With all the problems cropping up, it does seem disheartening.
Disappointment is surely there but I would not bee too protective of the brand.
Let's be real here. we're spending good money for a piece of metal that occupies prime real estate on our wrists, of course we want everything to be perfect.
The only good thing that can come of this is we get to experience what the after sales service is like.
Sometimes I feel that after sales service have been overlooked in the whole ownership experience.
I have mentioned before that if the after sales service is bad, I would not hesitate to ditch a brand.
No brand is above criticism and no brand is protected from criticism.
As for Rolex, yes they do sell 10 times more watches but they do have QC issues as well.
My sis' perpetual datejust stopped after a couple of months.
My wife's previous perpetual date comes with a piece of dust under the sapphire crystal.
Both cases, the Rolex centre handles the problem swiftly so it's only fair to let it go instead of holding grudges.
My AP, with the same clasp pusher problem was sent back to AP under warranty.
Also they handled it good. So, I will just let it slide as well.
Only gripe is staying in a small town, the turnaround time is 6 weeks.
If I am physically close to a service centre, I am sure the problem can be rectified in 15 minutes. (as dpkong witnessed)
I do feel that sometimes, internet complaints are not really an indicative of the overall failure rate.
True Rolex makes a million watches or so a year.
AP makes 35-40k pcs a year.
A Rolex owner may not voice out every complaint about every little issue with their watches, most might not be internet savvy.
AP owners on the other hand are pretty honest in voicing out the problems that they have and I for one find it admirable.
We also know that in this hobby, flipping watches is the norm, that's why some are not comfortable in voicing out problems with their watches for the fear of lowering the resale value.
Thank god no one says in here (could have said it inside though)
"What an idiot, spending that kind of money buying a sub par quality watch"
But 1 thing I can be pretty sure (not 100% though) is that even with these minor quirks, AP owners will still keep theirs... and even buy more... Weird? Yeah...
