hour or two. Sure enough in the time it took me, my wife and our daughters to go grocery shopping and grab lunch the watch was repaired. When we got back to the store, the owner told me that the mainspring was worn out and since the watch was running on a common off the shelf ETA 2836, he had an extra spring to swap it out with.

    The best part is that I wasn't even charged for the repair. I guess the owner of the store knew that I was in the industry and that the fix was rather simple, so growing a relationship was more important than charging me for the repair. If I would have been charged for the repair, I would have guessed it would have cost around $250. Since then I have taken small issues to that shop for repair and couldn't be happier with the service I received and prices I was charged. This is an example of the benefits of forging a relationship with a local watchmaker. The Sinn U2 on the other hand was sold a few months later when I just realized the watch was too heavy for my tastes.

    Now the repair on the Sinn U2 was fairly run of the mill and any half decent watchmaker would have been able to resolve its issue. The next watch to break was a punch to the gut and has me shell shocked over an entire collection of watches I still call my personal favorite.

    When Audemars Piguet launched their Royal Oak Offshore line in the 1990s they created an amazing canvas for future watch design. While the Genta designed original Royal Oak has remained rather mundane in its designs, the 2000s brought an era of radical watch design to the Offshores in their limited editions that really pushed watch design to its limits and was spearheaded by head designer Octavio Garcia.

    Of these numerous limited edition Offshores released in the 2000s, by far my favorite was the Juan Pablo Montoya in titanium. While this watch originally retailed for under $20,000, it skyrocketed to over $60,000 at the height of the limited Offshore boom. I was in a position to wear these watches when we had pre-owned ones in stock and even got married in the rose gold version in 2008.

    Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Montoya Broken Crown
    Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Montoya Broken Crown


    Through luck and the stars lining up just right I was able to acquire a complete set Royal Oak Offshore Montoya in titanium in June of 2023. The Montoya was my most expensive watch and with watch theft on the rise and the Royal Oak being such a theft target I really didn't wear the watch too much. So the watch kind of turned into more of a special occasions piece.

    One evening in early 2024 we were getting ready to go out to dinner and I pulled the Montoya out to wind and set it. When I went to screw the crown back in, the crown just wouldn't catch. I had noticed the crown was a bit weird since I first got the watch, requiring a bit of extra effort to get the crown to stick. I hadn't worn an Offshore in a very long time at that point and just felt it was normal. I even had a friend who owned a Royal Oak and a watchmaker screw in the crown and they said it felt normal. I had my suspicions though…

    This one night in particular the crown just would not catch and it was impossible to screw in the crown. To say I was upset would be a huge understatement. When the watch was originally shipped to me from Miami, I followed the shipment every hour, even feeling total dread when storms in Florida delayed the flight. I just felt that after 20 years something would happen to stop the watch from getting to me. Now it being broken was like the final straw and naturally I thought it was the end of the world.

    Luckily I acquired the watch from a good friend of mine that deals exclusively in pieces from Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe and Richard Mille and in turn only uses the best watchmakers. He felt really bad about the situation and asked if I could send it to his watchmaker in New York. The watch was diagnosed with a stripped crown and then sat for weeks while a replacement crown was being looked for.

    Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Montoya Broken Crown
    Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Montoya Broken Crown


    Now remember this was a limited edition watch produced in the early 2000s with a crown only used on this model and this metal. Finally after about a month, my friend received another Montoya on trade and that watch ended up sacrificing its crown to go into my watch. A few days later my watch arrived back to me and was good as new. I believe my old crown was going to be rebuilt and put into the other Montoya, but I never got around to checking back in with what happened to the other watch.

    I have a feeling if the Montoya was sent back to Audemars Piguet, they probably could have either repaired the crown or might have had a replacement on hand, but I couldn't imagine what the cost would have been. I'm just thankful I had a great relationship with the dealer I got the watch from and ended up zero out of pocket for the repair.

    One thing this did expose is that the crowns on these older Offshores is a weak point in the movement. On this watch only, I now practice the technique of back turning the crown until I feel it drop before screwing the crown in. This reduces the wear to the threads by having it lined up before proceeding with screwing in the crown. I actually read about this on an old forum post from Royal Oak owners of the same time having similar issues. While I really want a Royal Oak Offshore Rubberclad in steel or rose gold from this era, the weakness of the crown has me thinking twice about it. Especially if it was a steel version, since I'd love to daily wear that watch. I guess a watch winder might solve the issue of having to mess with the crown that often…

    One more fun fact I learned about the crown of the Montoya during my deep dive into its issues, was that the crown for the watch was designed by Richard Mille. Mille also designed the winding rotor along with pushing to use materials like carbon fiber and titanium on the Montoya. Speaking of daily wear watches, I picked up an IWC GST Aquatimer 2000 in titanium in the fall of 2023. The watch was a one owner watch originally purchased in the year 2000 and was eventually sold back to the authorized dealer who sold the watch and where I bought it from to become the second owner.

    IWC GST Aquatimer 2000 Dirty Oil
    IWC GST Aquatimer 2000 Dirty Oil


    I had always loved the GST Aquatimer and even bought a GST Chronograph back in the early 2000s. I would have loved the Aquatimer but it was far too expensive for me at the time. This GST Aquatimer 2000 was a unicorn being a one owner watch and also the price was too good to pass up, so after a few questions to the dealer I bought it.

    When the watch arrived it looked rough. After a few hours of cleaning the watch did end up looking pretty much new and there were no scratches or dings under all the grime. The watch also had never been serviced over its 25 year life either. The funny thing I noticed about the watch is that it would run about 30 seconds off a day when first wound, but after about an hour of running it would be deadly accurate at +/- 0 seconds per day.

    This behavior was obviously gunked up oil in the movement that once heated up and thinned out would result in the watch being accurate, but while the oil was heating up it would show such high levels of inaccuracy. I knew the watch really needed to be serviced, but that would end up coming at a later date…

    IWC GST Aquatimer 2000 Dirty Oil
    IWC GST Aquatimer 2000 Dirty Oil


    The next watch to go wrong was another gut punch to me. Along with the Offshore Montoya, the IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar had always been my other grail watch. I even met with John Mayer in the late 2000s to possibly purchase his titanium limited edition Big Pilot Perpetual… but once again I didn't really have the funds for it and Mayer wasn't the watch world superstar he is today.

    I actually did end up getting engaged in a first generation Big Pilot 5002 and had always loved the watch since its initial launch. Later I did end up with two Big Pilots at the same time, the titanium Heritage model and the ceramic Miramar edition. The Miramar never really grew on me, but I loved the Heritage and even wore it the day our twin daughters were born.

    When the chance came up to trade the two Big Pilots on a Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar, I knew I had to take it. Even though it pained me to sell the Heritage, especially since it was there the day our daughters were born, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get my final grail piece.

    IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar Top Gun Loose Pinion
    IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar Top Gun Loose Pinion


    The watch I ended up trading the two Big Pilots on was the Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar Top Gun in black ceramic. I already had an IWC Pilot's Flyback Chronograph Top Gun in black ceramic and just loved the look of the matte black ceramic case. The Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar was just the ultimate version of the Top Gun range.

    The watch came from a very respected dealer and I had no issues with the watch, until I did… I wore the Big Pilot Perpetual fairly often and for some reason decided it was better for the movement to not use the quick date advance on the crown but rather just advance the time repeatedly until the correct time and date were set. I feel doing this might have put a movement on the edge over the edge.

    Since the watch has a 7 day power reserve, I would often not wear the watch for a few days and then pick it up and wear it with the time still being correct. One day I noticed that the time was off by 30 minutes. I didn't think much of it and set the time and proceeded to wear the watch. The next day I noticed that the time was off by 15 minutes, not good…

    On the timegrapher the watch showed to be 5 seconds a day fast, proving the movement was actually running accurately. I was able to figure out the timing issue was happening later in the evening as the calendar was advancing. One day I set the watch to 6 PM and proceeded to watch the watch as it advanced days.

    IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar Top Gun Loose Pinion
    IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar Top Gun Loose Pinion


    I ended up seeing that when the watch displayed 11:20 PM, the minutes hand would move backwards 5 minutes and then sit there for 10 minutes. After those 10 minutes had passed, the hand would start moving normally again making the watch off by 15 minutes a day. This was a major issue with the movement and something that would need to be addressed by a watchmaker.

    I had the initial thought of sending the watch in to IWC to repair, but I just wasn't in a huge rush to spend well over $1,000 on the repair. So for the time being the watch sat broken since I had other watches I could wear along with review samples we had coming in.

    The final watch to break in 2024 was my wife's Rolex Yacht-Master 16622. We purchased this watch in May of 2023 from the watch sales site that I helped start and the watch was perfect when it arrived. For being produced in 1999, the Yacht-Master just seemed like a tank and was nothing but super accurate and reliable.

    Rolex Yacht-Master 16622 Broken Main Spring
    Rolex Yacht-Master 16622 Broken Main Spring


    My wife pretty much splits her daily watches between the Yacht-Master and a Hublot Big Bang All Black 41. She doesn't wear a watch every day, so typically I have to wind her watches and then set them each time she wants to wear a watch. One morning I was just routinely winding the Yacht-Master before I set it and I heard a pop and the watch just froze. No matter what I did to the watch the hands wouldn't move including the seconds hand. My guess was that the mainspring had broken.

    I told the owner of the company what had happened and he told me to just send the Yacht-Master in and he'd have his watchmaker in New York repair it. I also told him about the issues with the two IWCs and he said to send those in as well and he would take care of all three. Lucky day!

    Within a week I was told the status of all three watches… like I had guessed the IWC GST Aquatimer 2000 had pretty dirty oil in the movement and once the movement was cleaned and new oil was applied it was running like a champ. The watch was then tested for water resistance and passed and was now running at a solid +1 seconds per day on average. The cost of this service would have been around $400.

    The Rolex Yacht-Master like I suspected suffered a broken mainspring. The mainspring was replaced with a new Rolex mainspring and then serviced as well. Just like the GST Aquatimer it was now fully functioning and also running at +1 seconds per day. The cost of this repair would have been around $550.

    Rolex Yacht-Master 16622 Broken Main Spring
    Rolex Yacht-Master 16622 Broken Main Spring


    The IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar Top Gun on the other hand was a different story. After I was able to see exactly what was happening with the watch, I posted my findings on the IWC Collector Forum and one member said it sounded like a cannon Pinion was loose and needed to be retightened. Turns out the forum member was one hundred percent correct and that was the issue with the movement.

    The watchmaker said that all the dials and hands would need to come off for this repair to be completed, which they were capable of doing. What they weren't capable of doing was to re-sync the entire movement which would require a technical document from IWC that they did not have access to. Their only suggestion was to send the watch off to IWC to be repaired.

    When the three watches arrived back from repair and service, I knew it was now time to get the Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar Top Gun serviced through IWC. The choices for service are to either drop the watch off at an IWC boutique or authorized dealer or go through IWCs online repair portal. We are family friends with the manager of the IWC boutique in Las Vegas, but I thought it was a bit silly to send the watch to Las Vegas to just have it shipped back to their repair center just outside of Fort Worth. If I went through the online repair portal it would only be shipped once, directly to the Fort Worth repair facility.

    I had already created an account on IWCs site where my three IWC pieces were registered. All I had to do to get the repair process started was to select my Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar and then click on the "Service" option. Once you select "Service" you then click on the "Service Price Calculator" and select what is going on with your watch. In my situation I selected "Complete Service" since this option is where a technician will diagnose anything wrong with the watch and replace anything needed as well as perform a full service on the movement.

    IWC Service Estimate
    IWC Service Estimate


    I was then informed the complete service would be $1,740 before tax and when I agreed to this quote I was allowed to enter more information about service being requested. It was here where I entered what I had noticed with the watch as well as what the watchmaker had reported back about the loose pinion. Finally I verified my shipping address and was notified that the shipping kit was going to be dispatched shortly.

    IWC Service Information
    IWC Service Information


    The shipping kit arrived a few days later which comprised of a small cardboard box with a foam insert and a cutout made to securely hold the watch during transit. Once the watch was packaged in the box, I printed out the quote from IWC and place it and the box containing the watch in a FedEx bubble mailer with a pre-printed insured shipping label.

    Two days later the watch arrived at the IWC service center in Fort Worth and I was notified through email that the watch was with the service technicians being looked over. I was then sent the initial quote back and asked to approve it. After I had sent in the watch I had decided that I wanted the crystal replaced as well. When I first received the watch I had noticed the anti-reflective coating on the crystal had some noticeable scratches on it.

    IWC Service Packaging
    IWC Service Packaging


    I wasn't able to change the quote through the repair portal and ended up having to call the service center directly to request the change. Initially I think there was some mix-up with the request and after a week I still hadn't received a new quote that included the crystal. Finally I ended up reaching a representative named Lauren at the service center and she was able to fast track the new quote being sent to me. Every time I had any further questions I made sure to ask for Lauren when calling the service center and was helped exceptionally.

    When the new quote arrived, the adjusted price that included a new crystal as well as tax was $2,110.88. This also included a complimentary deep cleaning and polishing to the case. I opted to have the polishing done since it was being done by IWC themselves. Since the case of the Top Gun is ceramic there wasn't much to polish, but the ceramic did receive a deep cleaning. There are titanium pieces on the Top Gun, but IWC will not polish any surfaces with engraving on them, so for example the case back would not be polished.

    IWC Service Final Quote
    IWC Service Final Quote


    I instantly accepted the new quote and was told the service would take between 6 and 12 weeks to complete. I accepted the quote on October 17th and on October 30th I was sent and email saying the repair was complete. The entire service took less than two weeks to complete, which is mind blowing especially considering how complicated of a movement it was. After paying for the service online I was emailed a day later with tracking information and the watch arrived two days later. Lucky for me at the time I paid for the service American Express was offering 25,000 points for any purchase of over $1,000 at IWC, so it made the price of the repair a bit more bearable.

    IWC Service Complete
    IWC Service Complete


    When the watch arrived it looked brand new. The scratches in the AR coating on the crystal were long gone replaced with a crystal clear new sapphire. The case looked like it had just left the factory and was pristine as well. IWC even shipped the watch in a nice leather travel case. The next thing I did after getting the watch back from repair was throw it on the timegrapher when it was averaging around +4 seconds a day of accuracy in various positions.

    IWC Service Shipped
    IWC Service Shipped


    Since I hadn't worn the watch in months I misread the power reserve gauge which shares a subdial with the date. I thought the watch arrived fully wound, which I thought was a bit strange, but in fact the date hand was where the fully wound indication was. To finalize my testing, I was going to leave the watch in the safe and over seven days check the time of the watch each morning. The first morning the time was way off which gave me a heart attack. It turns out that the power reserve was nearly empty when I started my test instead of it being full.

    I then fully wound the watch and tried the test again. Much to my pleasure each day over the next seven days the watch kept perfect time when I checked it each morning. Good enough for me, the Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar was finally running correctly after months of being broken.

    Dealing with having to get these five watches repaired over the past year has taught me a few things about servicing watches. If a watch runs on a mass produced caliber like an ETA or Sellita movement where parts are easily available and chances are a watchmaker is familiar with the watch, taking the watch to a local watchmaker is a great option. Also getting to know a local watchmaker can be beneficial down the line if you ever have questions about how your watches are functioning. Better yet you can drop by any time and have them take a look at your timepiece.

    IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar Top Gun Scratched Crystal
    IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar Top Gun Scratched Crystal


    Another great option for a local watchmaker would be if you had a Rolex that needed to be repaired or serviced. For the most part Rolexes are simple watches that display time and possibly date. The movement used in my wife's Yacht-Master is the same you'd find in the wildly popular Submariner date and Rolex never wildly changes movement designs. Most watchmakers are trained to service Rolex pieces and to remain in business would need to be able to service and repair them. Possibly more complex pieces like Daytonas and Sky-Dwellers might require a more specialized watchmaker but one should be available in every city of decent size.

    The big push towards in-house calibers in the 2000s has created a situation where local watchmakers are sometimes not the best choice when dealing with these niche movements. Chances are unless the issue with an in-house caliber is extremely easy to fix and requires no parts to repair that a local watchmaker will not be able to service the watch.

    With my Royal Oak Offshore Montoya, trying to find a replacement crown for the watch ended up being impossible for a watchmaker with lots of connections and based in the major watch hub of New York City. I just lucked out and another Montoya was available to take the crown from. If that moment of dumb luck didn't occur the watch would have had to go back to Audemars Piguet and more than likely have carried a very large repair bill.

    With the IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar Top Gun, even though the problem with the movement wasn't hard to identify and even fix, the only way to get the movement re-synced would be by following a technical document from IWC that the watchmaker didn't have access to. When you start getting into such niche and complicated movements it probably is best to just have the manufacture service the watch and not chance a watchmaker not familiar with the movement possibly making things worse.

    IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar Top Gun Returned From Service
    IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar Top Gun Returned From Service


    My experiences with the local watchmaker in Austin have been very pleasant so far and I know I have somebody local that I can trust to give me good advice on any issues I might have with my personal timepieces. Most of our watches ended up being serviced and repaired by larger watchmakers used by my dealer friends in New York, while I can't comment too much on the actual watchmakers, their work seems to be top notch and I know if my friends are using them, they must be extremely good at what they do.

    Finally getting my Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar serviced by IWC was a smooth and seamless process. I do like how everything was handled online and each step of the way the IWC repair portal showed me exactly what was going on with the watch and what to expect. If I ever needed more detailed explanations the service center was just a phone call away. Even the service price of just over $2,000 wasn't too bad since the watch being repaired was so complicated. It should be noted that IWC charges much less to work on simple time only watches. I also really like the fact that the watchmaker working on the watch was actually trained to work on that movement. Finally the fact that the watch now has a two year warranty gives me great peace of mind.

    Hopefully you can take something away from all the issues we had with watches this year. I never thought 2024 would be filled with so many broken watches, but I guess at some point everything mechanical will need some additional care. Here's to 2025 being trouble free to the rest of our watches!
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