[Closed] Servicing a vintage watch

I've got a 1951 Rolex Oyster in 9ct gold. 70 years old (the watch) and I wear it most days. A couple of years back the main spring went and I took it to the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham where a shop on Vyse St. did a repair and service for not much money. I'd be happy to take anything to be fixed. Some of the jewellers have their own watch guy, but lots of them give them to a specialist to do the work. It's a fascinating place to spend time in, there are some lovely restaurants and bars there and it's a short tram ride from New St. Station. Well worth a trip when they open up again.

Haven't actually had watch repaired here but they have a good reputation. He did replace a springbar for me while I waited after I just popped in as only up the road from me so can at least vouch for their customer service.
Worth giving them a ring?

https://www.richardsonsclockrepairs.co.uk/

Thanks for the suggestions. Patience is probably sensible - I guess it's only a couple of weeks until non-essential shops reopen.

The only people I know who are anywhere local to me in north Wiltshire are Deacons in Marlborough, Swindon and Royal Wootton Bassett, and they have their own in-house watchmakers. The mainspring went on my Yema, which is a fifty year-old watch, it shares its Valjoux movement with Breitling watches of that period, as well as a few others. It only cost me £50 new, but that was fifty years ago, and it has great sentimental value, so while the £460 it cost to fix and service was a lot of money, I considered it worth paying to keep the watch going.
It’s subsequently turned out to have significant financial value, so that helps! 😁

I'd suggest https://www.yell.com/biz/the-clockworks-didcot-3998896/ on theclockworks@btconnect.com

If anyone will be able to fix it, Ian will. Handy gadget that monitors the watch for 10 secs that tells him how many minutes it'll lose/gain a week. If you take your watch to a normal jewellers, it's often someone like him that actually does the work.

To get my watch serviced at Dunhill used to be £250ish. Then they confessed they'd run out of seals, and so it was no longer water resistant (somewhat important on a diver's watch).

Next time it needed a service, Clockworks got a seal, put it in, pressured tested, serviced etc, and changed £75

there is also the bloke off the repair shop http://www.clockworkshop.co.uk/. Never used him though

Is there anyone on here with personal experience in this area?

Yes. I'm one of the cheaper watch repairers with no certificates on my wall so sentimental but cheap is something I see often.

£75 just to give an estimate is a piss take and I'd look elsewhere on that alone, but £260 for servicing if they're using trained technicians and have workshop overheads to pay for isn't excessive. It all depends on where the quote came from...

If it's sentimental then forget about what it might only fetch on Ebay, the bottom line is that it's priceless to you and it's an old Swiss watch in need of tlc. I have no idea on what movement it has or what problems it might have beyond requiring a service, so if it needs any parts the cost could quickly escalate.

I can't vouch for any of the recommendations above as I've never heard of them, and I've never had a watch serviced that I didn't do myself, but Rich Askam would be the guy that springs to my mind for this. His blog has been a great learning resource for me over the years and he has a great rep on the watch forums so I know he's more than capable. He also works from home so probably cheaper than most.

If he's not interested and you don't mind posting it to N Ireland then send me a message and I may be able to help.