The Saga of my Sinn 142 D1

[SteamJ]

So I've been posting about this over on the "other" forum but I wanted to regale you all with the long, and continuing saga of my Sinn 142 D1. I'll begin with a picture of the watch as it was when I received it.



I bought this watch used in May of this year. I'd loved this design for a while and one came along at a reasonable price. Upon receiving it I wore it continuously for over a month as it immediately became my favorite piece. That aside there were a few issues that nagged at me.

• The chronograph hands were a very faded orange instead of the original deep orange
• The hour and minute hands were badly re-lumed at some time in the mid 90's (according to a note inside the caseback)
• The indices were all very patinaed
• The case had a lot of scratches and needed re-finishing

Despite these issues I loved the watch but, eventually, I felt that I had to have them addressed. I first contacted Sinn to ask them about the work I wanted done. Sinn takes a while to respond but eventually I had an estimate to take care of everything. It was going to come to over $700 for the cosmetic work alone. If I wanted the movement serviced (which I didn't at the time) it was going to be almost double that. I was about to bite the bullet and just pay the price when it was suggested to me to get in contact with IWW about having Jack re-paint the hands and bead blast the case.

So I got in contact with Jack and it was going to come to under $300 for the cosmetic work I wanted done (though we later agreed that the dial was best left alone). He gave me a time frame of 4-6 weeks and, in week 5, he began his work. A day later I received an e-mail from Jack that seemed devastating. When unscrewing one of the pushers it snapped off. Apparently there was some rust under the pusher and, with how thin the stem is, it was enough to break it off. I quickly learned that pushers are very case specific. Jack had someone send him pushers from another Sinn but they didn't fit. Nothing I could find online from any of the various watch parts suppliers were going to work either. Finally I contacted RGM about buying the pusher. RGM would not sell it to me citing Sinn's policy to only send parts to their authorized service centers. So they gave me a price of about $250 and a minimum of 4-6 weeks to essentially spend 1 minute to screw in a pusher.

With no other option I turned to the "other" forum to see if anyone had any suggestions. I was told that Sinn had absolutely sold parts to other watchmakers in the US before and to contact Sinn directly. So I e-mailed the person I was told I should contact. A day later I got an e-mail from Watchbuys asking me to call them. Sinn got my e-mail and immediately forwarded it over there. Watchbuys told me that Sinn will not sell the part separately and my only option is to go through RGM. I talked to him about the fact that it only needed 1 pusher and RGM was insisting on replacing both. Thus began a discussion between Watchbuys, RGM and Sinn and, after several more days I was told that Sinn agreed to ship only 1 pusher and it would be about half the price.

So I had Jack pack it up and send the watch over to RGM. He also included instructions to look at the crown and case tube as they seemed to be work down. Late last week I get another e-mail from Watchbuys asking me to call. Roland at RGM got the watch and was apparently angry that he wasn't told in advance about the crown and tube and wanted an answer on it before he would do anything. The thing is, Jack had told me that it should be looked at but not that it had to get done. RGM decided they would not do any work on the watch unless I agreed to replacing those as well. They also suggested I let them service the movement. So I asked for the price for just the parts versus parts plus the service. They offered me a discounted rate for everything together and what originally began at a sub-$300 cosmetic job has not added up to around $900.

At this point I don't expect to get the watch back into my hands until at least mid-January and possibly late that month or February. If things had gone as planned then I should have been wearing this watch again by the end of October but it's going to go from a 4-6 week turnaround to now at least 3-4 months. On the bright side it's going to be a seriously impressive piece once I get it back. With the cosmetic work done (including the bracelet being bead blasted) it's a beautiful piece again.



I'll update again once I eventually get it back. The saga is not quite over yet.

[Nokie]

Good luck. Looks like a great watch.