Sending Watch Repairs to the Factory

When we send watches “to the factory” for repair, we should always contact the USA service center for that watch brand and ask for an accommodation price. This is about the brands for which we are NOT authorized dealers, such as Breitling or TAG Heuer. (However, don’t bother to call Rolex, as they will not give us a discount.)

If we send in a watch to the other watch repair centers, they should give us a discount off the retail price for the handling of the watch for the customer as a courtesy just because we are a jewelry store. In the olden days, this was normal. Now, some companies give discounts, and some don’t, but we should always check.

Be sure to mention if we used to be an authorized dealer for that brand, like Breitling, Omega, Hublot, or Krieger, because the customer may have bought the watch from us when we were a dealer, and they should honor the dealer discount. But even if we were never a dealer for a particular brand, we should ask for a discount.

1. Do not call an authorized retailer as he will not give competitors a discount.
2. Try to find the authorized service center online.
3. If you can’t find it, call the USA office of the brand, and ask for the service center number. If they ask why, say you want to send a watch for repair. Act like a retail customer, if necessary, and say you can’t go back to the place you bought it because you moved to Alaska.
4. As a last resort, try an authorized dealer that we know, like Ed Marshall (see their watch brands here https://edmarshalljewelers.com/new-watches). Only do this if it is an expensive repair and ask to split the cost with them so they make a profit on it too.

Keep an up-to-date list where it’s easily visible, like above the watch repair desk, of which brands will give us a discount on repairs and which ones won’t, along with the date that was verified, so that you don’t have to call on every watch. But if it has been a year or more since we last inquired, do call and ask again on brands that said, “no discount.” Personnel and/or policy might have changed at their end, and we might get a discount now when we didn’t before.