And my Montblanc Nicholas Rieussec Limited Edition died…

This is a duplicate of a post I made on Watchuseek forums on April 5, 2015.

Sad day as my new Limited Edition Homage to Nicolas Rieussec Montblanc has gone to the big mainspring in the sky…

I was trying to get it started and hand wound it a bit. Not working. Tried the pusher to see if I could get the chrono part to work. It worked for about 10 seconds then clunk – nothing. Looked thru the back and nothing happening. Doesn’t sound good when I get the rotor moving either…

Pretty disappointed – I’ve only had the watch for a month or two and expected more of this in-house movement. That means that it’s probably going to have to take a long trip and I will be without it for quite some time…

So while it worked it kept some of the best time of any auto in my collection. But alas…

June 28, 2015 – UPDATE: NEW WATCH!

So, it took four months, but Friday my AD called and he had in his hands a box from Montblanc with a brand new (new box, papers, everything) Nicholas Rieussec Limited Edition. But how we got here is the real story…

So, as I posted on April 5, my watch stopped working after only wearing it twice. I took it to an AD and they sent it to Richemont ironically here in Texas where I live. Three weeks later I got a call from the AD that the watch had arrived back, but they hadn’t found anything wrong with it. WHAT?

(Aside, I purchased this watch from the MB boutique in the Atlanta airport. Seeing that I live in Austin, TX, and also getting to a store in the international terminal of an airport isn’t the easiest thing in the world these days, I went to Jack Ryan Jewelers here in Austin where I live. More about how amazing they are below.)

I had the CEO of Jack Ryan open the box from me. Inside the very cool Montblanc return pouch was my watch. Unfortunately, it was DOA. Needless to say I was upset – a brand new watch returned from service in the same (or worse) condition that it went in.

So, the watch went back. You would think since it was on its second trip to the service center that it would get some sort of priority. Nope. Three months passed with me asking the AD status about once every few weeks. A month ago they said one more week. Two weeks ago they said one more week. You get the picture. I had enough.

So, Tuesday of this week I sent my AD a note (with the full intention that it would be forwarded to MB), noting that they have had my watch about 5 times as long as I had it. I said I no longer had faith in the watch (anything taking 4+ months to fix must be pretty screwed up) or faith in the service department (they sent it back broken the first time). Mark from Jack Ryan forwarded the note to all of the people he knew inside of MB USA.

They got the note this Tuesday. It was forwarded to someone important Wednesday. On Wednesday this important person approved me getting a brand new watch replacement. And Mark at Jack Ryan called Friday saying it was in. Friday afternoon I was wearing a brand new watch (the only difference being my old one was in the 300s of a 565 limited edition, this one is in the low 400s). FOUR DAYS PASSED FROM MY FORWARDED NOTE TO ME WEARING A NEW WATCH. WOW. When the right people get involved things can move AMAZINGLY fast at Montblanc.

So, it took way longer than I expected but Montblanc and Richemont did the right thing. AND Jack Ryan Jewelry (who also runs LexTempus.com) totally went out of their way to help me here. I didn’t buy the watch from them but they assisted me nevertheless and dealt with my persistent questions (and I am sure frustrations). I wouldn’t have a new watch today without Mark and his team.

Here’s the note that Mark Baran sent to Montblanc/Richemont

The customer has told us that, from the time the watch was purchased, he has had difficulty initiating the movement from a dead stop, with no power on the barrels. He has noted that, regardless of the number of turns he puts on the barrels, the watch will usually not run, and when it starts running he can provide no definite reason for why it starts. However, when it runs, it keeps good time.

My personal observation of the moment leads me to believe it is not a beat adjustment. As the balance does not move at all when the watch is rotated in hand. And when the crown is pulled out, the balance makes about a quarter turn, then stops again. Since this problem only presents itself from a dead stop with no power on the barrels, I assume it is an end shake issue of some sort.

So, when you’d wind the watch (from full stop), it just wouldn’t get going. When it was shipped back to MB for repair, it had been wound fully and obviously the jolts and bumps of shipping got the watch to work again.

This new watch seems to be doing ok. I’m letting it wind down on its own and testing starting it back up to make sure. Fingers crossed…

WHAT I LIKE:

The chrono dials that revolve around the hands (rather than the other way around)
The dial textures
The hidden lume

NOT SO MUCH:

The first version of the watch I received
Very shiny and a scratch magnet
While I got the watch for a great deal, this thing depreciated like a lead balloon

WATCH SPECIFICATIONS:

MODEL NAME: Montblanc Homage to Nicholas Rieussec

REFERENCE NUMBER: 111012

MOVEMENT: Montblanc MB R200 (72 hour power reserve)

CASE SIZE: 42mm

WATER RESISTANCE: 30m