DM71
3T WIS
| Joined: | Sun Oct 19th, 2008 |
| Location: | Quebec Canada |
| Posts: | 911 |
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Hi Whitecopper and welcome to 3T !!!
As for your question about the "TOOL" watches, here is my opinion. All three watches you're pointing at are great watches IMHO but I think that the J-Sar is my favorite, and I really have to like this watch to say that, because I'm having an horror story with this watch. As you probably know, Marathon Watches Head Office is based in Ontario, Canada and the watches are Swiss Made. Having said that, been one of the only Canadian watch Company, it was a bit special for me since i live in Quebec and Marathon Watch was founded by Moris Wein in 1939, in Montreal (Quebec). It's also the only authorized company to produce watches for US Government and US DOF, they do contract also for NASA, Canadian SAR and army. So a special watch. (the J-Sar is not Mil spec )
Now here is my story with Marathon. When I first decided to go for one, I started looking on the Internet to find a store that would ship to Canada. I couldn't find a Canadian retailer so ended on Westcoastime and decided to pull the trigger on the J-Sar, while looking for a SS bracelet (this watch has to be on SS IMHO) I then found Chronoworld in Vancouver and ordered the bracelet from them to avoid paying duties. I'm no big fan of quartz watches, but it made a lot of sence for this one to be. Quartz are very precise and i believe they are also more resistant to chocks than a automatic watches with hundreds of parts, and this is my opinion only. Quartz movement might be soulless compare to Autos but they are efficient and take and wear timepiece. Anyway, the only thing that really mattered to me at that time, was that the second hand was precise when ticking. What i mean by that is, that i hate when the second hand of a quartz watch stops anywhere in between two minute/sec marks, you know what i mean? I like them to stop right on the mark. If not, i would have replace the movement by an ETA 2824 but i wanted to keep it original. Well I was happy to see that the $9 ISA High Torque movement was pretty good BUT, when i tried to adjust the time, i noticed that the minute hand had play and i could make it move about 2mm by tilting in from left to right :shock::X ! WTF (sorry for the' F' word) I told myself. I then called David at Marathon to explain my problem, David was a very nice person and after giving his apologies for the defective watch, he invited me to sent back the watch for repair. To do so, i needed an invoice and I then contacted Howard at Westcoastime, an other gentleman, he even wrote back to me in french !!!:) Anyway, he also felt sorry and told me to wait before sending the watch back. I waited for him to contact me, which he did within a week. He had talk to his supplier and offered me to replace the watch with a new one. Sounds good to me, i sent back the watch to Howard and waited for the new one to arrive. 6 weeks later, the new J-Sar was delivered to my office and like a kid... I opened the box to get my new baby, the first thing i wanted to see was...the minute hand and guess what!!! The damn thing was just as bad as the first one :X:X:X:X. Now, I was not an happy camper and felt very disappointed of such a bad QC from Marathon. Called David again, emailed Howard again, David was like: " You are really not lucky, i have never heard of that..." Howard felt so bad that he offered me to take the watch back and refund the price of the watch with shipping (Thanks for that Howard!) Like i told Howard, i loved the watch and wanted to keep it so I made arrangement with David at Marathon to send the watch back. David then told me that he would compensate me for the trouble and shipping charges here and there. I have other watches to wear and felt he was sincere and sent him the watch the same day i received it. 3 month went by, from first return to second watch sent to Marathon and I had no news from David so i decided to call him back. He had to send the watch in Switzerland and was still waiting for it to come back. I'm not a very patient person to start with but, David and Howard were so nice that they made me feel like I was an important client and i appreciated it and never lost control over the phone with them. At one point,David wanted to finish his nightmare, ME and told me: "You know what Daniel, I have one in my office, I will ship you this one, how about that?" Well, for sure i will take a new one. Not only I was tired of waiting but the second watch I received also had a none aligning bezel :X when the first one was perfect. Two days goes by and the watch arrived in a huge box, yea, he gave me a very nice camera tripod that i had chosen from their site for my trouble. I felt that i could have taken anything from the site and he wouldn't have said no. So, again... Open the box, wow, this one came in a very nice box, not the usual flat cardboard box but a nicely finish leather box with Marathon written on it and the watch was sitting on a huge black pillow. Now I'm scared to look at the minute hand but I have to so, I take the watch and...I see the damn thing moving again, i tried to set the time and then, it was ok!woohoo.gif
It's not over yet!!! Two days ago, I'm changing watch and when I open my watch box and took the J-Sar just to look at it, it's a beautiful watch, believe me, like a tank but refined as well. Amazing bezel that moves like a charm and the lume is amazing, as good as my Seiko watches. Anyway, looking at it, i see some dust on the bezel on the "3" of the 30minute marker, so i tried to clean it, tried again, then again, then i looked closer to discover that the white filling they use for the numbers, had lost a piece  . Man ho man....I called David again yesterday, he recognized me over the phone and asked me right away: " I hope you don't have any problems with your watch?" I will sent him back my 3rd J-SAR September 6th, it will leave again to go see the doctor in Switzerland to have the bezel replaced and will come back for winter I guess.
As you can see, not a nice adventure but, I like this watch so much that I will patiently wait for it, I cannot live without it anymore. Some will say I'm crazy but hey! This is not a rational thing, it's sentimental! hearteyes.gif Also, customer service makes a big difference for me. They (David & Howard) took good care of me and almost became friends because we had to talk about 50 times over the phone and through emails.
Sorry to take so much room for your arrival at 3t but i had to vent a bit and you ask the question, no? That was my answer! ;)
Last edited on Wed Aug 26th, 2009 07:27 pm by DM71
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