Hi,

After sending my spitminute to replace the crown, it came back with the split minute hand self activating randomly with a activating the activation switch.

A slight movement or a touch on the activation switch in in the already off position will have the split minute hand catch back up with the minute hand.

Happens randomly, frequently as well.

Not too sure what did he service center do with it but even after a second trip to the service center, it's happening again.

Anyone knows what could be happening?
Waste of time going to the service center again forth 3rd time.

I'm from Singapore.

I meant the split minute hand will randomly auto self activate and lag behind the minute hand without me activating the activation button switch. :(

For the 2nd sevicing, watch was there for abt 2 weeks and technician say did not observe the lagging despite a couple of pictures showing it's lagging/"activated" without turning it on.

Advise please?

Hi KTKT,

Sorry to hear about your problems, especially with multiple fixes. In general aren't a forum topic because they're difficult to evaluate without a physical evaluation. However, despite that and also the further inconvenience, I would send your watch directly to Schaffhausen for repair.

The two-week turnaround suggests a local service center repair, and candidly it sounds like they're not doing the job here. The split-minute, like the rattrapante, is considered a "high complication" and a relatively high degree of expertise is needed. It's also relatively uncommon watch, and I'd try a different team.

Your dealer hopefully can help you further.

Good luck, and sorry to hear this. It's very uncommon with this model.

Thanks Michael.

Will request to have the watch send directly to HQ!

Wishing you and your loved ones Good Health in the New Year 2012!

Hi,

Just an update. Long Story short.
I've had my splitminute send in back in Nov 2011 to replace a crown which was not able to screw in, so I reckon to do a routine servicing as well since the incurred downtime.

Collected the watch on the 2nd December post crown replacement and servicing of the movement.

Had it send back on the 15th Dec as the splitminute hand was activating without me turning it on. The chrono second movement was not smooth as well.
I've had pictures taken of the splitminute hand activated on it's own without me turning the function on send to Richemont Singapore.

Watch was returned after abt 2 weeks saying it's fixed.
When I noticed the splitminute hand activating on it's own again, a call to Richemont Singapore revealed that they did not detect the splitminute hand activiating on it's own during the time it was there.
I have no idea why the watch is returned to me saying it's fixed but then reverted to saying nothing was done as it was not observed to have activated on it's own.

Anyway, since the chrono second hand was due for replacement, and the part was being ordered, I told them that I will send in the watch again to be serviced again together.

Come Feb, the chrono second hand arrived and I had my splitminute send in to have the chrono second hand replaced, and also more importantly to have the splitminute self-activating issue resolved.

Collected my splitminute on the 7th March and here's what my invoice says
ICW/Generic Svc
Second counter hand
Screw steels
Split-seconds clams
Flyback wheel

Collected the watch and I was shocked to find 2 substantial scratches on my watch dial, and scratches on the sapphire glass.

After some calls, Richemont Singapore said that they will replace the watch dial and sapphire glass and the lead time it takes for the item to be shipped over to Singapore is abt 2 months.

The splitminute hand does not activate on it's own now. I'm glad it's fixed.
I don't understand why a simple replacement can result in the watch dial being scratched and the sapphire glass being scratched. What I don't understand is why the watch is returned with a damaged dial and glass.

Worse, from the time I have the watch until now, I realise that the automatic winding mechanism does not seem to be functioning well.

1) After 2-3 days on my watch winder, the movement stops moving.
I've never had this issue before.

2) Even when I wear the watch, it seems that the automatic winding mechanism is not winding the watch efficiently.

This leads me to believe that there is something wrong with the automatic winding mechanism.
When the watch is stopped, a vigourous shake will wind the watch.
A gentle movement micmicking my wind winder does not wind it at all.

I've resorted to having manually wind the watch.
And now the manual winding movement is rough when I wind it.

Best of all, I can't screw in my crown now!
It's like as if the crown has sunk into the watch, preventing the crown to be threaded properly.

Is there anyway I can contact IWC directly?
I will go down to Richemont Singapore tomorrow to see what they can do.

During this period of time, I've had my Titanium GST Aquatimer 2000 send in for sandblasting and normal servicing.
It came back with a misaligned dial, the rotating bezel does not pop back up and a movement that is 2-3s second slow per day.

They reverted that the rotating bezel not popping back up is normal behaviour of the watch and that there is no way the dial can be put back in misaligned as the dial has only 1 way to be secured in the watch.
This darling of mine used to be fast 1 second every 2-3 days.

It's now on it's way to Switzerland to be checked by IWC.
I hope (at least that's what Richemont Singapore told me)

Utterly disappointed with Richemont Singapore.
I've just sold my IWC Ingenieur AMG.
I'm going to sell off my IWC 3717, GST Aquatimer, Splitminute.
And I'm not getting the Perpetual Calender that I've been eyeing on all these time.

Latest update

My aquatimer split minute literally died on the day after my post when I planned to have the watch send to Richemont Singapore.
The split minute movement activated on it's own and the on/off switch to turn it on and off doesn't reset the split minute hand back.
The watch doesn't move any more.

They've had the watch send back to Switzerland and I've just got it back 2 days ago.
- Dial replaced due to damage done during the previous local repair
- Crystal was replaced due to damage done during the previous local repair
- The watch seems to be winding automatically now on my watch winder.
- The manual winding mechanism seems to be smooth and not notchy anymore
- The unscrewable crown which was previously replaced and broke down again is now working fine

Only cmplain now is that the movement is fast more than 6s per day.
Am I happy?

After what I've been thru, and even though not the ideal experience, I'll take 2nd best. I'll have the watch timing adjusted and sell this off.

As my my GST Aquatimer 2000, it's still in the Switzerland HQ.
Strangely, to fix a rotating bezel that doesn't pop back up seems to be mechanically more challenging than a split minute "complication"....

Doesn't really mean much now but I'll just sell off my IWC collection.

As I much as I like the IWC Perpetual movement, this experience will tell me to take my wife's advise to buy a Casio.

Hi,

Just like to update since my horrible experiences last time round.

The Aqua Splitminute has been functioning well ever since it came back from Switzerland.

I'm still stuck with a rough rotating bezel on my GST Aquatimer 2000 even though my Switzerland contact offered to have me sent back to them again.

I sold my Ingenieur AMG back then when having all these issues.

Despite my earlier thoughts of selling the Splitminute, GST 2000 and the GST 3707, I still hold them in my collection.

And oh, I also bought a IWC 3756 (Titanium of coz)...