2011
My new Vintage GMT is actually off by 15mins on the hour (GMT hand). What to do? I really don't want to send it back and have to pay for all the shipping and then wait and then possibly get stuck with paying the duty fee's. Probably easier to get a watch maker to do it here and then perhaps Gunter can pay me back via paypal?
Gunter was very apologetic. He gave me his FedEx account number and will conver all costs to ship back to him and to have it shipped back. Also, if I get charged duty again he will cover it. Watch will be mailed out tomorrow and will arrive by Wednesday. Then Thursday watchmaker will fix the issue and will have it back by Monday. I can't say enough on how bad he felt. Gunter also mentioned that it did miss his QC because of the mad Christmas rush. He does have a team that checks all watches and is surprised this happened. He did mention to his staff that this cannot happen. I am looking very much to having this fixed and too have it back. The other option was to have a local watch maker fix it but I prefer sending it back cause of the warranty. Look I am alittle upset but these things can happen to anyone and I understand.
more and more being GMT hands off... real bad batch. Sucks for Steinhart, they'll be losing a lot of $ having to ship watches back and forth, replacing or fixing them..
I am still going to order a O1 GMT but I gotta admit it is a bit of a turn off. They really should be more careful with quality check before shipping to avoid a bad rep and also save shipping cost. Hope they are addressing with the supplier/manufacturer!
Just to be clear, the mis-alignment issue I had with my previous Ocean GMT was a matter of being 30 minutes off. To me, that was an issue as it renders the GMT function, for all intents and purposes, useless.
I probably wouldn't sweat the situation that ArticMan presented, had that been the case with my GMT.
Nothing against Steinhart, they make great watches and there is no doubt he takes prides in offering great CS when issues arise.. but truly the trick is not having these issues in the first place or consistently working towards minimizing them.
Well, I just received my Ocean 1 gmt today. Surprise, surprise, the gmt hand was out of synch. So, it looks like some of the "new batch' of gmts are not without this same problem. Back to Germany it goes... Gunter must be kicking himself each time he has to ship a misaligned watch back and forth (I know I am)
I too have a new GMT ocean with the same alignment problem. However, mine has an additional twist. If I align the hands for midnight, the GMT is "one minute/mark" ahead. If I manually advance the time a full 24 hours, it will advance with the same offset and eventually return to the same positions at midnight. However, if I let the time advance normally, the GMT hand will advance more quickly will hit the 24hour mark before the "standard" hands reach 10pm. Any thoughts? Is this something a watchmaker can fix?
This must have been a huge batch. My Ocean Vintage GMT does not align either. Seems to be about 6-9 minutes off depending on the hour (which I find strange). I just got the watch yesterday (July 18, 2011) so I'm waiting a bit and wearing it to see if anything improves. Kinda bummed because I had read this thread before buying my GMT and asked Steinhart to check the alignment. Oh well...
2015
I recently noticed the GMT hand on my Steinhart was lagging behind the 12 hour hand and so I sent it to a watchmaker who agreed to have a look and see what the issue was.
He managed to fix the issue but said there was a design fault as there simply wasn't enough room for the 4 hands on the axis of the watch.
It worked OK for a day or so on its return but during my recent holiday the problem occurred again. I again contacted the watchmaker who suggested I should take the issue up with Steinhart.
I have contacted Steinhart this morning and will be interested to see how they respond.
Update on this.
I sent the watch last weeks and got the stock rely of 4-5 weeks wait but then yesterday I got the following reply:
Our watch maker has checked the watch for you and the GMT watch hands is very good adjusted. Please see in attachment I send you the manual for the GMT movement.
The first hour hand has to turn faster cause for 24 h he has to run 2 x 12 (two rounds). The second hour hand runs for every hour in the different time zone just 2,5 minutes and it runs one round in 24 hours.
The watch is on its way back so I'm pleased and surprised it's been sorted out so speedily...whether it works properly is the big question though.
June 2015
So, my first Steinhart was delivered around a week and a half ago, yay! Unfortunately, this watch had some serious QC issues. Think reps are the only watches with issues out of the box? Wrong! Very disappointing for buying a "Swiss Made" watch. All of the issues were things that I could confidently fix on my own, and I did. After receiving it, I only had a day or two before going on vacation and I really wanted to wear it. Yes, I could have sent it back to Germany (from CONUS) and wait god knows how long for a fix or replacement, but decided not to. Anyway, here's my first Steinhart experience saga.
The Steinhart Ocean Vintage GMT is a modern homage to the Rolex 1655, the infamous incorrectly named "Steve McQueen" Explorer II. He is actually thought to never have worn a 1655.
It features a 42mm case, 22mm lugs, domed AR sapphire crystal without cyclops, Swiss ETA 2893-2 21j movement beating at 28,800. Here is a stock pic (not mine)
...and the original
So, after opening the very nice packaging and looking down at my beautiful new watch, I am immediately struck with the realization that the bezel is out of alignment, and by quite a bit. I haven't even taken the plastic wrapping off yet.
OK, decision time. At this point, I'm thinking "What the hell?" What "Swiss Made" watch company would let this pass their QC? When there are 24 markers on a bezel, 12 of them being skinny lines, it is very obvious if it is even a little out of alignment. It has to be spot on. There is no acceptable margin of error. It's right or it's wrong, and mine was wrong. QC fail #1. Do I send it back to Steinhart under warranty? No, I decide to fix the bezel myself. It's an easy fix. I have the proper tools and I've done it before.
OK, well that was an easy fix. Great! All I have to do now is set the time and date, put the bracelet back on, and we should be good, right? Um, no... Here is what I noticed next - QC fail #2: Hour and minute hands out of alignment.
So now I'm really blown away at how awful the QC at Steinhart is, not a good first impression of the brand. Seriously, how does this get out the door?! I've already started down the rabbit hole with this thing and I really want to wear it on my vacation, so I decide to reset the hands correctly. Before pulling the hands I want to know where the date change occurs, to be able to line everything up perfectly. While doing this, you guessed it, QC fail #3: Date change occurs at 01:54! Really? Are you kidding me? At this point I just threw my hands up and laughed! It is unbelievable that this ever got out the door. ABSOLUTELY NO QUALITY CONTROL WHATSOEVER!!!
I move onward with fixing this thing. The GMT hand was the only hand correctly installed at Steinhart. It was placed exactly on an hour marker right at the date change, so I didn't have to pull it - just the hour, minute, and seconds hands. This pic is after I set the hour hand in the correct alignment. The minute hand just goes directly over it. It's not difficult and very easy to see if they're out of alignment.
Got the hands reset the way they should have been from the beginning. Here is 6pm.
11pm
And the date change at midnight
OK, so now it's all fixed and I was able to wear it on my vacation. And guess what? I REALLY love this watch!!! It is a joy to wear. The build quality is excellent. It's just that mine was assembled very poorly. The bracelet is solid. The ETA 2893-2 is just butter smooth and running +3 s/d wearing it all day and leaving it dial up at night. It is just a beautiful watch and it's been on my wrist for about a week now. It has good long lasting lume when charged a long time. On my vacation, went on an all day mountain hike in the sun. No light after sunset and the lume was still very active at 3am looking at it on my night stand.
Ok, my only thoughts now are whether I let Steinhart know about this. On one hand, they obviously have a problem in their QC and should be informed. On the other, if I let them know that I fixed it on my own, then I'm sure they would say the warranty is void. Who knows?
Final thoughts? Steinhart makes an excellent product at a price point that astonishes me. The polished portion of the clasp looks cool out of the box but is a BAD idea and is really out of place with the rest of the bracelet. It scratches when you breathe on it. This is a fantastic watch and I love it! However, there is something very wrong at Steinhart. Honestly, I don't know if I have the confidence to buy from them again. I was able to fix their mistakes. I expect to have to do that with a Chinese rep, not a bonafide "Swiss Made" watch. In fact, this is the most poorly assembled watch I have ever purchased... Just let that last sentence sink in! Most people would have had to send it back to Germany.