Hi Will. That's a horrible situation. You're not speaking to IWC here -it's just a forum for people to chat about their watches and stuff One of the mods has contacts with IWC and he might be along later with some advice.

Mirrors my recent experiences at the London boutiques of both IWC and JLC. The quality assurance at the repair centres seems to have gone downhill - if not completely absent. It's speculation on my part, but I assume that Richemont are contracting out to "approved" service centres and they don't have the depth of knowledge of the watches or simply don't take the same care. In the good old days some models were automatically sent to Schaffhausen, but when I asked about this in the London boutique they said they had no control over where the watch went, they just send it to "the platform" and it's all decided there. I've got no problem with the boutiques themselves, but comfy chairs and free coffee don't make up for shoddy servicing.

I'm shopping for a retirement piece as my daily-wear, go anywhere, wear-it-til-I-die luxury watch. I want to buy from new and the new ingenieur would have been ideal from a size, features, technical and heritage perspective (I've got a 666), but after my recent service experiences I'll never buy another Richemont watch.

Just to complete this for me - I have finally got my watch back and it seems to be fixed. The staff in the shop were apologetic, but overall it's been a very disappointing experience. Hopefull hat's my last ever visit to IWC. I won't be going back unless I absolutely cannot get my other IWCs serviced by an independent watchmaker.

Hans- I wish you luck with your watch.

If you know what you want then put a search out on eBay - I needed a crown for my my Mark 11 and picked one up there.

If you go to IWC's online calculator then it gives the price for a full service of your watch as SGD1290.00, so I think that what you have here is probably a fat-finger error by whoever sent you the quote. We all make mistakes, so maybe give them the benefit of the doubt?.

Same here this week, except I'm on my fourth attempt. My watch's history is: Full Service, Returned a week later under guarentee because of problem. Returned again under guarantee because of same problem. IWC fixed this problem but caused a different problem so I returned it immediately under guarantee. I went to pick it up this week and the problem was still not fixed - it was as if the watch had just sat in the safe for 4 weeks. The boutique said it had been to Switzerland, but wherever it's been the watchmaker clearly didn't fix it and whoever does Quality Control for IWC didn't check it before sending it back. It's an obvious physical problem, nothing to do with the movement or the way the watch runs - it took me seconds to show the boutique staff that it was still broken and they were, as ever, apologetic but they can't do anything if IWC are incompetent. In the last 6 months it's been with IWC more than it's been with me and I still haven't got it. I've filled the post-service survey in twice now. It asks for the watch's serial number and email address so they can get in touch. I added in the service reference as well but so far, 6 weeks after the first survey, I've heard nothing. It's disgraceful. I'll never have anything serviced by IWC again and I'll certainly never buy an IWC again.

Good luck with complaining but to be honest even if you got to the MD I don't think they would care enough to do anything about it.

I honestly don't think that they care enough to doanything about it even if there were someone to contact.

Have you filled in their post-service feedback? You can leave your email address for someone to contact you. I've just filled it in after my ongoing saga, but I don't expect them to contact me. The survey is at iwc.com/cs-feedback

Best of luck.

And indeed another trip to the IWC boutique is needed for my watch which I just got back after its second repair under the service warranty. That's one full service and three returns beause IWC's servicing and quality control are so poor. Given that it's seven+ weeks each time the watch is in it means that in the less that 100 weeks since the original service my watch will have been with IWC for more than 20 of them. Assuming it comes back working I'm going to sell it and my other IWC's and buy into a better brand.

My recent experiences in the IWC boutique in London Bond Street were "meh" at best. In terms of welcome, politeness and feeling special I get a better experience having my shoes repaired in the local Timpson's. If you're there to buy a new watch then they are all over you, but if it's just a service or a complaint about the last service then they can't get you out fast enough. I think it's a Richemont thing because JLC, just down the street, is exactly the same -poor servicing (my JLC also had to be returned when it came back faulty after a "full service") and poor customer experience unless you're buying. Many years ago it was a pleasure to visit the AD to get a service but I'll never have a watch serviced by IWC or JLC again because I don't think they care any more.

Regarding the hands - and apologies for the daft question - are you sure that they have not replaced them with "aged" Super Luminonva to look like the old Tritium hands?

My advice to anyone taking a watch for service would be to take lots of close-up photos with the watch on a newspaper to confirm the date. That way when it comes back in worse condition than it went in you'll have some proof.

I never understood why COSC was negative anything. I understand that a mechanical watch will not generally be as accurate as a quartz one, but having a watch run slow goes against the basis of keeping time for catching trains, meetings, etc.

I searched online at the time and could only find references to the spec. but nothing on the IWC site, just links to the IWC.CH site that no longer exists. I remember it as 0 to +7 secs, and definitely never slow. I just had a flip through one of my old catalogues (1994) to see if it might be referenced there, but couldn't find anything. It's a shame they've given up on it.

My experience of the London boutique is that they are not interested in you unless you are buying a new watch. My 3536 returned from service with a misaligned bezel/dial (which I didnt notice when I picked it up), and running slow. One week later the crown jammed when winding it (I was not changing the time or date - it had just been off my wrist for a day). I took it back for repair under warranty and told them about the other two issues and asked about the IWC policy of not setting watches to run slow. They denied that there was such a policy. I specifically asked them to make sure it was regulated not to run slow. I'd written all this down and gave them a letter to accompany the watch. They fixed the crown but the watch still runs slow and the bezel/dial alignment is better but still not like it was before the service.

I remember when it was a pleasure to visit an IWC dealer to take a watch for a service. I've got a 666, Mark 11, Mark XII and 3536 and none of them will ever be sent to IWC for servicing again.

Your watch has a pretty common movement and there are many other places which will service it for you, be glad of your custom and listen to you about the problems.

If you have other automatic watches and they are OK then it's not you, it's the watch. I've got a pretty sedentary lifestyle and have owned a lot of automatics, including an aquatimer with the same movement as yours and not had problems, so I'd be surprised if it was you. If you would like to keep the watch then I'd suggest getting it serviced one last time, but not at IWC. It's a common movement and you should be able to find someone who will service it and, more importantly, will listen to your concerns and take them into account when they carry out the work.

If you haven't already search for the "Ingenieur Dial Variations" article on Frizzellweb.com I suggest you do. There are a couple of documents. I don't know how complete they are, but there are a lot of dial pics.

Hard to tell from the pics, but the date window looks like it might be a tad misaligned, which might (and only might) indicate it's not an original Ing. dial. - but it's more likely to be the way it was set up the last time it was serviced. Everything else looks good to me.

Bear in mind also that some of these watches have been around for almost 70 years and it's their history that makes them interesting/unique. I'm sure that there are a lot of 666s out there that are a mix of genuine case, movement and dial - just not all from the same original watch!. I've got 666 853 from 1961 which has got a dial which I couldn't find a pic of and I suspect is either either a Franken or a re-dial because the "Swiss" is very low on the dial and almost under the rehaut. I don't care - the beating heart is one of the best movements ever made, runs +2 secs per day consistently, the case and movement were made in the year I was born and I think it looks great.

Hi all.

I've just realized that when I got my 3536 serviced last year they didn't swap the fish crown for a Probus one. Does this mean that IWC have stopped the policy of replacing fish crowns with Probus ones or is it because the Aquatimer is a dive watch?

Thanks in advance for any help.

HG.

I agree that it's got a lot going for it. The smaller diameter and the
thickness make it attractive, but, for me, the crown guards really unbalance
the whole watch and I find it hard to look at, no matter how comfortable it
might sit on the wrist. However, even if it didn't have crown guards the price
point would be far too high for this watch in my consideration.

Thanks Cro. The last service was almost 6 months ago - it's had plenty of
time to bed in.

Hi.

In the old days it was IWC policy not to have watches running slow after
servicing. I had my 3536 serviced recently because it was running slow (~
-5s per day) and hadn't been serviced in the ten+ years I'd owned it. I had
to take it back immediately after the service (< a week) because it wouldn't
wind manually (the crown just jammed and wouldn't turn) and told them it was
running slow (~-5 secs per day) and I wanted regulating to run a little fast,
not a little slow. It's still running slow (about 5 secs a day). I've got a
couple more that need a service and if the policy for regulating them a bit
fast has changed then I'll get them done somewhere else.

Thanks in advance for any help.