Tag Heuer - am I expecting too much?

[GG89]

BaronVonVaderham said:

To buck the trend, my Aquaracer Chronograph has never missed a beat. Sent once back to Tag via their Westfield boutique for a service and battery change and was returned cleaned, polished and they'd re-painted the missing indicators on the bezel. In short, it looked brand new again.

Fantastic watches, don't let this alarmist thread put anyone off buying one.

There's bound to be some good ones out there

[tickious]

GG89 said:

BaronVonVaderham said:

To buck the trend, my Aquyoucer Chrono has never missed a beat. Sent once back to Tag via their Westfield boutique for a service and battery change and was returned cleaned, polished and they'd re-painted the missing indicators on the bezel. In short, it looked brand new again.

Fantastic watches, don't let this alarmist thread put anyone off buying one.

There's bound to be some good ones out there

I think it's worth a strongly worded letter complaining that you have not received the same level of service as everyone else.

But true for their price, not trying to compete with Rolex or Patek, they're a decent watch, but the aftersales service could do better sometimes.

[tickious]

Fancy stickers, that's what Tag need

[tickious]

Fancy stickers, that's what Tag need

[Durzel]

Just to bump this...

The chrono feature on my Tag Heuer Carrera Calibre 16 packed in on Friday. It's barely over 1 year old. I only noticed because the chrono hand on the watch was sat at 5 to 12. Pressing the red stop/start did nothing, nor did the button to reset it.

Popped into my local Tag dealer and the guy was helpful but said that if Tag suspected there had been "accidental damage" done to the watch that they might disclaim liability. This sounds to me suspiciously like a completely vague and immutable policy that means I'm in the lap of the Gods as to whether they'll actually deem it valid as a warranty repair.

[VictoriaYorks]

I would say just take it to a good independent repairer if it's out of warranty. I get the battery in mine changed at a local jewellers and it costs me under £10 instead of the £65 that Tag wanted. Yes it's not guaranteed waterproof but I don't need it to be.

[Johnniem]

OP, we have had exactly the same experiences as you with my wife's TAG aquaracer (mother of pearl face). She loves the watch but has had 3 new batteries in 6 years. It started losing time a few months after the last battery (last November) and we sent it back for a service. TAG reported that it had a cracked face (invisible to the naked eye!!!) and that a new one, inc service, would cost £1089. I told the retailer that I paid only a couple of hundred pounds more than that for the new watch (after a 30% discount) and asked that they return the watch.

Get your watch returned and discuss the matter with Variomatic here on PH. I called him after a bit of research to find someone who knows their watch stuff and he basically told me that this is quite common and that he could deal with the matter in a much more friendly and cost efficient way (believe me, the reduction in cost for a repair of the face was so vast that you'd think that TAG were just pulling figures out of the air!).

We got my wife's watch back (in one piece) a few weeks ago and (rather strangely) it appears to be keeping time rather well. However, if it should start losing time again I shall certainly be giving Variomatic a call.

As you may have already gathered, TAG watches appear to be ste and their service is even worse! I offered to buy another watch with a diamond face for my wife but she loves the look of the TAG. It appears that, to her, its a keeper. To me its a money pit and a mistake.

Good luck with the watch!

[crwhittaker]

After 4.5 years my Carrera calibre 5, 100 metre watch leaked at 1.5 metres (shallow end of swimming pool!). Sent to Tag servicing centre in Manchester, who quoted me £695. Apparently it needed new dial, new hands and a service. I told them to ram it. When they sent it back the crown fell off when I pulled it out to reset the time. I took it to a local repairer, who coincidentally worked in the Manchester repair centre as the technical manager. He took the back of the watch off in front of me and the rotor fell out. The screw retaining it had been broken. When I sent it off to them it was working fine but had water ingress. When it came back from the it was in bits. Coincidence? Nah...
The guy now repairing it says it will cost me less than £200. Steer clear of Tag😕

[gvij]

Most companies including Tag are only in name. Omega, Longines etc of today have little in common with years ago other than name. Rolex soldiers on with many old models and the 1930s dodgy uncomfortable shaped case back.
Tag have some stylish looking watches though.

[thehawk]

gvij said:

Most companies including Tag are only in name. Omega, Longines etc of today have little in common with years ago other than name. Rolex soldiers on with many old models and the 1930s dodgy uncomfortable shaped case back.
Tag have some stylish looking watches though.

Yeah, bottom line is unless you start paying maybe 4,000 pounds + , then you are just getting commodity brands with ETA movements. Fashion watches, no better than Casio or Seiko (probably worse in terms of reliability and accuracy)

[Johnniem]

crwhittaker said:

After 4.5 years my Carrera calibre 5, 100 metre watch leaked at 1.5 metres (shallow end of swimming pool!). Sent to Tag servicing centre in Manchester, who quoted me £695. Apparently it needed new dial, new hands and a service. I told them to ram it. When they sent it back the crown fell off when I pulled it out to reset the time. I took it to a local repairer, who coincidentally worked in the Manchester repair centre as the technical manager. He took the back of the watch off in front of me and the rotor fell out. The screw retaining it had been broken. When I sent it off to them it was working fine but had water ingress. When it came back from the it was in bits. Coincidence? Nah...
The guy now repairing it says it will cost me less than £200. Steer clear of Tag??

Interesting but not surprising. You really need to question any report of damage or failure that you might receive from them. Then ignore it and go to Variomatic or another reputable indie.

Update from my previous post, my wife now has a brand new (serious value upgrade too) of the 7 year old Aquaracer watch from the retailer after it was shown (by Variomatic here on PH) that there was no cracked dial but there was a nice scratch on the face which can only have been made by someone at the TAG servicing department! No arguments, no disagreements, no fuss....'we shall give you a new watch madam'. Why thank you retailer! So rather than costing me in the region of £1100, she has a much more expensive brand new watch. Result all round but totally unnecessary. If they had told me the truth and not tried to cover it up then madam would still have the original watch and would still be happy with it. It would never have happened if I had sent it to Variomatic in the first place. Lesson learned.

[bigkeeko]

thehawk said:

Yeah, bottom line is unless you start paying maybe 4,000 pounds + , then you are just getting commodity brands with ETA movements. Fashion watches, no better than Casio or Seiko (probably worse in terms of reliability and accuracy)

I bet that goes down well with some. A fair bit of truth in there though. I was just up at a friends that was on the verge of putting his TAG under a hammer. His quartz four figure watch came back from `servicing` in poorer health than when it left. Best of luck to him, it wouldn`t be my money and when I asked why he chose it, he said " Asides from Rolex, Tag are the best watches". Says it all really.

[andy_s]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/arieladams/2015/02/12/...

Very cool

[VictoriaYorks]

To top it off, the watch that my OH bought at the same time has now stopped working. It's an aquaracer too, an automatic chronograph and no amount of winding or wearing will bring it back to life. Our local independent jeweller has quoted £260 for a service. We bought these watches in August 2010 with money from his grandma's estate. In that time mine has gone through 4 batteries and now his has stopped working.
By contrast I have an Omega bought in 2000 and that has just had its 4th battery put in.
Does £260 sound reasonable for a service? It sounds a lot to me.

[randlemarcus]

VictoriaYorks said:

To top it off, the watch that my OH bought at the same time has now stopped working. It's an aquaracer too, an automatic chronograph and no amount of winding or wearing will bring it back to life. Our local independent jeweller has quoted £260 for a service. We bought these watches in August 2010 with money from his grandma's estate. In that time mine has gone through 4 batteries and now his has stopped working.
By contrast I have an Omega bought in 2000 and that has just had its 4th battery put in.
Does £260 sound reasonable for a service? It sounds a lot to me.

Variomatic on here is worth a quick look. My Aquaracer chrono has started spinning the bezel both ways, and it will be going to him when I can be arsed digging it out of the drawer.

[GC8]

Definitely try Joe.

[Johnniem]

GC8 said:

Definitely try Joe.

+1. Read my posts a few lines up from here. Variomatic will service those watches and replace the batteries for so much less than that you will wonder if TAG are just plucking figures from the sky! When will TAG (and their retailers!) learn that we are not all complete idiots?!

[randlemarcus]

Johnniem said:

When will TAG (and their retailers!) learn that we are not all complete idiots?!

When folks stop sending them back to Tag. Their "quality product" branding etc all drives folks to think "must return to TAG", and that means they can do what the heck they want

[Variomatic]

While I really don't mind the business they create for me, I'm actually hopeful that these noises on forums will eventually reform their attitude to customer service.

There was an example of this on a recent JLC thread, where they agreed to do "goodwill" work and actually mentioned the owner's "blogging" about his problems - so at least one big company is watching to see what's said about them online.

Companies outside Swatch Group (who are the spawn of Satan) have a golden opportunity at the moment to become the "good guys" of the watch world by capitalising on Swatch's outrageous restriction policies and it'd benefit everyone concerned (the makers, owners and indie repairers) if they seize that chance!

[Craigybaby69]

Pleased I stumbled across this thread, I've just inherited a small amount and liked the look of the new tag f1 with the black face, don't think I'll bother now. I've always likes the omega and longines brands, but just looked up who swatch own and it includes those two, so don't think it would feel special owning either of those two either. Think I'll see if there's a seiko I like, otherwise will blow the money getting the rust on my car sorted. Dissapointed as I'd been looking forward to getting that tag for the last few days.