Maintenance service during the warranty period

[danicasi2002]

My AP watch is under a 5-yr warranty period. Will AP provide, upon request, a complimentary complete maintenance service on the watch before the warranty period is up? Thanks for sharing your experience.

[YoungMoneyAssassin]

I'd love to know the answer here as well.

[SMD]

Uh, is there something wrong with the watch necessitating sending it in under warranty? Otherwise no, that is not how warranties work.

[danicasi2002]

Hypothetical question right now. It will be sometime when the warranty expires on the timepiece which has become my fav. I thought I read a message in this forum suggesting this might be possible and am trying to confirm based on folks’ experience etc. best,

[PJ S]

A warranty is provided in case something fails, within the coverage period, that is attributable to the manufacture of the item.
It does not cover accidental damage by the user, nor whimsical notions to have a perfectly working product dismantled and re-assembled.

A handful of brands, at most, do offer a free service within the first X amount of years (typically 5), which doesn’t replace any warranty repairs required, but that’s them simply providing an additional benefit/incentive.

[tyler1980]

not a chance.... however if you're watch breaks they seem too be way easier to deal with than Rolex. They dont seem to care why it broke and just fix it. Rolex tries to claim user error not manufacturing defect way too often for my comfort level

[danicasi2002]

Originally Posted by PJ S

A warranty is provided in case something fails, within the coverage period, that is attributable to the manufacture of the item.
It does not cover accidental damage by the user, nor whimsical notions to have a perfectly working product dismantled and re-assembled.

A handful of brands, at most, do offer a free service within the first X amount of years (typically 5), which doesn’t replace any warranty repairs required, but that’s them simply providing an additional benefit/incentive.

Thanks for confirming that some other brands do offer free maintenance service.

[Andad]

Originally Posted by danicasi2002

Thanks for confirming that some other brands do offer free maintenance service.

If there is an issue and maintenance is required under warranty. Yes.

How can maintenance be required under warranty if there is nothing wrong?

Would you expect a manufacturer to strip a watch down and rebuild it under warranty just for something to do?

Unless the manufacturer has built this dollar value into the retail price or use this as a carrot to sell the watch and has declared this at point of sale.

[Burlington]

Why would you want to service something in good running condition early before it’s due ?

[Andad]

Let me have a guess......
No.

[SMD]

Awhile back when the warranty period was three years instead of five the NYC boutique would offer the first service free and a 5 year warranty (I believe). They don’t do that anymore.

[tyler1980]

Originally Posted by SMD

Awhile back when the warranty period was three years instead of five the NYC boutique would offer the first service free and a 5 year warranty (I believe). They don’t do that anymore.

AP london explained to me that that boutique warranty was not an AP worldwide warranty like the 3 but rather a +2 boutique specific warranty. IE only honored at the boutique of purchase. That came out of their revenue not AP as a whole so it was an incentive that the boutique covered. It was optional and not all boutiques did it.

So basically it was a sales incentive and i suppose they could have added free service or whatever the same way. The catch is that in year 4 or 5 the issuing boutique was the only point of return for an intervention under the "additional" warranty.

[danicasi2002]

Thanks all.

[mobster600]

its shocking how many people would willingly service a perfectly good running watch hypothetically if it was free and under warranty.

the LESS hands inside of that watch, the better. Service only when needed. there is no 5 year interval, thats all BS

[Lgear080]

Frankly if you never need to open the watch why would you? It’s common to see small issues and problems arise out of a service. The less you crack the watch open, especially an AP, the better.

[mnl]

Originally Posted by Lgear080

Frankly if you never need to open the watch why would you? It’s common to see small issues and problems arise out of a service. The less you crack the watch open, especially an AP, the better.

Out of curiosity, when should we send out the watch for service? Should we send it after ~5yrs of ownership, or not at all unless there is an issue?

[Tomas Eriksson]

Originally Posted by mnl

Out of curiosity, when should we send out the watch for service? Should we send it after ~5yrs of ownership, or not at all unless there is an issue?

Wait until there is an issue... (within reason of course, +ten years daily wear and I would send it in even if it seems fine)

[Lgear080]

Agreed that generally you should wait until there’s an issue or the watch is operating out tolerance - ie substantially losing or gaining time. Watches aren’t quite like cars in that there generally aren’t standardized service intervals.