Just before Christmas I took delivery of my long desired Grand Carrera Chronograph, but after a few weeks of blissful ownership something went wrong. When I originally received the watch it had performed incredibly well, staying within 1 second a day, but suddenly it was gaining 30 secs in a day, then losing 15 seconds in a day, then losing 7 seconds and then kinda staying there or thereabouts. Thankfully I had bought the watch from Watchfinder who give a two year warranty and so back it went.
At around the same time I noticed that the chronograph was doing something weird. Now I don't generally use my chronographs very much to be honest, and so I couldn't be sure if this was a new development or whether the watch had behaved this way since it arrived. But I mentioned this in my covering letter and sent it back to them in the return pack provided.
A short while later I received a message from them that the watch needed a full service and I would not get the watch back for several weeks. Well, okay, it's not like I'm short of other watches to wear, but it was a bit disappointing to have to be parted from my new obsession watch after such a short time. Still, I reasoned, it will come back perfect and it will all be worth it.
In early February the watch did indeed come back, looking every bit as spectacular as when it left and tests showed that once again it was running to chronometer spec. But, the chronograph was still behaving oddly. The issue was that on engaging the chronograph the main minute hand (not the chrono subdial) was jumping forward slightly, and this had not been fixed. What bemused me slightly though was that this did not affect the general timekeeping of the watch in the slightest.
I was quite annoyed to be honest, because I was really excited to get my watch back, and the thought of sending it back again for who knows how long was really quite depressing. After all this watch cost well over £2000 and wasn't this supposed to be a 'luxury' experience?
So I contacted Watchfinder about it and even sent them a video of the issue, whereupon I was told that they had spoken to one of the watch experts there and it was considered a quirk of the Grand Carrera that it did that. Which I must admit sounded like the sort of answer you would get from someone who sold you a dud and really didn't want to fix it for you.
I'm afraid that while I didn't express that in so many words, I did reply that I found what they were telling me hard to believe, but before I went any further I decided the best option was to find out from TAG Heuer themselves. And so that's what I did. And would you believe it... they confirmed that what Watchfinder said was true. The minute hand does move forward a bit and they stays static until the gear catches up to it again, which is why the timekeeping is not affected.
Slightly embarrassed I quickly sent an email to Watchfinder apologising for doubting them and confirming that TAG Heuer had indeed confirmed what they said to be true.
A few weeks earlier I found that my Aquaracer Chronotimer (which has both analog and digital time displays) was losing time. It had been losing a small amount before and changing the battery had not solved the problem, on a normal watch this wouldn't have been such an issue but since the analog and digital displays should function in tandem it was very noticeable.
Then suddenly the watch lost 30 minutes in a day and I knew the time had come to bite the bullet. And so back to TAG Heuer it went, and before too long I received a quote for £310 for a full service. Perhaps a lot for a watch that's only worth about £900 but it's one I really like and intend to keep so I paid up and was promptly told to expect the watch back in early March.
The watch came back a couple of weeks earlier than expected and it looked great, actually it looked pretty great when it left but the bracelet looked even better when it came back. The watch seemed to be working perfectly again and I wore it for a day and took some photos which I put on Instagram. One of the comments said how nice the watch was and I commented about how cool the backlight feature was, it was only then that I remembered I hadn't actually tried the backlight. So I pressed the crown in and.... absolutely nothing happened. Terrific...
When you press the crown in on the Chronotimer (and the F1 Kirium which shares the same movement) the second hand should stop for several seconds while the backlight illuminates the digital part of the dial, and then jump forward to where it would have been if it hadn't stopped. I don't really know why it can't just light up without doing this little party trick, but it is kinda cool. However this was totally not working and once again I got this sinking feeling...
So I contacted TAG Heuer and told them that the watch they had just returned to me after two months was not actually fixed and they sent me another returns pack. I fully expected them to tell me that there was some reason why this was the case, perhaps the original movement had been discontinued and the replacement did not have the backlight feature... but actually no, I had a new quote showing a zero balance and saying that the watch had been tested and they agreed that the light and hand were not functioning as expected and they would fix the problem and have it back to me in two weeks. I do hope so...
I think it's fair to say I haven't been overly lucky with my repair experiences with TAG Heuer: long term readers may remember that I sent my CG1110 S/EL back for repair and relume only for it to come back with the wrong dial in it. In my naivety I believed that they would actually replace the lume on my dial, but no of course what they do is replace the whole dial. Makes perfect sense, except that the CG1110 had a dial refresh part way through it's life and they only had replacement dials in the second style available - which I hated and which I went out of my way not to buy when searching for my CG1110.
Fortunately they could replace my old dial, but it was a bit of a shame as it meant I now had brand spanking new hands but still the old dial. I could have had the old hands put back too but they were really nasty looking so I settled for new hands and my old dial. And TAG Heuer credited me for the dial and the hands so it wasn't too bad I guess. On the plus side they refreshed the case and bracelet and it looked amazing.
The only other times I've returned watches to TAG Heuer directly was firstly when I sent my blue dial 2000 Exclusive back as the crown was shot and I could only set the time backwards. They did a fine job with that one, to be fair, though the bezel wasn't as scratch free as I'd hoped, I guess there's only so much they can do - but I wish they had quoted me for a new bezel while it was away.
Then there was my Senna F1 which was still under warranty and had a problem with the date wheel. They fixed the problem fairly quickly but when the watch came back one of the hands had lost its lume and it wasn't inside the watch so had clearly been put back that way. Thankfully they sorted that in about a week. To be fair, it took me a couple of days to notice it was missing, in fact it wasn't until I took this photo that the penny dropped.
Finally there was my orange F1 which was sent back within a couple of weeks of buying because the date wasn't sitting in the date window correctly. For some reason they sent me a quote to repair it even though the watch was clearly under warranty - I bought the orange F1 within a week of release if I remember correctly, so they really should have known. I think they suspected I had damaged the watch somehow and asked if I had dropped it, but eventually they repaired it under warranty with no more hassle.
It is a little disheartening to recall these problems, and even more to realise that I am by no means alone in having servicing problems. Somehow it seems that these problems are all too common. However I have forgotten to include one somewhat embarrassing interaction with the TAG Heuer service centre which came right at the beginning of my Swiss watch journey.
In 2004 I bought my first TAG Heuer from an internet company called A1 Watches. This was what I know now to be a grey market dealer, which is fairly horrifying in hindsight, but at the time it was cheaper and one good thing about the F1 Kirium was that there weren't any fakes (not that I knew about fakes then). On the day I got the watch I managed to pull the crown off, which was entirely my fault but at the same time understandable.
On the F1 Kirium (like the Calibre S) the crown is naturally in the '1' position rather than '0' as with most watches. This is because you can press the crown in to activate the light (as I mentioned earlier on the Chronotimer) but I didn't understand this at the time and in my efforts to get the crown to position '2', or what I thought was position '2' (actually a non-existent position '3'!) I pulled the crown off altogether.
Hard to describe the feeling of pulling the crown off your first luxury watch on the day that you got it. Suffice to say I felt sick to my stomach. Thankfully, I took it in to Goldsmiths and they sent it back for me where it was repaired under warranty. I then paid Goldsmiths to size the bracelet and pretty much vowed not to buy from the internet again! Frankly I would gladly have paid the extra £££ to have avoided such a traumatic experience!
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