VSF Seamaster (A2824) died after 4 years - repair or replace?
I’ve got a VSF Omega Seamaster 300 Tokyo 2020 with an Asian 2824 movement. The watch is almost 4 years old now.
Last week it suddenly stopped running. I noticed it while playing piano, the watch had stopped even though I had wound it a few hours earlier. So maybe the vibrations/shocks from playing triggered whatever failed inside.
Right now, nothing inside the movement seems to move except the rotor. I can’t get it to start again. Manual winding through the crown still works though, I can clearly feel resistance and the mainspring seems to build tension normally.
The crown functions also still feel normal (well, normal for a rep): time/date adjustment works fine.
I took it to a local watchmaker, but they just called me today saying they couldn’t do anything. They already weren’t too excited about looking at a rep in the first place, but agreed to try. Honestly though, I don’t think they actually spent much time on it, because on the phone they couldn’t even tell me what exactly was wrong or what they had checked.
Now I’m unsure how to proceed. I genuinely miss this watch. I wore it almost daily, even though I also own another Gen watch.
Right now I see two options:
- Keep trying different watchmakers and invest more time/effort with no guaranteed outcome. After this experience I’m less motivated to keep searching, especially since I live in a pretty rural area in Germany and don’t have many options nearby.
- Just buy the same rep again. But that’s another ~$450 investment. And if it only lasts 4 years again… not sure. Also, my current VSF was actually very well finished externally, and with a new one there’s always the risk of getting worse QC or even shorter lifespan. Maybe this time an ORF instead of VSF? But it definitely has to be the same watch.
What would you guys do in my situation? Any recommendations?