What is your experience about IWC service quality and speed when the watch needs repair?

I have a Portuguese Chronograph 3714 that probably needs maintenance for the first time. It gains about one minute per day and needs adjustment too. Does anybody have any idea how long it may take and how much it would usually cost just for regular maintenance? The Warranty expired 2 years ago. Your advice please.

I had a similar case about three years ago when my second hand watch was ticking faster than it should. It took a little more than 3 months for maintenance in Japan service center and costed about Yen 40,000 or roughly USD 500. And I paid shipping cost separately. Nothing in the watch was broken. They just slowed down the speed. They said the watch was in good conditons and no parts was replaced. I thought the quotation was quite high, but had no other choices. It is working well now.

I can provide almost standard IWC service center answers, followed by my personal experience.

Here goes the standard IWC answer that is almost same wherever you go. I have contacted service centers in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and received services from all of them except China. Friends told me not to put my watch into the China service system. Anyway, you can send in your watch (shipping at your cost) for an estimate or quotation, which takes about 7-10 business days. This part is free of charge. For regular maintenance work, it takes up to 12 weeks. Service charge is more complicated and has no standard at all, as far as my experience is concerned.

Here goes my personal experience with my own watches (Portofino and Ingenieur) and my dad's (Pilot, almost antique). I had total 3 or 4 times of maintenance and 3 times of repair services in the past dozen years. They usually finish the work within the time limits they tell you at the very beginning. Except the recent experience with HK service center, they usually kept their promise. The cost seems to differ from country to country, or from service center to service center. Korea was cheaper than Japan or Hong Kong. For instance, when the Pilot was broken, I asked for quotation in two different service centers and found a big difference in their quotation. I am talking about $300-400 difference.

Regular maintenance costed somewhere between USD 200 and 400. I would say, USD 300 would suffice in a general sense. My dad's Pilot was an exception, since it was very old and needed a lot of cleaning, lubrication, etc. It costed about USD 400, and was a very good value. they returned it back in a surprisingly good shape. The watch and bracelet looked all refreshed and shining like a new (exaggerated) watch. I was wondering if they replaced any part inside, given the watch was so old and was never properly maintained for many years.

One last tip. Do not lose the paper (a letter or receipt or certificate or whatever you may call it) they give you when you put your watch into service. You will have hard time to get the watch back without the paper.

Good luck if you need maintenance or repair service from IWC.

Some of you may know that I initiated this thread. I was very upset about IWC service quality and speed. That is not the reason why I write. The main reason why I write here is to attract your attention and support to improve IWC's customer service.

My general sense is that their service standard has been declining gradually and consistently over the past decade. The decline is most outstanding in service speed, simply because they do not have enough service resources that lag behind aggressive advertising campaigns and expansion of stores.

In keeping with the sharp increase in luxury goods price in general that applies to IWC and other watches as well, they are billing more and more for their services. One or two decades ago, IWC maintenance service was very affordable, which in my view used to be parity versus other watch makers. Today, again in my personal view based on my own limited experiences, IWC charges substantially more than other watch makers for similar services, despite the fact that their service quality or speed is not as good as many others. Now, if you consider repair or maintenance services, you need to think twice. Is your watch so expensive or emotionally valuable to you to justify the big bill and extremely slow service?

Lower quality with higher cost is a terrible combination for clients. When it is coupled with terrible customer service by staff in stores or service centers, you face the worst possible customer experience you can imagine. That is what I have gone through in the past several weeks, which triggered me to initiate this thread.

If you think this is an anecdotal incident that happened to a stranger, you can forget this and move on. However, please remember mechanical watches inevitably require services. It is my issue today and will be yours tomorrow.

I am glad that many people participated in this discussion by writing or reading this thread. I personally believe this is the way IWC lovers need to work with IWC, so that we can keep enjoying our IWC watches regardless of whether they are in good shape or in bad shape.

If you agree with me, please keep this thread alive by sharing your experiences and personal tips for the benefit of all Forum participants. It will provide a constructive pressure to IWC to improve its customer service. Longer term, it is a win-win for everybody, that is, IWC, you, and me.

Thank you.

Bethered:
I did not know we had a revolutionary amongst us. Anyway, that's an interesting point of view. I tend to agree with you regarding the service issues with IWC as well as other brands. I myself raised a question about AP service problems in another forum. Very frustrated when the watch is broken and when the service is broken.

Thank you for the helpful info and advice. Wish me good luck!

I just came across this thread and a couple of questions occur to me...

Are we talking about warranty work or out-of-warranty work? If the latter, can't independent watchmakers do the work satisfactorily? Maybe we're lucky here in the US, but there's at least a couple of watchmakers that have done amazing work on my IWC.

Second, can owners send their watches directly back to Schaffhausen? That would seem to avoid all the issues with local service centers...

Thanks for the thread!

BeTheRed,

I know this is out of the topic, but just out of curiosity and for the love of pilot watches, I wonder if would it be possible to share with the commuity here on that vintage pilot watch which you have just received from repair? Perhaps in another thread.

I was reading this thread very interested from the beginning to the end and must say: It is a very emotianal matter as are our watches.
For me it is like this:
If there's a problem with a watch I love, I hope and expect to get it back as soon as possible in perfect condition for a fair and reasonable price (whatever that means in detail?).
Nevertheless I think this discussion was lead in a quite fair and constructive way which is not self evident for an internet forum.

I have owned 7 IWC watches in 13 years now. There is only one left (Portuguese YC steel as some of you may know ;-) ) because of limited budgets and focus on the best for me. The next one (Ingenieur Siberpfeil) is put a deposit down and will come in during the first half of next year.
All my watches were in the lower price range of IWC, They were all in steel and namely a Mark XV, a UTC Pilot, Portuguese Automatic, Portuguese Chrono, Pilot's chrono and Spitfire Double Chrono. I had only 2 warranty service issues so far that were handled by the factory directly, perfectly done and in very few weeks time (3-6 weeks). But this has been about 10 and 5 years ago. I had one watch regulated and oiled the winding stem directly at the factory in about 15 minutes time by the fabulous Mr Boehmer then who now is in his well earned retirement. :-)
The rest of my watches I sold before a service was necessary. I bring in a watch only if it really NEEDS a service, not every 3 or 5 years as others do. I have them checked for waterproofness regularly.

So I had only perfect serivce experience. I am lucky enough to live in a range of 100 km from the factory in Schaffhausen where I can bring in and get back the watches myself.

My case is obviously not representative at all but I wanted to share it anyway. But I really appreciate this discussion because service is an important issue. A cheap watch can be thrown away when there's a problem. But we have and want our great watches from IWC. We take great care of them and expect the same from our favorite manufacturer.
I hope and am very optimistic that the International Schaffhausen Watch Company won't let us down with these issues in the future.
And treat all their customers well all over the world just the way it should be.

My AD here in Basel / Switzerland has a skilled watchmaker too so they will be able to fix some issues themselves. That will save time and money as well.

Of course, you can send your watch to any repair shop that you trust. I have repaired my Omega at a local repair place at a fraction of cost that Omega would have charged me. If they failed to fix it, then I could send it to Omega. If you have a timepiece with ETA movement, for instance, repair is easier and cheaper.

However, as you know, many high end watches use a unique movement. Replacement parts are not available in the market. You need to find a repair specialist who can produce a replacement part on their own.

Financially, if you want to sell it in a second hand market, what would be the price you can ask for, if your watch used a non-authorized part? The value may dramatically go down.

Most importantly, it is an emotional question. Is my IWC a genuine piece?

.... A cheap watch can be thrown away when there's a problem. But we have and want our great watches from IWC. We take great care of them and expect the same from our favorite manufacturer.
I hope and am very optimistic that the International Schaffhausen Watch Company won't let us down with these issues in the future.
And treat all their customers well all over the world just the way it should be.

My AD here in Basel / Switzerland has a skilled watchmaker too so they will be able to fix some issues themselves. That will save time and money as well.[/QUOTE]

Hi Tilo

Well said! I 100% agree on that! Thanks for sharing your experiences, it is I guess, helpful for the future.
BTW I am living too within 100km from Schaffhausen and about a 45 minutes drive from Basel...a future GTG would be nice, as I am a big YC fan too...!

Cheers Chris

It would be quite a good idea to define some customer oriented service objectives, to measure and report on them as key performance indicators, and to have a Deming control cycle about them. Maybe it would help to attach some bonusses to them.

I would suggest:
- All watches sent in for service are returned to the AD within one month.
- All returned watches are not sent in (again) within a year after returning.

Of course, these objectives should be valid everywhere. It would be great if these objectives are communicated to the clients, for instance by means of this website. After liking the watches for whatever reason, there could be a competitive advantage in expressing and pursuing these objectives. The whole process could be perfected by allowing a tracking and tracing of the service procedure of a watch via the internet. That would be a 21st century solution!

Kind regards,
Paul

It's not so easy to turn-around watches to/from ADs within one month. To the extent that the watch has to cross Customs through countries, that often can take more than a week (each way) depending on the country and their Customs backlog. And even express shipping can take up to four days one way. That might leave a week for the actual service to be done!

Further, some watches require more time in repair than others, especially complicated ones. And after service, the testing can take longer than anticipated. I had an annual calendar (from another company) that needed a repair: the head watchmaker called me and explained that he kept the watch on his bench, and needed about three weeks to ascertain that, after his repair, all the functions changed correctly. Despite my impatience, he was right.

There are some companies, which will remain nameless here, which use very inexpensive movements. When then have a repair, they literally just exchange movements! This provides a quick turn-around, but I'm not sure it's what I'd want when I buy a watch for its movement as well as its looks.

Simply stated, a month turn-around is a great idea, but the implementation isn't so simple or practical in many instances.

Thank you for your answer, Michael. I tend to agree with you, maybe a month is a strech, it could be easily set to two months.

But the point I wish to make is, that there must be a challenge that is not easy to accomplish at first sight, where some creative effort is needed, maybe even some out-of-the-box thinking. And then you need some perseverance to get what you want. I am sure that a centrally controlled initiative, instead of some decentralised effort left to local management, will get results, as everybody will understand that something needs to be done, and nobody can hide away.

Giving yourself the challenge to be transparent will eventually lead to higher quality of the new product in the first place, as nobody needs unnecessary and expensive service if it can be avoided. I am quite sure this is not new at IWC, but an extra visible emphasis in this respect will be to the benefit of us all.

Kind regards,
Paul

Turnaround time is a matter of choice by watch makers. One month turnaround is done very commonly by companies like Rolex or Seiko (Grand Seiko, I mean). Just a month ago, I had to overhaul my Rolex watch when it suddenly stopped ticking. AD said the complete overhaul would usually need 2-3 weeks. My old Rolex Yacht Master did not have any service till then for more than 10 years. I decided to do the full overhaul, which took total 4 weeks' time, including door to door delivery from and to my AD. Rolex did a wonderful job. They not only fixed the mechanical issue, but also polished the whole watch and bracelet. It triggered me to think about my old Grand Seiko that I had put in the drawer for so long. Seiko said they would need about 4 weeks for a complete overhaul service. I think I will probably go for it, while I have to spend a few hundred dollars.

By the way, I do not think Rolex and Grand Seiko are replacing their movement with another new one to meet one month turnaround time. Some companies are standardizing their parts as much as possible in order to make it easy and fast to make and repair the watch. Others are beefing up their service facilities and resources to provide good and fast customer service. Service quality or speed requires investment. Not all companies are investing in this important area.

I believe the issue with IWC today is that they are interested in making and selling new watches, but less interested in taking care of their customers after the sale. It is a matter of choice, isn't it?

Rubbish service.
Bought a new strap for about GBP400. Less than 2 weeks later it broke. The shop in Macau refused to replace it.
Rubbish service.
Sorry I ever bought an IWC.

Still not resolved.
Sorry I ever bought an IWC. I'm 23,000 Euros in the hole and now hate my watch / the IWC brand.
Very dissapointed.

I like leather straps, but hate to see them worn and torn very easily. Almost every year, you need to buy a new one. It is simply too expensive. What about plastic straps? Do they last longer?