[polonus]

Does anybody have any experience with TAG Heuer overhauling/repairing vintage watch?

I have a Heuer Carrera 1553 S, which I bought in 1981 in Austria.



After all those years the watch is in rather poor shape, so I decided to fix it and bring it to its former glory. I can see those old Carreras offered for sale for anything between $2500 to $5000, so even if I have to spend 1000 dollars, or so, it will be worth it.

I learned that the only shop which can do the job is located in Switzerland. Info from TAG's own website:

"The challenge for the Vintage Workshop is to restore your old watch or bring it back to life, by giving it all the care it needs to run for many more years. Located in the company's headquarters in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerlnd, is the only workshop in the world properly equipped and capable of restoring your Vintage watch" ( Men's Watches by TAG HEUER - Best Watches For Men And For Women )

So far so good. I visited my local authorized TAG dealer in Charlotte, NC area and told them I need to send my watch to that "only workshop in the world" in Switzerland. They told me that the watch has to be sent to the US shop first and in two weeks or so they will tell me how much this repair will be and then I will decide if I want to do it, or I want my watch back. I said OK, paid 30 dollars and waited. And waited. And after five weeks I visited my local authorized TAG dealer and asked him if he has any news about my watch. Well, they actually had, but they (I suppose) forgot to call me. They told me that I had "a very special piece" (duh!) which... has to be sent to Switzerland for repair. Well... Isn't that something?

Sir, I said, I told you guys 5 weeks ago that this watch has to be sent to Switzerland and today you are telling me, that this watch has to be sent there? Do we have some kind of communication problem? Don't you know that all vintage Heuer watches are repaired in Switzerland? Your own website says that...

My sarcasm didn't help things. I just had to approve for it to be sent to Europe. This time the fee was 75 dollars, but they told me that I had to pay only 45 (since I already paid 30) and actually they will add that to final bill. We'll see. So I OK'd that step and my watch is on its way to La Chaux-de-Fonds. It will take them another several weeks, God only knows how many, before I will know how much I need to spend to repair that piece. I asked them if someone from Switzerland will call them directly, they said: "No, but we check their website weekly and on that website we will find all the information". But if they check it as they checked before, I afraid I may never hear from them again. o|

I hope the rest of this experience will be peachy, but for now I am little scared.

Anybody have any experience with TAG's vintage watches repaired in La Chaux-de-Fonds? Or with the American authorized dealers sending their watch to Switzerland? Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[polonus]

Your only problem will be the IF as in 'if they will take the job'. If they do take the job, you will get a restoration to 'as new'. I have heard of no complaints about TAGHeuer's Swiss restoration work.

Only time will tell. If not, I'll get my watch back and then I will look for an independent repairman/shop.

I realize you are venting. I suggest you ameorilate your separation anxiety by buying another watch! :-d ... it works for me |>

Only Santa can help now... I will write him a nice letter.

I'll be curious to know how much they charge.

I let you know.

I bet you a thousand box you could have the same work done for much less by an independent guy. If you accept my bet, you can pay me a thou, and still save money on the whole thing. And save time as well. Just my two cents...

The only problem is how to find that independent guy I could trust? Mine independent watch repairmen in Charlotte is not that much cheaper then official authorized service.

There are plenty of people in the US that can do a full restoration on that watch .

You are probably right, but I don't know any. And I don't think reading just their websites/advertisements would help me either. I need testimonies of people who actually did send their vantage watches to someone, who did good job. That's why I came to this forum.

For now I can always say "no" if the price will be to high and get my unrestored watch back. I'll get it back too, if they will not be able to repair it. However if they do this for, let say, one thousand dollars, and independent guy of unknown reputation will do this for 500, I rather have it done in Switzerland. And I don't believe anybody will do a full restoration for five hundred.

 

[polonus]

Dear Polonus,

We are sorry to hear about this. In order to help you, could you please send us your contact details using private message.

We will ask our customer service to contact you directly in order to solve this.

Many thanks,

Regards,

TAG Heuer

Thx. I'll do that.

Thank you.

Someone I can think of is watch guy Christian in the Uk, here is an example of his work and a link to his site:

Repair + Service: Zentith El Primero Rainbow Flyback calibre 405Z | Watch Guy

[...] If Tag Heuer does it for thousand dollars, it may be worth it, as the paperwork of an official service adds value. It is possible as I'm under the general impression that Tag Heuer do their best to maintain a good relationship with the vintage community. However Christian does it for less than 500 dollars (see link above).

Less than 500 dollars? I don't think so. "Automatic chronograph with or without date £ 240" - that is already 400 dollars and that's without polishing, or mainspring, if needed. Also restoration of the dial is not included in this price. When everything is added, it surely will be more then 500 dollars.

 

[polonus]

Dear Polonus,

We are sorry to hear about this. In order to help you, could you please send us your contact details using private message.

We will ask our customer service to contact you directly in order to solve this.

Many thanks,

Regards,

TAG Heuer

Well, another three weeks went by and I still don't know anything about my watch. I have no idea if it is in New Jersey, or in Switzerland, or they lost it somewhere or just they don't give a damn. First I thought my local Heuer dealer just didn't care about customer like me and when Heuer in Switzerland was notified about this problem, they will fix it and help me with that. Obviously problem is deeper, nobody cares in Charlotte and nobody cares in La Chaux-de-Fonds. I should have listen to those, who advice me to seek independent repair shop. It is already eight weeks and I am in total darkness. I have no clue what will be the cost of repair, when it will be done or anything. They just totally ignore me. :-| o|

 

[polonus]

That sucks. I hope you hear something positive soon.

I've got an email from them today:

"Dear Mr. J***

We are in receipt of your communication through TAG Heuer Switzerland. Please be aware your timepiece has been forwarded to TAG Heuer Switzerland for an estimate for servicing. Once the analysis is complete we will forward the estimate for service directly to Jared/Pineville, N.C..

If you have any questions please let me know.

Best regards,
M**** D*****"

Very nice, but I should have received an email like that eight weeks ago when I told guys at Jared in Pineville that this watch had to be sent to TAG Heuer in Switzerland. It would be nicer if they sent me this email before I complained to them via twitter.

 

[polonus]

I understand that someone may needs more time. I have no problem with that. What I cannot accept is ignoring the client.

If I didn't go to Jared (my local TAG dealer) 3 weeks ago and ask, they probably never call me back and my watch would be still in NJ. And now, if I didn't update you here informing TAG via Twitter, they wouldn't email me either, regardless of their own promise here 3 weeks ago.

This timepiece isn't my only watch. I have several others. I can wait few weeks, even months - if they keep me inform. However their own "promise date" on the original "Watch Repair Job" on Nov 14th 2013 at Jared says "8-12 weeks" and now, 8 weeks later, I don't even have an estimate of that repair. Only thing I know today is theirs yesterday's statement in email I've received which says: "once the analysis is complete we will forward the estimate for service directly to Jared/Pineville, N.C." So it still could be several weeks.

That really sucks.

 

[polonus]

This nightmare continuous. Another three weeks went by and I still have no idea where my watch is and how much will restoration cost. Below is copy of my email to the "Senior Manager of Customer Relations for TAG Heuer." She wrote: "If you have any questions relating to the servicing of your timepiece or the servicing process I would be happy to assist."

I had some questions:

Dear Ms M*** D****,


I have many questions relating to the servicing of my watch, or the lack of it.


First tell me, please, why Jared in Charlotte didn't send my watch to Switzerland two months ago? I told them it has to be serviced in La Chaux-de-Fonds, because thats says TAG's own website, but they insist about sending watch to New Jersey first.


2. Tell me, please, why I had to wait five weeks and nobody called me or inform me in any form - they have may phone number and email address, about status of my repair? Why I had to go to the store and ask them to check for it? Why they ask me then if is OK with me to send this watch to La Chaux-de-Fonds? I ask them five weeks ago to do this!


3. Why now, three weeks later and eight weeks since I Gave you my watch to be serviced I still don't know anything? I have no estimate whatsoever, I have no idea where my watch is, I have no clue if anybody actually looked at it. I am totally ignored by TAG Heuer. I don't know if this is a joke or a nightmare.


4. Tell me, please, why I cannot be in nay form of communication with the people who actually do the repair? Why "Once the analysis is complete we will forward the estimate for service directly to Jared/Pineville, N.C."? What Jared has to do with my watch? And if this is the only can't you send copy of that estimate to my mailbox too? Maybe you contacted Jared in Matthews, maybe they are those, who ignore me, but from my point of view it doesn't matter. I know one thing: I gave you my watch for repair EIGHT weeks ago and I don't even have yet an estimate how much that repair may cost.


I hope you are not playing any practical jokes on me, I hope you are not trying to set a world record of the worst service on the planet, I just hope, that one day, maybe even soon someone will contact me and tell me something about the status of the repair of my watch.


Please, please, help and please change all that stupid procedures prohibiting direct conatct with your customers.

Best Regards,

P.J.

 

[polonus]

I have an answer:

We are in receipt of your email and apologize for your frustrations. I have included responses to you questions as follows:

1 - We are the TAG Heuer U.S. subsidiary responsible for all servicing of TAG Heuer timepieces. In order to have a vintage TAG Heuer timepiece serviced it is required to come to the N.J. facility for delivery to our Headquarters in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

- TAG's website has no info about that and TAG's twitter do not informs about it.

2 - As you have chosen Jared's as your liasion, all information pertaining to the service has been directed to them.. We provided Jared a copy of the necessary documents that require approval and signature in order to ship your timepiece to Switzerland. As the repair facility in Switzerland is closed for the final 2 weeks of December there was a slight delay in the analysis of your timepiece.

3. An estimate for the required service was forwarded to Jared on January 17th. I have asked a colleague to fax a additional copy directly to them again today.

- So they have the estimate for two weeks now, but they don't give a damn about their customers.

4- We provide all our customers with the option to deposit their timepiece with an authorized TAG Heuer retailer or to forward their timepiece directly to our facility in N.J. By depositing your timepiece with Jared you have chosen them to be your liaision for the servicing process and all information, documents and required approvals will be filtered through them to you.

-Neither their website, nor info via Twitter gives that information. I'd rather deal directly with them, since Jared totally ignores me.

Please contact Jared at your convenience later today. They will have all the information relating to the work to be performed and cost. Please note the standard time frame for vintage repairs may run between 4 - 6 months. Once we receive the approval document from Jared Switzerland will be notified promptly to begin servicing your timepiece.

- I did, They said, that they "just received"a fax from TAG. An estimate is about $850 for movement plus $150 for case, crystal and hands. Is not clear if that includes also a dial. And restoration itself will take another 4-6 months.

-

 

[polonus]

let us hope it will NOT include a dial, this would reduce the collector value tremendously, hope they are not replacing the hands ?

I don't care about "collector value". What is important to me, is "my values". I bought this watch because I loved how it looked. Now is worn out and doesn't look as sharp as 35 years ago and I missed that.

What would you rather have: Old car which is full of scratches, leaking oil, with dents, broken windshield and smoking exhaust, or car restored to "as new" condition? Why those restored ones cost more?

and the service costs are at least double what you'd pay to have it serviced by a highly competent independent.

This is good one. Vintage heuer serviced for 400 dollars? Why nobody offered mi service like that? And that watch needs more then just cleaning, it need also repair.

I've never seen restauration work by TAG Heuer, but I've seen many Breitlings butchered by Breitling in Switzerland.

I've seen many restored watches by their original factories and they always look good. Also service like that usually increase value of the piece, which is not always true when the repair/service is done by independent shop.

 

[polonus]

quite surprised by the tone of your response too, I must admit.

????

If I offended you in any way, I apologize. I didn't mean to. I am just frustrated with all that experience with TAG Heuer "service".

... but be so kind to believe me that you can get highly competent work by cal. 11/12 specialists for the amount I have mentioned, I happen to have quite a lot of experience with these watches

I will be so kind, however the only quote for service I've gotten from the independent serviceman was, and I quote: "My ballpark estimate without seeing this watch in person would be in the $450 to $900.00 range but that also is not a fixed number".

 

[polonus]

I/m still waiting for my watch. Servicing and refurbishing is done, watch left Switzerland, but nobody knows where is it now. Maybe at the customs. However I know already how much will they charge me for it. Local jeweler, where I dropped it months ago says, that I'll have to pay 862 dollars and that includes bracelet, but not the new dial. If so, that will be rather good news. The first one in this story.

As soon as I get that watch back, I'll show you pictures and let you know all the details. However I've been told it could be another month. :-/

 

[polonus]

I just came back from my vacation, hoping that my watch will be waiting for me. Unfortunately it's not and Jared of Pineville, NC doesn't know anything about it. It is by far the worst experience of my life - and I grew up in communist Poland. But even there service and treating of customers was much better then by Jared/TAG Heuer in the USA.

 

[polonus]

I am sorry but I think Your watch was stolen months ago

Don't know why you would post this, it's not very helpful.

All that situation is so ridiculous is almost funny. They valued this watch at $3000.- accepting it, so if it is stolen, I'll buy another one. However it will not replace the sentimental value of it - that watch is a very special gift from my wife.

I can understand that they have very poor system and it has to take months for servicing vintage watch. Is their choice - they are loosing customers that way, but it is theirs problem, not mine. Nobody has to do this via TAG Heuer and next time I'll choose independent shop to do it. What I cannot understand is how they treat me as a customer. Lack of any communication, any information, any customer education or any explanation why it takes so long and when finally I'll get my watch back. They don't give a damn about me as their customer at all and I know I'll never ever do any business with TAG Heuer, or Jared of Pineville.

Well, let's see if you don't forget about all this mess, once you get your watch back looking all new and shiny?

Probably I will, if I'll be happy with job they did. Only time will tell. ;-)

 

[polonus]

If they sent the watch back, why do not You have a tracking number?
Do not You find this suspicious?

I'm not involved directly with that process. I dropped my watch at local TAG Heuer agent and I am supposed to pick up the refurbished watch when it returns from Switzerland. How and when this watch travels from NC to NJ and to Europe and back - from Switzerland to New Jersey and back to Charlotte - I don't know and they are not going to tell me.

Perhaps it has been delayed by customs.

Perhaps, however I use to move air freight and I know how customs works. Nobody holds a single timepiece at customs for weeks. If customs has any questions, they would resolve it in days, not weeks. Shipper and receiver also should know that it is customs delay. If so, they could and should inform me about it, but they either don't know or don't care.

I called Jared of Pineville again today. I've been told that someone is checking on status of my watch right now and he will call me right back. It was 2 hours ago and, of course, nobody called, because they don't give a damn.

/edit/ They called me an hour later and told me that US TAG Heuer Headquarters in New York received a box from Switzerland which probably contains my watch. However they don't know for sure and they will not find it out before Monday. Local representative at Jared of Pineville has no idea why. Probably because of 4th of July. I guess it is to difficult for them to resend it to North Carolina. If that box is mine - and that is a very big IF.

My wife thinks they lost it months ago and they are playing with me, hoping somebody will find it somewhere, sometime. I heard that prayer to saint Anthony helps... He often finds lost articles. Maybe they should try it? ;-)

 

[polonus]

I called TAG Heuer in NJ to confirm that they have that watch and they told me they do not. However I've been told that this watch it is in transit from Switzerland and in about a week it will arrive to New Jersey. God only knows why they need whole week. I just came from European vacation - it takes 8 hrs to fly back to NJ. When they receive it, they'll ship it to NC and I'll get it in about two weeks or so.

Or maybe not...

 

[polonus]

I finally have my watch back. Am I happy? Well... yes and now. I'm happy that it is over, I'm not, because repair was expensive and final effect is well below my expectations.

I don't know anything about mechanism refurbishment, I hope everything is fine. I have problem with case refurbishment, bracelet and watch' hands.

They tried to clean and polish the case, however they didn't succeed. Looks like they stopped half way. Rear (back) side of the case was engraved and they tried to polish it, however they stopped just hundreds of an inch from clear surface. Also scratches and dents on the side of that case were not removed. They replaced second (stopper's) hand, but hour and minute hand is untouched and looks quite bad. I also ask for an original bracelet and they told me they have it, however bracelet I received doesn't even look like the original.

I had one estimate from them, for 862 dollars 50 cents. Someone from Jared of Pineville told me that this sum cover everything. I did suspect that it will not cover bracelet and I was right. what I didn't know it also didn't cover case refurbishment. I paid total of $1186.50: $862.50 for "Maintenance II - Old Watches and Chronos", $144 for that poor "Case Refurbishment" and $180 for regular, generic, rather cheap looking Tag Heuer bracelet.



How do I rate them in the scale of 1 to 10? Not knowing how they fixed mechanism of that watch it will be rather difficult to be fair. But judging just the time, price, treating me as a client, communication between us, quality of the visual repairs of the case and hands - I would not give them more then 2 points.

One thing is for sure - next time I'll need to refurbish my Heuer I would go to independent craftsman, who will be less expensive, quicker and almost certainly he will do a better job.

 

[polonus]

this is the sloppiest polishing job I have ever seen, would have assumed these were the "before" pics ?
and I'd be mighty pi**ed to have a sparkling brand new chrono second hand and the aged main hands ......

You are right, I am pissed. Especially that I told them I need new, or refurbished hands. And they fixed one of them, ignoring others. Unfortunately I didn't take "before" pictures of the back side of that watch. I didn't expect any issues dealing with TAG Heuer in Switzerland itself. I have only couple of pics of the face of that watch:



Quotations from TAG's website:

"The challenge for the Vintage Workshop is to restore your old watch or bring it back to life, by giving it all the care it needs to run for many more years. Located at the company's headquarters in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, it is the only workshop in the world properly equipped and capable of restorting your Vintage watch."

Restorting? If they are that sloppy with their website no matter they cannot restore cases of the vintage watches.

"Our master watchmakers put all their experience and expertise into restoring your old watch to its original condition. They will return it to you in perfect working order and with the same appearance as the day you bought it."

Yeah, right....

"We always do our utmost to restore a vintage watch to which we know there will be strong sentimental attachment."

Well, sometimes "their utmost" is not enough. Many independence shops would do much better job.

 

[polonus]

I find it VERY hard to believe this case was polished by the "Heuer Vintage Workshop", this is just pathetic.

This is my bill:



Under condition it reads:

"Case Scratched, Case Back Scratched, Dents, Crystal Scratched, Hands Discolored, Dial Discolored, No Strap, Bracelet". They informed me that they do not have replacement dial and we agree that they will do nothing with it. Hands supposed to be refurbished, case too. They fixed one hand, did very poor job with the case and overcharged me selling me that generic, cheap bracelet for 180 dollars.

 

[polonus]

I just talked to a very nice lady who is a "Customer Care Specialist" in NJ TAG headquarters. She ask me for a pictures of that watch and later she returned my phone asking me to send my watch back to NJ. She said they will make it right.

 

[polonus]

I have sent my watch back to TAG in NJ and they sent it back to Switzerland. Below is an E-mail I received from TAG in NJ today:

"Your TAG Heuer timepiece has been sent to Switzerland. I am awaiting an update.
I will advise you once I have further information."

The saga continues...