Automatic Watch Repair Costs?

I've paid, $200, $300, $500, $1000. Depends on what you have, what service it needs and where you take it.

No repairs needed yet…knock on wood.

I wouldn't buy a whole new watch, just get a replacement movement, then you can take the old movement and try and repair it yourself if you wanted.

I’ve paid anywhere from$300 to over $1000 but those were all for full service or overhaul.

You say the ‘crown is slipping?’ I’m not sure but it may be a watchmaker just needs to pull the stem and re-affix the crown to the stem, then replace the assembly back in place. That should not be so expensive. IMO.

Check with a good watchmaker in your area.

Your jeweler sounds suspect. Not many watchmakers will simply tell you to buy another watch without at least taking a look and giving you an estimate.

All true (comments above). Automatic watches are more expensive to fix than quartz and the more complications you have the higher the costs (including scheduled maintenance)

So if the cost of the repair is more than the fair market value of the watch, he may be correct.

Get an estimate and compare it to how much you can buy a new watch for.

I’ve never been shocked but I’ve been lucky to not have catastrophic problems with a watch. I’ve had a few repairs over the years of collecting. It can be expensive for sure.

Not sure how much a Combat Sub costs but a quick search show me that it can be between $300-$600. You could easily spend that much (or more). Do you want to spend the same (or more) amount of money you paid for the Combat Sub? I get why your jeweler would say just buy a new one - I don’t agree with the jeweler - but I get it.

I think it’s generally worth finding out the problem and estimated cost of repair from a good watch maker. People won’t really know the problem until it is opened up.

Movements are very affordable and easy to change. Just order one from Perrin or Eisinger. The cost of labour is prohibitive to servicing the lower priced watches but a new engine is a bargain in comparison.

I send all my Swiss watches to Switzerland, and all my Japanese watches to Japan. I am never shocked; it is all part of the watch ownership experience. 🤷🏽‍♂️🤪

Most I've paid was £580. The cheapest was £50. You can buy a brand new NH34 movement for under £50

Find a watchmaker, not a jeweler. He might fix it for free even.

I just buy a new one 🥳

I bought vintage watches fairly early on in my watch journey simply because they were cheaper. Being a paranoid bugger, I decided that I would have to learn how to service a watch because I wouldn't have the money to get a professional to do it. Ten months later and I have serviced three of my watches and performed minor work on another four or five of them. I have been in this sort of predicament before.

How I see it is that servicing more entry level movements is expensive, because if something were to go wrong, it might be more cost effective for the watchmaker to buy a whole movement instead of just one part. You say that the crown is "slipping." It might be a loose crown, in which case the repair is simple and cheap. The only other thing I can imagine is similar is a broken mainspring, but I have my doubts as it's an automatic watch; the mainsprings and barrels are usually well oiled and I haven't experienced any breakages. If you can, explain the problem in more detail and maybe someone here can pinpoint a solution.

Best of luck in getting it fixed!

Hello all and thank you for the tons of advice in the replies. I'm going to explain some things that by my mistake I left out from the original post:

I bought the Glycine Combat Automatic Sub about 3 years ago. Because I have other watches in my collection, the Glycine didn't get much wear. Because of this, I would have to change the date, time and give it a little wind. I will admit that I could have possibly caused this "slipping" problem by overwinding it. The guy who repaired my Seikos said that automatics generally cost more to repair due to extra labor etc. He didn't just say "Go buy a new one, kid" but told me that it could cost a few bucks if it'snot an easy fix issue. He mentioned Rolex as an example. When they open again on Monday, I will talk to him and address my concerns and take it from there😎

It's highly, highly unlikely that you overwound an automatic watch. The mainspring is designed to slide along the inside of the barrel when fully wound. I haven't heard of anyone who has overwound an automatic watch.

Automatics aren't much more labour compared to a manually wound movement. The automatic works have their own bridge held on by two or three screws. It's only a few more screws to loosen and fasten and a few more parts to lubricate. Compared to a quartz movement, it is a lot more labour. It took me seven hours all in all to service my vintage Nivada Antarctic Spider; a professional will be able to do it quicker.

I'm glad you're going to talk to him and maybe get a quote. Be sure to keep us in the loop; best of luck and I hope she can be fixed quickly and affordably!

Thanks! As soon as I get an update I will post it on here!

A Glycine is def worth fixing. Service on auto featuring a common movement (Glycine generally uses Sellita) shouldn’t be really much more than $300ish if it needs it. I suspect this more just needs a simple fix to tighten the crown as others have said.

I've never paid for service, but I really haven't owned my watches long enough. Granted, most of my watches have NHxx movements that I would be able to change in 15-20 minutes. That being said, I do however expect to service these movements eventually. But that may be 5 to 10 years into the future.

I might have my Hanhart serviced, as it has a non-standard component in addition to the SW-200.

Like @SpecKTator I’ve never had to service an automatic watch yet. This is my oldest one…..probably 6-7 years

Good morning! Okay, when I meant by saying that the crown is "slipping", I meant that I whenever I would wind the watch up, it would just "slip" at a certain position in the turn of the crown. It felt like whenever I would wind the watch up (not to change the date/hour) I could feel the crown like "jump" and give this odd feeling as if I banged the watch against a hard surface or dropped it on the floor, something internally was off.

I am going back next week and ask them for an estimate and a more detailed explanation as to what is wrong and everything else. I will keep everyone updated on this matter. And I will admit that I didn't do my best job at asking the right questions as to the problems of my Glycine because I don't have many automatics in my collection. It could be an easy fix as others have started here but we'll see.

Hope this explanation helped.

By the way, here's the shop I take my watches to:

https://haymanjewelry.com/

Lots of story on that site too. Check them out when you have the time😎

Hey! Thanks for your reply and the insightful video! As far as the watch that I own, it didn't mention anything about a Sellita SW200 (My watch mentions having a Glycine Calibre GL224 movement) but, the "Helicopter Effect" does sound familiar as to what is going on with mine. I've had that watch for 3 years and I have not used it that much. Perhaps that could be an issue.

I'm taking it to the shop either Tuesday or Wednesday and get a better update on all of this and post it once I get clearer answers.

Thanks!😎