plexi glass broken

Hi, new here but i have been a proud collector of IWC watches for a long time.

One of my favorites is a portuguese 2000 cal 5000 which has a plexi glass.

As it is my daily wear watch, the plastic has cracked and I contacted the service center in Israel to order a new one.

Amazingly they said the plastic crystal would cost 350 euros and it would take 3 month to get it.

My fellow collectors, is this normal with IWC? beening a watch collector I know the actual value of a plexi like that.

I have to mention that a broken plastic crystal has occured to me several times in other watch brands , many of them even did not charge for the replacement.

Any ideas to what shall I do?
thanks,

Moshe.

Well, buy a Ferrari and watch what happens to your wallet when something insignificant happens to the car. Still, seeing your post makes me happy that all my IWC watches have more robust sapphire glass crystals. You either try another AD, or just bite the bullet.

Kind regards,
Paul

Once you start collecting mechanical watches it is tough to get approved parts at low cost. Think about stocking unique parts for decades for each model produced. You have to look at it the other way...you should be overjoyed that a replacement is readily available for a watch which was produced in limited numbers. Sure it's expensive, but that is the reality in today's world.
I don't like it either, but I decided years ago it was just a part of mechanical watch collecting.

Well, convex plexi glasses are very robust. Even submarines have radoms made of plexi glass !!!!!

An impact to destroy the convex plexi glass of a Ref. 5000 must have been tremendous and I am sure, a saphire glass can not resist such an impact too !

But the price for a new plexi glass sounds like a joke. The production costs for such plexi glasses are only some cents.

Regards

HEBE

Thanks for your comments guys. I am disappointed that some of you accept that if you own a luxury product, you need to pay 10 times more for simple service procedures. This does not apply for many reputable brands.

On the contrary the attitude of IWC should have been completely different..

Practically, who is the person in the IWC team to discuss this issues with?

Regards, Moshe.

Is it possible that replacing the crystal required more than just simple remove and replace? Perhaps the watch also then needed to be water tested, or even have the movement serviced since tiny particles of crystal material might have gotten into it?

Hi Moshe,
It sounds to me like you have been quoted the price for the sapphire case-back crystal for your 5000 or the sapphire front crystal for a 5001.
Visiting your AD/service center rather than just contacting them may rule out a communication issue.
The price of a replacement plexiglass is nominal but a 'Maintenance Service' is required/charged for fitting. This involves an experienced watchmaker opening the case,removing the movement and old plexi,cleaning the case,fitting the new plexi,refitting and regulating the movement,closing the case and testing the running of the watch.Yours is not a water-resistant model so would not be tested for this.
Should your plexi be missing or smashed, many service centers will not replace it without completly servicing the watch as dust/dirt will have entered the case or the shock of damaging the plexi may have also damaged the movement.
Leo

You are right ! I sent my watch to Switzerland (the cost of insurance, $ 200) and they told me that the repair will cost 2173 $ :-) Gold watch automatic was plexi glass and dial watch broken.
New Epos Originale Ref: 3420.152.24.14.15 kaliber ETA 2892 cost 1320$ !!!

With regards