Horological hiccups and a request for positive perspective!

I've seen pictures of dust particles in Rolex Explorers. Take comfort in the fact that you didn't have dust in a $7k watch. 

In my experience you will find flaws in most watches if you look hard enough. Slight marker alignment issues, inconsistencies in the brushing, and my favorite: Finding machining marks in specific light conditions. (halogen lamp at a low angle) I have an $800 watch, and I find slight alignment issues on some days, but not on others.

Just like life, you win some, you lose some. 

This is sort of why we all have multiple watches. 

Does it suck? Absolutely. 

Does it matter in the long run/grand scheme? Nope

I've been wearing my Oris Aquis today, which has a slight bezel alignment issue,  but to be honest I find if a like a watch I can overlook minor issues. Also I have a lot of vintage watches,  most in good but not mint condition,  I find wearing these less stressful in a way , as someone else has already put a few scratches on them for me. I think as time goes by you'll be less concerned about these issues, the perfect flaw free watch doesn't really exist!

It happens. I just deal with it...it’s made by humans which are not perfect…at Least your AD is going to send it back to get fixed it’s a little hiccup…it Makes a good story though 😉

It could be worse.

That‘s in constant half days lol😂

sorry to hear you're having these issues with your watches! i'm sure most (all!) of us here swap our watches multiple times a day so not having one on the wrist can feel like there is something missing :(

at the end of the day, when things like this happen, i try to remind myself that i'm lucky to be able to have watch collecting as a hobby when there are so many out there who would kill to be in the position i and many others on here are in. 

if i bump my watch or need to send it in for a repair, i just chalk it up to a "c'est la vie" moment and try to remember that i'm lucky to be able to have this problem in the first place :)

Oh dude...I'm so sorry! I hope Junghans will fix that. 

Firstly, sorry to hear about your experiences--you are definitely allowed to be disappointed by these defects.  The longer I stare at watches in my collection, the more flaws I see.  I will say I would be extremely bothered by dust, especially against a dark dial, but luckily people will probably never see it.  I know it doesn't matter much, because you can see it, but I am trying to convince myself that little flaws give my watches character, and I will always know that they are my watches.  I just discovered that my most expensive diver has a bezel with a good amount of backplay compared to my divers that cost a quarter the price.  Does it bother me--yes, but now I know that it happens, and I can move on.  I really like @Krishaan take on the hobby--we are lucky that we are able to put money into a hobby that many simply cannot justify.

I hope they are quick with the repairs for you. 

Sorry to hear about the issues. I suspect your experiences are nothing out of the ordinary especially as one engages in this hobby long enough. I too have experienced disappointments, and they felt gut wrenching at the time. But through these experiences I have become less invested emotionally when things go wrong, because I have learned to expect material things to fail at some point, let alone complex mechanical things. 
 

I will share one story that left the biggest impression on me. there was one time, I hired a watchmaker to swap out a damaged crystal on my 14270 explorer I. After I took the watch home, I saw that the case was damaged. There are visible gouges where two of the lugs meet the case. The bezel is also not set correctly on the case as a visible gap can be seen. I called the watchmaker and showed him the pictures. He then accused me of scratching up the case and trying to put them on the hook for damages I caused. They offered a free service for my watch to settle, but at that point there was no way I am letting him touch my watch again. I ended up just walking away, finding another watchmaker to polish out the damage and reset the bezel, and he did an amazing job. Although this was a hellish experience, strangely enough i have developed sort of a bond with the watch now. I will probably never sell it because of my experience with it. 

I’ve gotten a couple watches recently that had dust under the crystal. But they were not very high-end watches, so I took them apart and blew out the dust myself. It’s no fun to get a lemon, but months or years from now, it will all be long in the past. 

I think we all go through this in regards to our collecting journey.  I have to remind myself this is supposed to be enjoyable and not get stressed out over it.  Recently I bought a watch from ebay I've been wanting and I stretched my limit to a bit more I was comfortable with.  P.S. I wore it for a week and it stopped working.  I bought it to my watchmaker and it was not the battery.  I asked for a refund, but the buyer refused and I was going to fix it myself, but someone on this fourm told me that they have to take it back if it stopped working.  I opened a case with ebay and I won.  The Seller did send me a nasty email, but I didn't get what I paid for.  I try not to obsess with it as much as when I first started and try to enjoy the journey along with the hunt, acquisition and even the hiccups.  These little machines on our wrist are supposed to make us happy oh and I heard they tell time pretty good too.

No matter what you decide to collect, there are going to be issues. When I obsessed about cars, I noticed every single scratch, dent, paint imperfection, etc. It drove me crazy. It’s the same with watches. I owned an Oris Aquis Calibre 400 that had a couple issues with the movement. Because of that, I didn’t enjoy wearing the watch anymore. Sold it for a pretty decent loss, and moved on to the next watch. I think it’s part of watch collecting. You live, you learn. If you don’t find it fun anymore, try something else that makes you happy. I tried that, and came back pretty quickly. Lol

Bought my Seiko Ginza Alpinist from an AD, saw some dust specks on the dial, had to send it back for service and it took like two months!! (luckily the service was free)

Curious what went wrong for your cal 400? Don’t they have a 10y warranty or something like that?

You guys are so forgiving.  These people that you paid $$$ to service your watches are supposed to be trained professionals.  Returning your pieces back with a speck of noticeable dust,  hair,  etc... Is unacceptable.  That's a surgeon sending you home with a watch inside of you. 

It happens more than you think, not watches inside but surgical swabs and other bits

Mine had the minute jumping hand when setting the time, and the hacking seconds failed. I knew about the jumping minute hand before I bought it, so I didn’t mind it. It was the combination of the two that made me start looking at other watches. They do have a nice warranty, but I already had my heart set on something else. 

Oh thanks for bringing that up. i didn’t know about the jumping minute issue and the associated overshoot method to work around it. It’s good to know. 
 

I can imagine how these issues do put a damper on ones enthusiasm for a watch. Especially for watch dudes who are proficient in buying and selling in the secondary.