General Chat

I have a 1930s ish mechanical watch, it loses 10 minutes a day, I took it to a jewellers asking how much to put it right, they said they would service it and it would cost £90, I do you think that is reasonable,

How much is the watch worth, did they say?

Is there another jeweller you could ask for a second opinion?

Whether £90 is worth it or not will depend on how valuable the watch is to you, either financially or sentimentally, and also how much work is involved.
Most of the cost will be labour , as with car repairs

I'd think twice about paying that much, but I do know that to put a watch in to be repaired / overhauled does cost a lot.
Last year I took a battery watch into a jewellers because it suddenly stopped working even though I had paid ( another shop ) for a new battery.
They asked if my watch had a sentimental value, - it didn't... and said it was not worth repairing as it would be so expensive.
I used an older mechanical watch for a few days, then gave the battery one a bit of a shake and it's been going fine ever since... about one year now !

No they didn't Florence61, I didn't give them the chance, I just said I didn't want to buy it and left the shop. I wasn't angry just shocked.

If it has never been serviced then it will need a really good internal clean out as it will be clogged up, which is possibly why it is loosing time.

At that age it may also need new parts like wonders.

I have 4 gold watches, 3 inherited plus my own. The man I take them to last charged £35 to open the back, this included a clean, I think. Then any repairs were on top of this. I tend to just take them in when they stop working.
The watches insurance values are £350 or so, but the sentimental value is great.

Do you have a Timpsons near you? People tend not to think of them as jewellers, but watch repairs is one of many things they do and our local chap is very good and a lot less expensive than a proper jeweller.

It's a skilled profession, I don't think that's unreasonable in this day. I paid about £200 to have my DSLR camera checked and repaired a couple of years ago.

If you can open the back you might (be lucky and) find a small adjusting lever. Possibly marked 'S' <> 'F'.
With a steady hand and a small metal item - say a straightened paper clip - you should be able to adjust the speed.

Thinking back I bought it about 20 years ago ( I think ) with a nurses watch with a Red Cross on it at was then known as a second hand shop not charity shop, I wouldn't have paid more than £30 for the two, hence my shock at the cost of putting the time right.

There are plenty of YouTube videos: re

"Timing and Adjustment mechanical watch movement - Running fast or slow"


If you have 15 minutes to spare, this one is informative:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJxS-gJCcuE