I gotta stop doing this... I acquired another distressed watch from The Bay. I didn't expect to win. Presumably that makes me the dumbest of the bidders at the time. I didn't really know what I was buying (no movement pics) but the ad said it was 'partially functioning'. I know very little about Bovet other than the romantic origin story (mercantile adventurer making his fortune in the orient in the 1800's) and their crazy expensive modern watches. It arrived in sorry shape and didn't run...
I asked for movement ID help a couple of weeks ago in this thread
http://www.intlwatchleague.com/showt...vement-ID-Help
Consensus suggested this was a Favre-Leuba Bovet with a Landeron 51. Anyway, this is the background to that thread...
Picture from the Ad :
I took a little Polywatch to it to see what state the dial was in. Looks original (to me at least) and not too bad. The inside was less encouraging... with some scary looking corrosion.
I decided to find someone willing to get it running - for a fixed price as I felt I had already over paid for it now that I'd seen the inside.
I sent it off to Harry Nguyen at http://www.chronographwatchservices.com/
He had it for about 10 weeks... and it cost ~$400. I felt this was reasonable, having had a Valjoux 7750 serviced for considerably more that was in much better condition (Ouch, still feeling the sting). Turns out the dial was rusted to the movement and took quite some time to get it separated. I can only imagine what the other parts were like.
AFTER:
It's now back and seems to be working fine and I'm happy with the results.
It wasn't entirely smooth sailing. I actually got it back a couple of weeks ago and on examination discovered it did not have the original Bovet signed bridge but a generic (Mapa?) one. I asked by email for the original parts back. He said he had mistakenly left the original out while testing but would reinstall it if I sent it back to him... (make of that what you will). I sent it back. It's home now and seems to be correct. He said he'd refund me the additional postage. Also paying him was a little challenging. His email is not connected to his Paypal correctly and I had to cancel and reissue the payment. Not a big deal but at a bit of a pain.
While it wasn't a bad experience, it wasn't the best. Communication wasn't great; english not being his first language. My emails were replied to promptly, but were rather terse and lacking the nerdy WIS details I hoped he would share.
I'd give him 8/10 for the technical work and 5/10 for customer service...
I'm sure he's a nice chap and hope others have a smoother experience.