Often an authorised service workshop finds itself returning a watch without having repaired it for a reason related to spare parts. Not because they are unavailable, but because those available have been upgraded from those of the time of the watch to be repaired. The problem mainly concerns wear parts, i.e. cases and bracelets. A careful gentleman a few days ago took back, unrepaired, his twenty-year-old steel chronograph because the parent company decided to remove a frieze on the crown and replace it with a different one. So the authorised workshop could not replace the old, damaged crown with an identical new one. The gentleman informed the dealer that he would solve the problem by purchasing the spare part in question on a specialised Internet site, only to have it replaced by an unauthorised watchmaker. Other similar cases occur with steel bracelets, for which exchanges are often offered for a new model that is practically the same, but which may differ in appearance due to imperceptible details. In this case, too, people forego the exchange, preferring alternative routes to the official one in the belief that they will do better. But this is not always the case. There is a thriving market for spare parts that are offered as originals but in reality are well-made fakes in faraway China. They are the same ones that equip those near-perfect replicas that are on the market and are under the eyes of expert appraisers, who are working daily to counter this phenomenon. Our advice, therefore, is to always follow the dictates of the manufacturers, those who made your beloved watch years ago and who, by making minimal changes to certain components, have done nothing but improve the product, while keeping the principles of originality intact.
