Should I have sent it back?

I've had many purchases off e Bay,and being a lucky so n so all have been successful and the purchaser ie me has been pleased with what I received. Till this one, a newmark dive watch,it was advertised as serviced and with a nos strap and under £100 ,thought why not, very early 70s british dive watch,nice strap what could go wrong. Watch arrived ,looked in decent nick the strap was on a separate card a few small scratches on it but very good all the same. Now the bezel didn't look as though it was meant to move as not really a practical dive styled bezel and it didn't (found out later it should,and the slight misalignment gave the game away),as for the watch itself wouldn't 'start up' few winds and a gentle shake,nothing,lots of swinging and then hey presto sprung into life,great stuff on the wrist and down the pub. It stopped 3 times whilst out and on the 3rd time wouldn't start. When I got home whipped the back off for a look, and it looked OK to my untrained eye. Damn,right 2 options send it back or take it to my local watch repairer in town. Now if it had been hundreds and I'd no back up ie watch repair I would have,but I quite liked it,a certain charm with its cushion case,great bracelet etc so I took a chance and took it into town. The guy was very helpful in the shop and said he would have a look at it,now I was sweating a bit now as I know repairs/servicing can be expensive, so I told him if it's going to be hundreds I'll not bother,he told me no,he'd try and sort n service it and for something like this and no replacement parts about £55,result!!. Roll on 2 weeks later and it was ready to pick up, and he'd sorted it,serviced it and all for a measly £55. And it works a treat,starts up with a breathe ,wore it last week for 3 days and it only lost 88 seconds. Soldered one of the lugs up,bit of polywatch and it's sorted,not too bothered about the bezel I'll quit while I'm ahead with that. So should I have sent it back? Yes of course,serviced 'my eye' ,but I'm glad I didn't and resurrected (with help) a little bit of vintage history. Moral of this story be careful,but sometimes alls not lost.

Image
Image

And it goes well with its very much younger brother(maybe 3rd cousin twice removed)

Image
Reply
·

If it was represented as working it should have been working. Not sort of working. Unless it is a rare piece that you don't think you could ever find again it should have been returned.  I am glad that you're not stuck with an unusable watch.

·

Glad it all worked out! Perhaps send them a message first if you encounter same problem, it might have been a more practical solution for seller to refund the servicing cost rather than send it back? You can always discuss options.