SDC Weekly 113; Watch 1505 Mystery; Monks’ Role in Time

Krayon Customer Service, Oscillon Watch Sales, Patek price hike, NASA flight director Gene Kranz talks about landing men on the moon, and more!

🚨 Welcome back to SDC Weekly, where we kick off with the devastating news that Patek is hiking prices by 15%, starting today. Patek AD margins will also be reduced to 31%. WatchPro posted this news as an ‘exclusive’ which is wholly untrue, as I had seen it shared on Instagram a few days before their article went live.

Before we begin, I’d like to share a customer service story from a collectors’ WhatsApp group - the person who shared it asked to remain anonymous:

I wanted to take a moment and share how fabulous my recent Krayon experience was. I have an Anywhere Metier d’Art watch that I did not purchase from them (I recently purchased it preowned). I contacted them a few weeks before Geneva Watch Days, as that although it was keeping perfect time, I believed it possibly needed a minor adjustment of the winding mechanism. When I told them I would be in Switzerland for Geneva Watch Days, they invited me to visit their atelier and bring the watch. I also inquired if I could purchase a longer strap from them, as the standard length was a bit short for me.

When I arrived for my visit, they showed me the facilities and gave me a new long factory strap, and refused to charge me for it. They showed us their new Anyday watch, which in person is far more stunning and impressive than it appears online in photos. After completing our visit, a mere 2 hours later they had already sent a photo of my watch disassembled, with the service started. I honestly could not believe it. She said their goal was to return it to me before leaving Switzerland.

Fast forward 10 days later, Fei (Remi’s wife, partner in the business, and an accomplished engineer herself) actually met us at the Geneva airport with the watch in hand. It must have been a 2 hour trip for her one way. When I asked her to kindly email me an invoice for the service, and said I would tend to it immediately upon my return home, she said there was no charge.

From my limited experience, I have never seen or heard of an operation quite like this. Kudos to a wonderful team, wonderful company and wonderful watches. I can only wish them the greatest success and suspect it will not be a problem for them.

I wrote about Krayon’s Anyday watch on SDC, and concluded that post with the following words which, as it happens, apply to today’s story as well:

Bravo Krayon, bra-fvcking-vo 👏

Onward!

Admin note: The Unofficial Editor went fishing for a metaphor and ended up with a load of red herrings; click here to read this post online, including all corrections made after publishing.

If you’re new to SDC, welcome! If you have time to kill, find older editions of SDC Weekly here, and longer posts in the archive here.

Estimated reading time: ~21 mins