Exemplary after-sales service.

Just a little report on a terrific experience with IWC after-sales service. It all started with a great goal; to give my Aquatimer split-minute chronograph an epic adventure. Now you see, there would have been no need for service had there not been an adventure involved. I would take my watch with me for some world-class skiing and then some world-class scuba diving, all within the same week! Well it all started of quite well with great weather, great snow and great skiing:

About to shove off:

We had a great day and this titanium beauty performed perfectly:

Then a few days later, it was off to a warmer (tarantula warm) climate zone for some diving:

Early morning, before the first dive:

I had been confident that the dive would be a good one and my watch would perform flawlessly; it had recently been back from a complete service and was working just fine. Well immediately as i descended into the depths, I knew something was wrong. My Aquatimer started to fill with water. Not a thing I could do about it at that point so I continued my dive, somewhat disconcerted:

I had to keep my poor flooded watch with me for the rest of the trip and it was a little while before I could ship it back to IWC service at the Richemont Technical Center in Texas. It was not a pretty sight before it left. The new lubricants had been washed around all over and the hands appeared to be rusting. The dial was discolored. I could only imagine what was going on inside:

After a few weeks I heard back from IWC's after-sales service. They agreed to take responsibility for repairs as the watch had been serviced by them recently and was well within the warranty period for the service performed. Water damage can be hard to warrant against but they took full responsibility and offered to replace many parts and do quite a bit of work to get it back to its original state. I was given an estimate of the time it would take and I agreed. A little before the time it eas slated to be ready I received a phone call from IWC to let me know that they were waiting on a part from Schaffhausen and that it would be several more weeks. Right about when they said it would be done, it did indeed arrive, and it was beautiful:


I received what appeared to be a brand-new watch, you really could not tell the difference! I have had it back for some time now and it has been performing spectacularly, keeping exceptionally good time. I am just so thrilled that after what this watch had been through, it was taken care of beautifully, the warranty was fully honored, and I was kept updated on progress. Thank you to the great staff at IWC after-sales service and the Richmont Technical Center in Fort worth!

I am glad Richemont restored the watch without any quibbling. I hope they diagnosed the reason for the failure. My Aquatimer is the only IWC I will take near water.

Quite a horror story for a divers watch, the quality of your watch must have been very poor! IWC performed well after the disaster, but I would call it a towel for the bleeding. They must have felt quite ashamed or embarrased, suppose your picture of the drowned watch hits the public media. Your watch looks nice again, but did your dare to keep it under water? I hope it performs well, and that you can enjoy and trust your watch again.

Kind regards,
Paul

Thats a wonderful story to tell in this forum, although I can feel with you at the moment it happened.
Things went wrong after, or obviously during the service, but when human beings are involved, on mechanical watches and similar things sh** happens sometimes like this.

Finaly to me it all depends on the problem-solving! To me that was a great job from IWC and it is exactly what I would expect from a top brand. Well done!

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers Chris

+1

my heart sank when i saw your water-filled aquatimer! but so relieved it's all back and looking newer than ever...

regards,
thang

I don't know about you, but when i saw that half filled Aquatimer case, i felt a grind on my teeth.

Glad that is all sorted now, one more great story for this one!

Not a pretty sight of a watch drowning. Glad to hear that the repair service augured well for you.
Kenneth.

Ben, looks like you put that watch through its paces! Does it stay accurate following these activities? (obviously not after drowning) .. my reason for asking is that there was quite a discussion a few years ago about what you should do whilst wearing a mechanical watch and there are quite a few members of this forum that stated that they would not even clap their hands.... Obviously skiing and diving is far from this, so how does your watch cope? Any observations?