[sempervivens]

I for one would never have sent it to the company in Switzerland. I'll be curious to know how much they charge. 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...

You say

I can see those old Carreras offered for sale for anything between $2500 to $5000

. Don't you think they know that as well? So what do they think? Here's what they think: "We are going to make this watch like new so he will be able to earn on it? no way! He's going to pay what it will be worth when we are finished". They will charge at least 1500 $, is what I expect.

PS I hope I'm wrong! But it could be a lot more as well. I've recently seen Zenith charge 1800 euro for servicing a vintage Zenith El Primero from the same period. Other companies like JLC may even charge more.

 

[sempervivens]

I let you know.

Thank you.

The only problem is how to find that independent guy I could trust? ...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.

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

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.

I can follow you here. 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).

 

[sempervivens]

Thx. I'll do that.

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.

Mainspring won't cost a 100 dollars. Polishing is also not so expensive I think it will still be less than 500 dollars. Restoration of the dial may cost a bit, but IMHO polishing and dial restoration are best avoided.

 

[sempervivens]

Thank you for the update.

And independent watchmaker can also require more time sometimes, there may be some difficulties, or missing parts.

Good luck and keep us posted |>

 

[sempervivens]

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.

-

Thank you for the updates. I think the quote by Tag Heuer is reasonable seeing it is done by the company itself: only twice as much as an independent, I think we agreed in the beginning of the thread that this would still be reasonable. It seems to have been the middle man who was not communicating. Good luck with the service and be sure to specify that you would like them to return all the parts that they replace and why not (if they have it) a production date based on the serial number.

 

[sempervivens]

Perhaps it has been delayed by customs.