Re: Seiko V service
- From: dAz <dazb@zipDOTcomDOTau>
- Date: Sat, 03 Sep 2005 10:40:28 +1000
Jack Denver wrote:
Generally speaking it is not economical in most places with developed world labor costs to have a watchmaker clean & lube a Seiko 5 though some people do so if they have a sentimental attachment to the watch. Even in that case, it would be cheaper to just replace the movement and keep the old case & dial than to service it. But absent sentimental attachment your best course is to just get a new one. Not only will you have a fresh movement but the crystal will be unscratched, the band will be new, etc.
I still service 30+ year old Seikos for people who want to hang on to them, some I have to scrounge around for parts, but for the current crop of Seiko 5s with the 7S26/36 movement it would make more sense just to buy new watch, mind you put the one you replaced away in a drawer, who knows in 30years :)
Yesterday I looked at a chart of "repair vs. replace" recommendations in Consumer Reports magazine for various appliances and devices. These were in the form of a time line for each item. For example, for a lawn tractor, the recommendations might have been to repair if it broke in years 0 to 5, borderline in year 6 and replace starting in year 7 (I don't recall the exact #'s). They had tried to arrive at these numbers scientifically based on average repair costs, how long you could expect the device to last after repair, etc. What really shocked me was how short the recommended "repair" intervals were - for most devices, even expensive ones (digital cameras, camcorders, even refrigerators) the time horizon was only a year or two before they recommend discarding the broken item. This really surprised me - in the basement of my parent's home is a chest freezer that has now run for over 50 years - I can't imagine any appliance built today running for that long. OTOH, I recently had my own fridge whose compressor died not long after the warranty expired and indeed it was cheaper just to get a new fridge than to have a new compressor put in. It was almost as if the compressor was made to last just beyond the warranty and not much longer - gee ya think?
seems that way, I still have my grandmothers fridge which she bought new in 1965, I use it as a beer fridge now but it still runs well, good solid metal cabinet not like the flimsy tinfoil cabinets of todays fridges, mind you the new fridges are more energy efficient.
I know with things like computers, digital cameras, the advancements in technology makes older products obsolete, the differances between the 3 year old 3MP camera and the new 8MP SLR I bought a month ago is stunning, in 3 years that camera will be superceded by something faster and better.
improvements in manufacturing, use of robots in the last few years have made products that would have cost a lot to buy years ago cheaper.
9years ago I bought a mid range mountain bike, all alloy, 24speed(the latest then), no suspension, canterlever brakes for AUS$1100, last week I bought a new MTB, again all alloy, 24speed although 27speed is available, front long travel suspension, disk brakes! for AUS$565, for the same money I spent 9 years ago, 27speed, all alloy, full suspension, disk brakes, better group set.
Watch and clock people have (or used to have) a "last forever" mentality. Properly maintained, it is possible to keep mechanical timepieces running for centuries. We just saw a thread where modern grandfather clock movements were looked down upon because they are built to run for "only" 20 years and then to be replaced and not repaired. Only in the horological field does this mentality still exist. Elsewhere, something that lasts for 20 years would be seen today as extraordinarily long lived and you would naturally expect to replace as a whole and not repair a 20 year old device. The Seiko likewise is built as a normal modern product, which is meant to be replaced and not repaired after its service life.
well in something like a Grandfather clock that a person has spent several thousand dollars on I would like to expect the movement to last a hundred years and with normal regular service last a lot longer, it should at the very least last the lifetime of the person who bought it.
I have my Grandfather's grandfather clock which he bought new in 1920, it was passed to my uncle, and now passed to me, I think its had maybe 3 services in it's life, the last done by me some 15+ years ago and will get another one as soon as I get time to do so, but in the mean time it's still runs well and keeps good time, better then the 20year old POS I am currently working on for a customer.
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