# O&w Wedding Gift



## Fulminata (Feb 23, 2008)

We went to Mauritius over Christmas and New year - partly as a big treat and partly because my brother-in Law, K, was getting married there. God it was hot, the wedding went well, and the kids had a great time going round in a pack of cousins. The watch connection is that I'd bought an M1 diver from Roy as a wedding gift. I gave it to K a couple of days before the wedding so he could wear it, and he was delighted. I talked him through the features, gave it a few winds, set the time and told him that this was a proper piece of Swiss kit that I'd like to own myself (be careful what you wish for).

The day before the wedding I asked if he was happy with the watch which he politely said he was, but I immediately knew something was wrong and asked him to show me. Sure enough, the time was way out and he hadn't screwed the crown down properly. :huh: Now, this was K's first mechanical watch and his first auto, so I quickly re-set the time, gave it a few winds and screwed down the crown. I explained about the rotor and power-reserve, and about the crown always needing to be screwed in when in use. I noticed then that the crown and winder were really quite stiff.

On the morning of the wedding I asked the same question, got the same response and, oh dear, saw the same problems. Bloody hell, the thread on the crown was really tricky to engage, the winder was really stiff and noisy, and when I tried to spin the bezel, I broke out into a sweat trying to get it round the full 12-hour sweep.







As to the power-reserve well, red-faced, I was forced to admit that I had only given the watch a cursory inspection when I'd received it from Roy, wanting to keep it pristine.

Guests were arriving, :shocking: so nothing for it but to offer to swap it for the M5 I happened to be wearing explaining that they were really the same watch with a different bezel.










It wasn't exactly pristine and it was on a rubber strap, but I knew it was spot-on mechanically. A quick fiddle with my pen-knife had the M5 on K's metal bracelet. He was happy and grateful. Phew.










My trusty M5 has now emigrated to Australia where K lives, and as for the M1, I'm going to try a tiny dab of silicone on the stem, and hope that that the winder loosens up like the bezel already has. Time keeping is fine and I'll be testing the power reserve properly when I get a chance.

Moral of the story: when you're giving a watch for a present, build-in the time to get it out of the box for a proper road-test before you hand it over. Bleeding obvious really.


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## Barryboy (Mar 21, 2006)

As you've bought the watch from Roy he will no doubt sort it out for you without problem. Don't mess about with Silicone - leave it to the expert. I had exactly the same problem with an RLT16 and Roy fixed it in no time at all.

Rob


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## mattbeef (Jul 17, 2008)

What that man said.

Get Roy to have a look at it and im sure he will sort you but glad to hear that the wedding went smooth


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## Fulminata (Feb 23, 2008)

Thanks guys.

Doing this week what I should have done in the first place and giving the M1 some proper wrist time. If I'm going to trouble Roy about it, I want to be clear exactly what the problem(s) is that I want sorted.

Don't know if you've ever been to a Hindu wedding, but they go on for three days.  Now that's serious partying. :lazy:


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## James (Jul 17, 2006)

You know its funny I have had my fair share of issues and mainly with ETA movements, not the watches but the movements themselves or stems. Some were assembly issues and other assembly issues. These were all new pieces.

Zeno - Dial peg was too long and was stopping the rotor from turning - fix was N/C by my guy. Some ETA piece

M1 - Issue with not being able to set the time, skipping in out position still not able to set time. ETA 2824

Grovana - Stops sometimes takes a twist to start then runs fine. ETA 2824

The last 3 MP2801's I got.

1 was fine after wearing a bit.

1 a pallet jewel fell off, replace pallet level with jewels. Unit was dismantled to find the jewel then serviced upon reassembly N/C by my guy.

1 in for a stem right now, was was turning free and easy no sign of issue yet stem broke in two.

And the list can go on and on really others various winding issues again ETA 2824.

It's ETA and even my watchmaker sees this now in higher end pieces. Even Rolex is not immune to issues with their own movements, he was there for training last year on fixes on their movements. One that he has least issues with is the 44 jewel IWC auto

..............


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## James (Jul 17, 2006)

Oh yea forgot some.

2 Sar'z. From the factory. Of the bunch I picked up one would not run for more than 20 minutes, it was not winding up. Another had a severe winding issue tight as a nun. Both ETA 2824 both returned.

You wonder why I wear pieces now for a bit to test them lol

There are more......................


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## gallch (Jan 7, 2007)

Fulminata said:


> Don't know if you've ever been to a Hindu wedding, but they go on for three days.  Now that's serious partying. :lazy:


Sort of, I have friends where he is C of E and she is Hindu so they kind of compromised and partied for one and a half days !

Glad the watch story worked out. My own M problems are in separate threads which I won't bore you with here !


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