MS
Mateusz Stanielun
Dec 28, 2025
I came to CY Fredrics a few years ago to have 3 watches serviced and I didn't really know much of anything about watches. The reason I am writing the review now is because since that time, I have become an amateur watchmaker and I now know a little bit more.
First watch I brought was a Seiko SNKL23. The oscillating weight/rotor that automatically winds the watch as you wear it throughout the day was stuck/not moving, which meant that eventually the watch stopped ticking. The watchmaker called me and told me that the entire watch needs to be serviced and it'll be $300 to do so. There were numerous red flags with this statement.
First off, the watch cost me about $100 brand new. Why would I pay $300 to fix this watch, when I could buy another new one for less? I pointed this out to the watchmaker and for that reason did not have this serviced. Call me old fashioned, but I think a good business person would use their expertise to guide the customer into doing what is best for them, not what's best for the business. I didn't get that guidance at all. All I got was "It needs a full service and it'll cost $300 - do you wanna do that?". So don't expect that from their watchmaker.
Later that month, I took a closer look at my Seiko and noticed that a screw was loose in the movement, and that was causing the oscillating rotor/weight to get stuck. I got a watch screwdriver, screwed it in, and the rotor was no longer stuck. VERY EASY 5 second fix done by somebody who didn't know anything about watch movements! All I did was just study the problem a little more closely. After, my Seiko was working like brand new, but it bothered me that this could have been diagnosed by the watchmaker and shouldn't have cost more than $5. Instead he said the entire watch needed to be serviced, which involves taking apart every piece of the watch, cleaning it, oiling the parts, and putting it back together. This would not have been necessary to fix my watch!!!! So either the watchmaker didn't take 5 minutes to diagnose the problem with my watch, or was greedy and figured why make $5, when I can make $300? Furthermore, servicing a watch like this would never be necessary. You could just buy a brand new movement (Seiko Caliber 7S26) which only costs $70 and just swap out the old one! If the watchmaker knew anything about watches, he would've known that would be a cheaper and easier way and could've suggested that. However, it looks like again he would rather do what's best for his pocketbook, rather than give good advice.
I also brought in a Junghans Meister Kalender. The watch was running fine, didn't get worn a lot, and was serviced about 2 years ago. The problem was that the watch displays the name of the day, as well as the name of the month, and one of them was crooked (the month). This watch had more complications, so it was going to cost over $500 to have it serviced. I figured I liked the watch very much, and the crooked month window was bothering me, so I agreed to have the watch serviced. Surely, that would fix the problem. Wrong. I received the watch back, and it was still crooked! I came back to the store and asked how come it's like that, and all I got as a response was that it can't be fixed. This is absolutely not true. IT CAN BE FIXED - the watchmaker simply could not be bothered to. And the moment he noticed that it was still crooked and he couldn't come up with a solution, he should have called me and told me that unfortunately he can't fix the problem. Instead the watch was given back to me, hoping I wouldn't notice it's still not fixed! Either he lacked the attention to detail to notice, or he did notice and didn't care. Either way, you don't want that from your watchmaker! Do not use CY Fredrics for any watch repair services!!!