3 watches to pick from

[Elise]

hey omieluv

i totally agree with surfgirl, the servicing cost of a quartz watch is generally much lower than that of a mechanical or automatic watch. having said that, the servicing cost may nevertheless be high if you are talking about an upscale brand like bedat. just to give u some indication, i paid USD200 to service my cartier (checking of watch plus polishing of bracelet) and i pay USD400 upwards to service an upscale automatic watch. u can find out from either bedat or a reputable watch retailer carrying bedat as to what the estimated cost of normal maintenance and servicing would be. do take into account that it is recommended to change the battery of a quartz watch every few years to prevent leakage spoiling the mechanism. i pay on average USD30 for each change.

i hope you eventually get the watch your heart desires. if u are comfortable with the upkeeping costs, go for it!

 

[omieluv]

Hi Elise - thanks for your response! How often do you have your Cartier serviced? Though I am sure Bedat would be able to advise me on a preventative maintenance schedule, it is also nice to find out from others what they do. I have even read that some do not even service their watch, unless it is absolutely necessary, but I can appreciate the value of catching problems before they cause serious damage. As for watch battery changes, I would typically change the battery in my Fossil every couple of years, so that will not be a problem.

Surfgirl - how often do you service your quartz watches?

 

[charles de gall]

I am partial to mechanical watches with ''soul'' rather than an electronic quartz module, which has a finite life. Resistance will build up in the circuit and eventually it will die. A Rolex, Patek, JLC or IWC or other high quality watch will last virtutally forever. Rolex will guarantee service will be available for 30 years after a model is disc. That''s a long time.

Raymond Weill and Baume & Mercier make some nice pieces for a reasonable price, as does Ebel. The used market on Ebel is quite weak and good deals may be had.

Tourneau can be shady, so make sure you do your homework before going there.

 

[Elise]

Date: 7/11/2007 11:49:40 AM
Author: omieluv
Hi Elise - thanks for your response! How often do you have your Cartier serviced? Though I am sure Bedat would be able to advise me on a preventative maintenance schedule, it is also nice to find out from others what they do. I have even read that some do not even service their watch, unless it is absolutely necessary, but I can appreciate the value of catching problems before they cause serious damage. As for watch battery changes, I would typically change the battery in my Fossil every couple of years, so that will not be a problem.

Surfgirl - how often do you service your quartz watches?

Most welcome! I believe you should be able to wait between 3-5 years per servicing for quartz watches but I usually send mine in every 2 years as they would send it in to the jeweler for repolishing. My watches always come back looking as good as brand new!

I change my batteries average of 1 - 1 1/2 years. I''m sure the batteries last longer than that but I''ve been advised to change it more frequently to prevent leakage. With such watches, preventive maintenance is almost necessary. Waiting till there is a problem to fix it may not be advisable. I found out the hard way when I recently had to have a watch overhauled. It took 8 months and I nearly fainted at the cost! The thought of the bling I could have bought with the servicing fee makes me feel ill.

 

[omieluv]

Elise - I am sorry to hear that your watch was so costly to fix, you really must love it to be willing to spend so much! However, your experience does illustrate the need to maintain fine watches. I hope others reading this thread will take note. I wonder though, if I purchase the watch from a website, whether a local jewler would be willing to send the watch out for me...I would guess the jewler would be willing to do this only if they carry the watch I would like to have serviced.

Charles - Thank you for the information and I definitely appreciate mechanical watches for their movement and their long-life (my dad has an automatic Seiko he bought in his Navy days back in the 1960''s & it is still running). However, with a tight budget ($600), I am not quite sure I will be able to purchase one as of yet. I had no idea Rolex had such a nice warranty, I can see why though.

 

[Elise]

Hey Omieluv, is there a Bedat agent near you? I believe in this part of Asia, the agents are the ones that carry the brand into the country and the distributors are the retailers that actually sell the brand in their shops (the stock of which they get from the agents). If there is an agent near you, you may be able to send it in yourself. I''m not sure if the distributors will take it in though if you don''t buy directly from them or have an existing relationship with them. I''m also not sure if they do take it in, they will charge a "middle man" cost. I''ve only ever bought from the distributors so not sure how it works. Perhaps you can call them?

 

[omieluv]

Good ideas Elise! Fortunately, I have found 2 websites offering the Bedat I am considering for the same price, so what I am going to do is reach out to them to find out how one would go about servicing the watch. Perhaps I will receive helpful information from at least one of these sites, which will actually be a good way for me to decide upon which site to order from. I know there is a Bedat servicing center in the US, unfortunately, it is not near me, but I am sure something can be worked out to send the watch directly to them.

Again, thanks so much, you have been so helpful!

 

[surfgirl]

I have to disagree with Elise in that "preventive" maintenance is often a trigger for more issues. There are two schools of thought: one is to do maintenance at a specific year regardless of whether or not there''s a problem; and there''s the school of thought that says "if it aint broke, dont fix it!" I''m in the latter. Until or unless my Rolex or JLC have problems, I''m not sending them anywhere. Ever. I hear too many stories about "I sent in my watch for maintenance as scheduled and now it''s not running properly" etc.

As for quartz watches, I only "do" anything when the battery dies. I never change the battery until it stops. I''ve done this with my Tag for 14 years and it runs like a charm!

BUY THE BEDAT or I''m coming to your house and I''m gonna make you BUY THE BEDAT!

You KNOW you want to...

Oh, if you want, check out my fav watch site here and just post a question on the appropriate forum about your query, as I''m sure there are people there that know of Bedats:

http://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=threadt&frm_id=4

 

[omieluv]

Date: 7/13/2007 1:26:52 PM
Author: surfgirl
BUY THE BEDAT or I''m coming to your house and I''m gonna make you BUY THE BEDAT!

You KNOW you want to...

Again, you are hilarious, love your sense of humor, though I think this time you mean business!! Seriously, I really do like that watch, so I am trying to hunt down the online vendor offering the best warranty. Bernard Watches offers 1-yr and essental watches offers 2-yrs. Bacario offers a freaking 5 year warranty, however, they do not offer the watch in silver, just black and in white...figures. I also have to find out how servicing would work in case I needed to send it in, so I need to get cracking at contacting these online vendors before the darn thing sells out.

Tag does have an excellent reputation, so I understand why you have had such success with it. I have not read much about Bedat, in terms of the longevity of its quartz watches, however, I have not really done much research outside of PS. I tried accessing that forum you have recommended, however, due to a nasty firewall at work, I cannot access it!

I will try it at my BF''s house over the weekend.

 

[Elise]

Date: 7/13/2007 11:47:35 AM
Author: omieluv
Good ideas Elise! Fortunately, I have found 2 websites offering the Bedat I am considering for the same price, so what I am going to do is reach out to them to find out how one would go about servicing the watch. Perhaps I will receive helpful information from at least one of these sites, which will actually be a good way for me to decide upon which site to order from. I know there is a Bedat servicing center in the US, unfortunately, it is not near me, but I am sure something can be worked out to send the watch directly to them.

Again, thanks so much, you have been so helpful!

Welcome!

 

[monarch64]

LOL! I''m with surfgirl, buy the Bedat and live happily ever after or else!!! Plus I live in your area and surfgirl would have to go to the trouble of flying over, so now it''s up to me to beat you senseless...sheesh, the responsibilities I have here on this forum!

Seriously, though, I understand you want to get the best warranty and all, no worries. I hope you get your beautiful new timepiece soon and I''m looking forward to some arm shots!!!

Take care Omieluv!

 

[surfgirl]

monarch, thank you from the bottom of my heart, for taking on the "beating her senseless" part! I''m a bit over extended planning my elopement so your willingness to run roughshod over omieluv is very generous and I''m touched you''d be willing to strong arm her for me, in absentia, as it were. Thank you. You really are a dear!

 

[omieluv]

Oh wow, now I have Monarch in addition to Surfgirl after me! After I get back from my work trip, I will call those websites to ask about servicing. After that, I will decide which site to go with...

Thank goodness you do not know exactly where I live Monarch, because I am pretty close to you, if you live near to where I am thinking you live...

I am in Schenectady, NY in a secure building, so I am safe for now!!

 

[omieluv]

Date: 7/14/2007 12:29:29 AM
Author: Elise

Date: 7/13/2007 11:47:35 AM
Author: omieluv
Good ideas Elise! Fortunately, I have found 2 websites offering the Bedat I am considering for the same price, so what I am going to do is reach out to them to find out how one would go about servicing the watch. Perhaps I will receive helpful information from at least one of these sites, which will actually be a good way for me to decide upon which site to order from. I know there is a Bedat servicing center in the US, unfortunately, it is not near me, but I am sure something can be worked out to send the watch directly to them.

Again, thanks so much, you have been so helpful!

Welcome!

Elise - a representative from Essential Watches said that they charge $100 for a complete overhaul for a Bedat watch (including watch battery). Servicing would be conducted by their own in-house certified people. What do you think?

 

[Elise]

hi omieluv, i think it sounds reasonable. this is provided essential watches carries bedat and you are comfortable with their expertise at servicing bedat watches. you may have to be prepared that if, in the course of servicing, they find a problem which can only be dealt with by bedat, then the costs would be substantially higher. but given that it is a quartz, the risk of that happening anytime soon should be quite low.

so i guess we can expect to see wrist shots soon?

 

[monarch64]

LOL, this thread is getting silly and I love it! PS is just too much fun sometimes!

Omieluv, that $100 overhaul charge sounds very reasonable to me, but I agree with Elise, upon sending your watch in for servicing some other issue may pop up and you might be in for a higher charge...

Honestly, I think if you find a watch you love, and you are not hard on it in an everyday environment, you shouldn''t have to worry about anything besides mfr. defects before having it serviced every few years. Now, if you are like my DH and leave it on the floor by your bed in a hotel room and step on it in the morning, you will be faced with greater expenses. Or if you wear it to say, a football game and just happen to slam your arm into a brick wall accidentally and crack the crystal...LOL! He is so hard on watches, it''s not really even funny.

Anyway, my point is that typical wear will not constitute any additional expense besides having the battery changed in a quartz movement watch every few years and cleaning the system inside on the same pace, along with maybe having the bracelet/bezel polished once in a while. Ok, I''m getting all long-winded here and I don''t even think you were asking these questions, lol!

I really was teasing about the coming after you thing...and I definitely wouldn''t go all the way to Schenectady to enforce my opinions on which watch you should buy, LOL!

Take care, best of luck in your decision!

 

[omieluv]

Elise - Essential Watches carries several luxury watches, including A. Lange & Sohne, Audemars Piguet, Jaeger LeCoultre, and of course Bedat. This site is basically a liquidator of fine watches, so I suppose they are considered as a "grey" market merchant. I am not sure how good their people are in terms of watch servicing however. I wonder if I can somehow find out, perhaps I should post a question to that forum that surfgirl suggested in a previous response. I do plan on purchasing this watch, but I am going to need to find out the reputation of Essential-Watches in terms of their skill. I suppose in a worst case scenario, I can always send it directly to Bedat. If Essential Watches proves to have a solid reputation, I will probably go with them. I do understand that there is a possibility of something else being discovered during servicing, however. Since this is a quartz watch, I am confident that it should be ok for the most part though.

Monarch - I would have to agree, this thread has gotten a bit silly

and I am completely fine with it! Thank you for describing your DH''s behavior, because I was concerned that my actions would be too hard on a watch, however, now I am starting to re-think that. For instance, I do not recall ever stepping on my previous watches, nor do I recall slamming my wrist into a brick wall either, in other words, I am not as hard on my watches as your DH is! What I might do is order a fun sport watch for activities where wearing a fine watch may not be appropriate, so that will be another saga for me to endure when the time is right. I can of course replace the battery in my Fossil f2 as well (kinda like this, only 2-tone and as a silver face: http://www.fossil.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=7116&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=926&iSubCat=1019&iProductID=7116).

I fully understand you were teasing about actually coming after me, it is fun to be silly and I do have a sense of humor.

 

[sheena]

The three watches would be a great choices of watches.

 

[omieluv]

Monarch & Elise (Surfgirl too) - Just heard back from the sales person at Essential-Watches. Apparently, I read on a watch forum that Essential-Watches typically charges 3% of the purchase price of the watch, if you use your credit card and of course nothing extra if you do a wire transfer. Of course, we have heard of this with several diamond vendors, so I was not surprised. I mentioned this in an e-mail to him and he said he could "eat" the 3% due to the cost of the watch (I find this odd, since this watch is probably one of their more affordable watches on this site). Then he told me that overnight shipping would cost around $50 (insurance included) & this seemed high to me. I checked out another site offering this watch and they charged $30 (insurance included). So, I made the sales representative aware of this & he said they could ship it to me for $30. There are a few watch sites selling Bedat that offer free shipping, but it would take anywhere from 1-6 days and these sites do not have the watch model I am interested in.

Sheena - I am actually not considering any of those 3 watches I originally posted. If you click here, you can see it: http://www.essentialwatches.com/listing_detail.asp?brandID=55&classificationCount=2&itemID=13816

 

[surfgirl]

omie, I wonder if Bedat makes a black/gray satin strap that would fit that watch? It would look fantastic for evening wear like that and I know they have satin straps for some of their womens line...Hmmm...
Oh yeah, and...

...BUY THE DAMN WATCH ALREADY...

 

[omieluv]

Date: 7/17/2007 6:51:34 PM
Author: surfgirl
omie, I wonder if Bedat makes a black/gray satin strap that would fit that watch? It would look fantastic for evening wear like that and I know they have satin straps for some of their womens line...Hmmm...
Oh yeah, and...

...BUY THE DAMN WATCH ALREADY...

Hey, give me a break! I am on the road this week and I do not want to order the damn watch until I return home!

In the meantime, I will see if I can find satin straps...geesh!

 

[monarch64]

The silver faced Bedat on Signed Pieces was down to I think $522 this weekend.... Just food for thought! Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

 

[diamondfan]

I am not a black face on watch lover, so I prefer the other two, but would see them in person first if you can.

 

[monarch64]

Oops, maybe this is just showing the clasp of the watch...anyway, it''s the Bedat on the SP site for $522...you can''t go wrong!!! LOL, are we driving you insane yet?

 

[monarch64]

dun da da dah...

 

[omieluv]

Date: 7/31/2007 3:23:45 AM
Author: monarch64
Oops, maybe this is just showing the clasp of the watch...anyway, it's the Bedat on the SP site for $522...you can't go wrong!!! LOL, are we driving you insane yet?

Actually, I have driven myself insane over this and fear that I have taken all of you with me!

Thanks! I did see that the Bedat is now $522 on SP & it is very tempting. I am just nervous because SP does not offer a warranty, which scares, but it is very tempting!! The black face is nice, but I think it makes it look a bit too sporty...not sure.

In all honesty, I have been going back and forth on getting the Bedat (or any discount fine watch). It is not that I cannot afford the watch, as I will certainly not go into debt over it. It is more that my money should be going to other things right now, like paying off student loans, saving for a town home, retirement, etc. Here are a couple of Citizens I have come across...not sure if I am thinking straight though...I am kinda emotional today for female reasons, plus my cat may have a possible UTI, so that is driving me crazy.

 

[omieluv]

OK, now I am seing that Signed Pieces is offering the Bedat in black, silver & white each for $522, plus a 1 yr warranty! OMG!!

Not sure why Monnie, but this is the first day I am seing them come up b/c I checked after your posting and I did not see them...weird.

 

[monarch64]

Omieluv, I wonder if you could call Signed Pieces and maybe ask them if they offer any extra warranty coverage for an additional fee? Like another year, maybe? I mean, the most you're getting out of any warranty imo is coverage against manufacturer defects I think, and you would likely have any issues like that within a year or two. Citizens are nice, but again, I think they only have a year or two worth of warranty and then all that's covered is defects. I have a Citizen (it was kind of a cheapie, I think I paid $200 for it at Kohl's), and I dropped it on the ceramic tile floor in our bathroom and cracked the crystal. That damage was NOT covered, and for me to send it back to Citizen and have the crystal replaced was going to be almost $100 with shipping etc. Not worth it to me...now the watch is sitting in my jewelry box. Another thing you may want to look for in a watch is a sapphire crystal, which is way more resistant to scratching and cracking. Obviously if you drop it or run over it with your car it's still going to break, but the possibility of scratching it or cracking it if you accidentally knock your wrist into a door or whatever is decreased. Just food for thought, I don't know what kind of crystals those Citizens you posted have.

As for whether you should pay more for a watch or pay more towards debt at this point, I say since the price difference between the Citizens and the Bedat is not all that much (I'm assuming), go with what you really love. I think you've loved that Bedat from the start, and the fact that SP even offers a one year warranty is great news, plus you're not paying full retail...ETA: and I think that a higher end watch is totally an investment as far as your career, etc. I think you're in your early 30's from other posts, so why not indulge by spending a little extra on this timepiece? Just my .02, hee hee!

Hope you're feeling better and kitty is ok!

 

[omieluv]

Thanks Monnie, for your response! I am feeling better and the little beast (a.k.a. Omie) is on antibiotics for her UTI.

Regarding price differences between the 2 watch brands, the Citizen w/out the diamond Bezel is $220 and the model with the bezel is $375 (these are online prices). So, the price difference range would be $320 - $149. Thus, the difference between each of the Citizen models and the Bedat is not significant, given the difference in quality between the 2 brands.

A sapphire crystal is a must for me, so I always check to ensure any watch I am considering for myself or others has one. While I have found that not all Citizen watches have sapphire crystals, all that I have posted do. In your case, I would have to agree that sending your watch back to Citizen does not justify the cost for a new crystal (that stinks, sorry about that).

If I do go forward with the watch purchase, SP will be the way that I go. I have just learned that they have watch servicing capabilities, so I will go ahead and ask if they offer some sort of extended warranty. SP did say that they will only service watches purchased from them, however. Now I have to figure out whether it will be black, silver or white. I am still leaning toward silver, as I think it is most versitile. I wish that it came in white mother of pearl, then it would be easy.

You are very perceptive, As of late June I have transitioned into my 30''s and I am none too happy about it!

 

[omieluv]

Just heard back from SP. They do not offer an extended warranty, but their warranty does cover: cleaning, inspection, and any servicing the watch would need (not a complete overhaul).