Ouch! What? I Can't Afford This Repair!

"Ouch! What? I Can't Afford This Repair!" and/or "Why is this repair so expensive?" are similar phrases I hear all the time from clients who own mechanical chronograph wristwatches. Unfortunately these people purchased these watches from other so-called jewelers who don't know what they are talking about during the sale and therefore pass their lack of knowledge and bull sh@t onto their customer.


A chronograph watch is a stop watch inside a wristwatch. They typical chronograph is made of two "movements"... one a time-keeper-stop-watch which measures time and one a standard wrist watch that displays the time of the day.

Why are mechanical chronograph repairs or chronograph maintenance cost more than a typical non-chronograph wristwatch? Simply answered in basic terms... more parts, more complex the movement is all creating the more chances it has to be handled by a "senior" watchmaker with more than 10 years experience. A mechanical watchmaker with less than 10 years but more than 2-3 years will work on basic day/date, hour/minute/seconds and hour/minute/seconds/date movements. Typically an apprentice watchmaker is a technician that works on quartz movements or basic mechanical movements until they can build the confidence and accuracy to move up to more complex movements... like your chronograph

So that was pretty obvious right? But there is also another factor... YOUR CHRONOGRAPH is not designed to run 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It's a time-keeper for a specific task at hand that usually last around 12 hours. The center sweep second hand is not part of the time keeping of the watch, it's part of the chronograph. The second hand that is for "real time" or "daily time" for a typical chronograph watch is usually located at 9 o'clock or 6 o'clock. Keeping the chronograph center sweep second hand running 24/7/52 (hours/days/weeks) will actually wear parts down faster... because... they are NOT designed to continually run 24/7/52.

So think before you buy. Are you really going to use the chronograph or are you buying it because it's "cool"? Because the "cool" factor is going to charge you every 3-5 years upwards of $700.00 compared to $300 for a basic mechanical wristwatch. Your money. You chose.