DAMAGED AQUARACER CALIBRE 5 AUTOMATIC

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Hello Tag Owners,

I’m Carlo from Manila Philippines, I purchased an Aquaracer Calibre 5 Automatic 4yrs ago and just yesterday Oct 08, 2018, my watch just stopped while im at work and it was not working anymore. I did not had any problem with with my watch and never had it serviced yet. I emailed the Tag website and they referred me to a service center here in MNL Philippines. but upon checking and have it assessed, they provided me so many parts for replacement and so many charges. I cannot beleive my watch just stopped yesterday and all of a sudden so many parts are broken?? Did my watch just had a self destruct?? given that I taken care of the watch very well and i never used it when I go swimming or any sport activity. Its really disappointing that a expensive watch will suddenly break with many parts to be replaced. The TAG service center is fooling the customers and not being honest. I might have beleive if they told me that my watch needs an service cleaning and not many parts for replacement and very expensive parts. see below parts they quoted me below.


Good day Mr. Manuel Carlo Ruiz. This is Carla from Watchworks. This is the breakdown/estimate for your watch :

Crystal gasket -- for water resistance -- Php 350.00
Bezel gasket -- for water resistance -- Php 350.00
Crown gasket -- php 250.00
Balance wheel complete -- Not working -- Php 4,750.00
Back gasket -- Php 250.00
Overhaul -- Cleaning and Maintenance --Php 1,000.00
Oscillating weight -- Loose -- Php 5,500.00
Barrel drum -- Broken -- Php 2,750.00
Reversing wheel -- Loose -- Php 1,000.00
Auxilliary reversing wheel -- Loose -- Php 1,000.00
Reduction wheel , Ratchet wheel driving wheel and Ratchet wheel -- Loose ,- Php 1,000.00
Screw for ratchet wheel -- Php 250.00
3rd wheel -- Loose -- Php 500.00
Escape wheel -- loose -- Php 1,500.00

Total of PHP 20,400.00

Minimum 4 weeks of repair since major parts are not available. You may call or text us for confirmation. Thank you.

Approx USD 375 for all that sounds very reasonable. In Sweden the price would be a couple of hundred more.

Remember that if one part in the movement breaks it can have a negative impact on many other parts. Your movement has more than 200 tiny parts working together to run your watch.

It does not sound as if they are trying to fool customers. My recommendation is that you read up on how a mechanical movement works to understand how the parts are connected.

Have a nice day and good luck with the watch! 😀

I agree with previous post here, if the movement was impacted in any way it is likely that it also affected other parts. One example of this is that my Autavia had the problem of pushing the date forward, which was because of some issue with the chronograph reset mechanism. At least that was I think the representative tried to explain to me...

Around that money is quite normal for a full maintenance repair and I would say it's lower than what most people would pay in Europe and Sweden (where both me and @Jim Dollares originate from). With that said, if you're not satisfied with the answer you should definitely contact them and let them explain more in detail the stuff you're wondering about. That's what customer care and service requests are for. The service might seem expensive, but TH is a "premium" brand and you definitely need to pay a bit more for the services they provide. With that said, I definitely understand your disappointment.

Sad to hear about your watch and I wish you the best of luck with the upcoming process, whatever you decide to do! 🙁😀

Sad to hear about the watch.

Hopefully it can get fixed sooner than later.

There is no easy way to say this but, from my perspective is that if you spend that approximately USD375, consider it you get almost all new parts for your mechanical. I personally would jump at the opportunity in no second thought *knockwood* (after reading it for review i added the knockwood part).

Remember, it happened sometimes and not just happened to Tag Heuer. I've seen other higher end brands experiencing the same sudden death (with, of course more expensive service charges and fees).

Hope you don't lose the love for your watch.

Cheers

Anywhere between 3-5 years a watch needs a major service. Yes, sometimes they just stop. Lubrications get sticky to the point the cogs will not turn.
Think of it this way. Your watch runs at 28,800 beats per hour. Now that means that your escape wheel has moved more that 1 billion times over four years with constant wear. That’s pretty reasonable that it deserves some love and care I think

Hi,
I had a very similar experience just recently with my Aquaracer. The automatic/kinetic rewinding stopped working and the watch would stop. Took it to the local seller who sent it to the repair centre. Repair estimate was 595 € ( ~ 660 USD) ! I said no thanks. Yes I do like the watch, but that's ridiculous. That's about a third of the purchase cost ! Had I known when I bought the watch that my TCO would be something totally different than sticker price I probably wouldn't have bought it. A reasonable service cost ever so seldom - sure, but this is mind boggling. I can get the latest, greatest smartwatch for this price. A couple, in fact. I'm considering sending it to the Tag Heuer factory in Switzerland for a second quote. If it's a similar story, it's probably going to the bin. :-(