Damage to case of gold JLC - help required

byronbay2

I have a vintage Jaeger LeCoultre calatrava-type watch, which I bought about 15 years ago. It cost €700 at the time. It is a beautiful piece and keeps reasonably good time (loses about 1 min per week) - I wore it every day for many years. Anyway, I took it off every night and left it on the bedside locker. One Saturday morning, my son came in while we were still in bed and (to cut a long story short) dropped the watch on the ground!

The 2 halves of the case opened and the mechanism fell out. I picked everything up immediately. The mechanism seems to be OK, it is an ordinary wind-up type and is ticking away goodo. Unfortunately, there is a ding on the back of the 18K gold case such that the 2 sides of the case no longer fit together and close properly.

I brought the watch to a couple of experts here in Cork but both advised that it needed to go back to JLC. I sent it to JLC but, as I expected, got a ginormous 4-figure quote for the repair, which is not an option for me. I don't think that the mechanism needs any work, just the case. There is no crack or anything like that, just a small bump that needs to be hammered out to get the 2 sides fitting together again.

My question is: does anyone know somebody (presumably a goldsmith or suchlike) who could fix the case and who (ideally) has some experience of working with gold watches? I would travel anywhere in Ireland. Any help or advice appreciated.

CarltonBrowne

I haven't used these people, yet, but I've heard good things about them and have spoken to them about rescuing a case of mine. I would definitely drop them an email with some pictures.

http://www.watchcaseworks.co.uk/

If you're interested this is the job I was enquiring about - unfortunately the case was too badly fecked by the platers for a repair to be economical.
http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.php?262541-Case-re-plating-help-and-advice-needed-for-a-jump-hour

RUK

I would send it to JLC, better to be safe than spend less now and stress about it long term

Deep Thought

CarltonBrowne wrote: »

I haven't used these people, yet, but I've heard good things about them and have spoken to them about rescuing a case of mine. I would definitely drop them an email with some pictures.

http://www.watchcaseworks.co.uk/

If you're interested this is the job I was enquiring about - unfortunately the case was too badly fecked by the platers for a repair to be economical.
http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.php?262541-Case-re-plating-help-and-advice-needed-for-a-jump-hour

What was the outcome of the debacle of the case replate ?

CarltonBrowne

Deep Thought wrote: »

What was the outcome of the debacle of the case replate ?

Watchcaseworks said that it was beyond any kind of economic repair and suggested that I look out for a project on Ebay that they could deal with (they then helpfully pointed me in the direction of a couple of likely candidates). I now have both the duff case and the movement in the same country (a minor detail but amazingly helpful :rolleyes:) and I plan to do a trawl this week. I did identify the movement on Ranfft but have mislaid the model number - I need to do that again and measure up and start contacting some of the donor sellers.

As I said, I haven't used Watch Case Works yet but was very pleased with their interaction though, clearly, there's many a slip between cup and a re-plated jump hour watch case. I suppose I should tidy up the TZ-UK thread to identify the culprits - Easy Electroplating (my @rse!).

In terms of the OP I would struggle to send the watch to JLC - the bill will be exorbitant and you probably won't see the watch for the best part of 12 months. Not necessarily being tied to the original manufacture is one of the supposed benefits of buying vintage...

Wibbs

CarltonBrowne wrote: »

In terms of the OP I would struggle to send the watch to JLC - the bill will be exorbitant and you probably won't see the watch for the best part of 12 months. Not necessarily being tied to the original manufacture is one of the supposed benefits of buying vintage...

+1000 to this. No way would I send it to JLC. Chances are high they'd farm out the case work anyway. Even if they didn't, As CB points out it will be very expensive and you'll be waiting a looong time. After all these magical Swiss elves are very expensive and work very slowly… And what will it get you? A JLC letterhead on a page thanking you for the pleasure of being ripped off? I'd send it to watchcaseworks chap. It's not as if our English cousins are new to the silver and goldsmithing lark.

If it was a Patek I'd likely send it back home(though I'd be thinking about it), or if it was a current model where you've no choice but to be scandalously ripped off, OK, but when you have a choice? No brainer for me TBH.

byronbay2

RUK wrote: »

I would send it to JLC, better to be safe than spend less now and stress about it long term

I have already sent it to JLC and the quote they emailed me is astronomical - getting the watch repaired through JLC is not an option.

I have contacted watchcaseworks this morning (thanks for the tip CarltonBrowne) so hopefully they can help me. I'll let you know how I get on.

If anyone else has any advice, it will be gratefully received.