Timpson: Don't let them near your watch!

FWIW, the wife purchased a lifetime battery for her watch and has been quite happy with the service.

I had a very nice 25-year-old Citizen all-titanium quartz chronograph dress watch with day, 2x alarms, 24-hour dial with stopwatch & timer complications that had failed completely. One of the tiny hands had dropped off and all four buttons were impossible to depress. As it has some sentimental value for me I contacted Citizen who stated that the movement was obsolete and they couldn't repair it.

So I thought if Citizen cannot repair it no one can, until a friend mentioned, to my surprise, Timpsons. Having nothing to lose, I entrusted it to the Timpsons booth at my local Tesco store despite the many disasterous comments made about Timpsons watch services mentioned in this forum.
The Timpsons staff sent it off on the understanding that they may not be able to overhaul it; but 3 days later I was called to say they could repair the watch but due to the complications it would be £30 more and take a bit longer.

Three weeks later (a few days ago) I picked up the watch and:
* All buttons work.
* All complications function.
* It's keeping excellent time.
* It looks like new (though it's no longer driven by a Citizen movement).
And comes with a year's guarantee!

The service I've just received from Timpsons has been first class and I am absolutely delighted. :j

I very rarely add messages to forums but, as I was very nearly put off Timpsons by some of the messages here, I feel compelled to mention the high quality service I've enjoyed and I trust future prospective users receive the same.

I just came across this thread whilst searching for a (mechanical) watch cleaning service (no-one around here seems to do it), and thought I'd mention the problems I had with Timpsons.

This would have been around the same time as the original post on the thread - coincidence?

I have a Junghans radio controlled watch and needed a new battery fitting. I had previously sent it to the only approved contractor in the UK, Jon Vincent in Scotland, but thought that the charges with postage and insurance was becoming too expensive, so thought "Oh, it's only a battery; I'll go to Timpson's."

I left it with them and upon collection found, when I got home, that none of the buttons worked. I decided the best course of action would be to call their head office. In all fairness they were very good, apologising and asking me to send the watch for repair to Jon Vincent and they would refund all postage/insurance charges and pay for any necessary repairs.

As it happens, the whole movement was replaced as the Timpson's 'watch expert' had actually lost some parts. That would suggest that not only are they incompetent, but they don't even notice when parts are still lying about after 'repair'.

I'm afraid that's not the end of the story. The watch company in Scotland returned the watch with some buttons still not functioning and it turned out that they had installed the movement upside down! And that's the Junghans approved contractor for the UK!

Again, apologies and corrections made. Fortunately, it has worked properly since.

Ever since then, I have replaced the battery myself without any problems. It seems that I can do what Timpsons 'experts' are incapable of doing!

I'm afraid I can't do pressure testing or seal replacement, but fortunately there has been no steaming up or leakage. In any event, I would never use Timpsons again for anything to do with watches.

We could have written the OP, my husband had exactly the same problem. Lost count of the number of trips to the Kiosk by Tesco, sent to repair workshop, still didnt work. It must have been in and out 10 times before it had been rebuilt, so much for the "sentimental value" it had, not much of the original watch remains.

No response to complaints, just a "free" shoe repair. Do not trust them with an expensive watch or the "lifetime guarantee" battery would be my advice.

teddysmum wrote: »

Lot's of jewellers are now difficult about changing batteries in gold watches and want to charge a fortune to send them away.

The problem some places seem to have with gold watches is that quite a few of them (especially ladies models) are opened from the front by removing the glass and physically pulling the crown (winder) off so the whole movement and dial can drop out. It's not always obvious whether a watch is that type or the more traditional back opening type.

The problem arises because, if you dig around on a front-opener trying to take the back off, you can cause pretty nasty marking - or even distortion - of the case. If you try to go in through the front of a back-opener you'll almost certainly break something. Either way, putting it right can get expensive and is bad for the customer experience.

Most of the high street chains give their staff minimal (and I really do mean minimal!) training and it's far safer to teach them "if it's gold we send it away" than it is to teach them to spot the different types.

Which is fine by me - both of the jewellers in town here now "send away" gold watches to me so it makes no odds which shop they're taken to