I recently serviced this Seiko Pogue 6139-6002 vintage chronograph for a ClockSavant customer. The story here is one we've heard before-- a watch sold as "serviced" that runs poorly. But it sure looked "clean." In-fact, if you purchase a "clean, oil, and lubricate (COA)" job for your watch without any other explanation on work performed or approach, you bought a sequence of steps that may, or may not, result in a properly working watch. As with any endeavor, there is a difference between "owning the outcome" and going through a sequence of motions. Owning the outcome means driving to "as-is" and "to-be" performance and measured results. When a spit-shine is done, typically somebody left, or created, large problems and covered them up with an artificially achieved clean and sparkle. If I instead get a watch when it's dirty, I can more easily assess cause-and-affect. But if someone put a spit-shine on it, now I have to dig for what they hid. In this case, I had a bizarre sequence of escapement issues including the pallet and hairspring along with a few other items. For this watch, we also had a seller who, I was told, said the watch ran well. Remember to look past the dial and the case, try to understand how it runs and what's inside. You purchase the seller and for servicing, the watchmaker, first— not the watch. So read them carefully for truth, knowledge, and transparency. This watch is now running very nicely and water resistant once again.
