The watches we like to own vs. those we like to wear.

I like to wear my Yema cream dialed Wristmaster but I’m not sure if I’m still going to like owning it a few years down the line. There is nothing wrong with it, it’s well made and has no defects which means that it will continue to appeal to me for many years. But it’s a mechanical automatic watch.

By their nature, every mechanism will fail eventually and will require repair. Yema service center is located in France. There’s nothing wrong with it and I still have a lot of sympathy toward the country of my birth. What I don’t like however is the idea of having my watch visit it more often than I do.

Let me clear something straight away before anyone jump in with a horror story about Yema service: I already had to send them a watch for repair and the bottom line is that I wish that every other brand had the same response time as Yema. In contrast with other brands that may take months to complete a repair, mine was sent back within 2 weeks and the repair was done to my satisfaction. Therefore I have no issue with Yema about this.

But I do have issues with servicing mechanical watches in general because out of curiosity I made an inquiry about getting my SARB017 serviced and the cost and time involved with it left me floored. I was left with the impression that I’m going to like owning my Alpinist a lot less when the time will come to send it for service. From reading other posts here on WC I get the idea that having a watch stay at the service center for months isn’t unusual and that it might return in the same or a worse condition than the one it was sent in for repair, regardless of the brand involved.

At least I do have other service options with Seiko and my other watches powered with standard off the shelf calibers. However it may not be worth the time and expense to have cheaper watches serviced since it will exceed their purchase price.

But this is in a future which may never come. I’m not going to let future possible issues detract me from the fact that I like to wear my Yema Wristmaster. It’s neo-retro style and unusual cream dial are just what the doctor prescribed to get me to smile.