The QC process

What is in a QC set

• Dial and markers — a straight-on shot, plus closer frames where a marker sits close to an edge.
• Date window — on dated references, with a date set so you can judge the centring and the magnification rather than a blank window.
• Bezel — the insert and its alignment against the dial at twelve.
• Case, lugs and end links — including the joins, where the visible faults in this market live.
• Bracelet and clasp — finish, and the codes on the clasp where they exist.
• Caseback — and the movement, on references where the caseback is display rather than solid.
• Video — the part a photograph cannot do: hands sweeping, the bezel turning, and the watch moving as it would on a wrist.

A QC set is a working document, not a beauty shot. If the light or a frame is not good enough for you to judge something, say so — the fix is a second set, not a decision made on a bad picture.

How to read QC photos

The same faults come up again and again in buyer threads, so they are worth checking in the same order every time:

1. Markers against the minute track. Look at whether the hour markers sit evenly against the printed track, and whether the twelve o'clock triangle is centred on the coronet. Crooked or crowded markers are the most commonly posted QC complaint in this niche, and they are visible in a straight-on photograph.
2. The date. For a watch with a date, is the number centred in the window, the same distance top and bottom, and does it read cleanly through the lens?
3. Bezel alignment. Does the bezel's twelve line up with the dial's twelve? Turn it in the video and watch it return.
4. End links. Follow the line where the bracelet meets the case on both sides. A gap that widens on one side is a real, photographable fault.
5. Hand stack. Hour, minute and second hand spacing, and whether the hands sit parallel to the dial rather than touching.
6. Rehaut and dial printing. Straight-on and slightly angled shots show whether the engraving and the printing sit evenly around the dial.
7. Crystal. Look for dust under the crystal, edge chipping, and the clarity of the cyclops if there is one.

None of those checks requires expertise. They require a photograph taken straight-on and in focus, and an eye for symmetry — which is exactly why we shoot the set before the parcel is sealed rather than after.

What QC cannot cover

Anything not visible in a photograph. How the bracelet feels, how the crown feels when you wind and set it, whether the rotor is audible, and how the watch keeps time over days are all real parts of living with a mechanical watch, and none of them can be judged from a still image or a ten-second clip.

We also do not publish a reliability ranking, a beat rate, a power reserve figure or a water-resistance rating in metres or ATM (the listings state daily water resistance only) — see the movement guide for why. A QC step that promised those numbers would be selling you a specification we have not measured on our own bench.

If the watch is not right

Say what you are looking at and what you do not like. The piece does not ship and the process restarts with another watch. That is the entire mechanism — approval is your decision, and there is no version of this where we ship something you rejected because the schedule was inconvenient.

Once you do approve, the watch carries a two-year movement warranty and a 14-day return window from delivery, so approval is not the last chance you get — it is simply the last one before the parcel leaves.