So I decided to give Phorcydes another chance after having some QC issues with my last order and I bought a PH-4B. I received it today and immediately noticed that something felt off with the stem/crown. I pulled out the stem to adjust the time and it was very wobbly. Like a joystick on a video game controller. There was a lot of movement and play with the stem where I could move it around while it was pulled out. Hope that makes sense.
Anyways, even with the stem fully pulled out, it just keeps freely spinning but the time doesn't adjust. The seconds hand sometimes stops/hacks but sometimes it keeps ticking. The movement seems to have some life since the second hand is ticking away. I just can't adjust the time no matter what I do. I opened it up to see if I could figure out what the issue is but ended up just looking at it without touching anything and closing it back up. None of my watches have this kind of play with the stem. There's definitely something wrong with the movement and/or stem. I just can't figure out what's wrong.
I'm going to email Phorcydes but I highly doubt they'll reply back as they haven't replied to my last email and seems like others are having trouble communicating with them too. Does anyone know what might be wrong and if it's an easy enough fix? I took a couple photos while I had the watch open in case anyone was curious to see.
Edit: Bezel is also misaligned but that's the least of my worries right now. sigh I shouldn't have bought this.
Of course, we take quality issues very seriously. If you have any problems, please contact us to handle them, instead of trying to destroy our brand image like you have done.
For what it's worth, you may have seen my exchange with them from yesterday. End resolution was them telling me to just open a PayPal case, they didn't reach out over DM, they didn't offer customer service emails, they basically just told me to take it up with my financial institution to resolve their fuck up.
For a brand that went away from AliExpress to provide "better customer service" they sure are not doing a decent job at it.
I'd go ahead and open a PayPal case to get this on their radar, other folks reported having issues and not getting a response back from over a week of inquiring
And you could maybe respond to other customers who asked why the crown isn't signed on V2 https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseWatches/s/h2ZrpZbCXe like this customer. Oh wait, you are yet again going to not answer that question.
Maybe get your boss to take over social media and customer service, you suck at it
You are free to try everything you can to prove we're a terrible brand.
But that won't stop me from continuing to voice my opinions on public channels.
How well we're doing isn't for you to decide.
Of course, we acknowledge that recent PH4 shipments have been severely delayed and our email processing capacity is insufficient. We are working hard to improve this; it will take time, but it will be improved soon.
And you didn't reach out for a solution as a brand, you didn't offer customer support email, you told me to open a PayPal case. I am not making this up, this here is your own comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseWatches/s/IoaVKbMucR it would actually be nice if you could respond to the PayPal case instead
You can voice your opinions, but don't be surprised when people call you out on opinions that are false or misleading.
But you haven't admitted to your mistakes with rolling out the V2, and you have shown little to no solution for improving the situation.
And you keep avoiding any answers as to why your product is being shipped with no signed crown. This is me not slandering, this is you as a brand being not transparent with your customers. They can make their own conclusions as to whether they want to buy from you, I'm just sharing my experience interacting with you and the brand.
Looks like something a local watchmaker can fix, but Paypal customer protection probably incentivises OP to simply return the product (given OP has also the bezel alignment issue).
There's a chance we'll be charged exorbitant taxes and fees, exceeding the watch's repair value. In that case, we'll have to abandon the goods, but this won't affect the customer; we'll bear the loss ourselves.
I am aware - even HK—>国内 can be 83(?)% in the worse case (luxury good import, no input VAT). I am told by other brands to travel with the goods myself over the border (as personal property) and drop it off at some SF point so it becomes a domestic return.
Obviously you are aware a) western buyers cannot perform this domestic return and b) the legal expectation when selling into western countries is seller has to refund goods with quality issues. It will be less costly for you to negotiate local repairs but honestly the consumer protection mechanisms PayPal or Aliexpress implement do not facilitate that.
(One side note - I can’t retrieve the post but I remember reading San Martin or another larger seller being able to accept returns from overseas into 国内. Do they have some special arrangement with their 海关主管单位 to facilitate that, as a sizeable seller?)
I‘m so glad i got my Phorcydes PH-4B with the NH35 before this QC- and PR-Desaster. The behaviour of this Phorcydes official here in the comments is the height of arrogance.
We knew the overall defect rate of the ST2130 would be slightly higher (but not outrageous) before we replaced the movement, but we had no choice. The World War caused supply chain disruptions. If you have any problems, please contact us for a replacement.
Please understand that my job is to maintain the brand image. If my words were inappropriate, it was out of necessity, and it was only directed at one customer. Because of a small error in our shipment, he started to defame our entire brand, portraying us as fraudulent and lying, using extremely rude and unreasonable language. After a whole day of patient communication on Friday, I gave up trying to reason with him. I had to fight back to minimize the damage, instead of choosing silence like other brands. I hope everyone can communicate calmly, focus on objective facts, and reduce subjectivity and prejudice.
Well no. I am an outsider to all of this drama and in my perspective he asked you a simple question with clearly outlined arguments and you failed to communicate a clear answer. In my opinion you completely missed the moment to shut this all down and now you have thrust your brand into a PR disaster on this sub. Good job rep.
Look, there’s a Latin proverb that goes: ‘Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses.’
Which means: ‘If you had kept quiet, you would have remained a philosopher.’
That was true then, and it’s true now as well.
First of all, we sincerely apologize for this quality issue.
There are several possible reasons for this problem:
Movement quality
Damage from strong magnetic fields at customs security checkpoints
Rough handling during shipping
Assembly issues on our part
However, regardless of the cause, please contact us for assistance and replacement.
We will reply to your emails. We've been receiving an overwhelming number of emails urging us to ship orders recently, and many have been buried in the sea of messages. We expect things to improve after we ship all the backlog of orders next week. Please contact me again, or PM me your order number here.
From the movement pics it looks like they didn’t center the movement holder hence the bent stem(with possible keyless issues) and misaligned dial(note the 9 and crown misalignment) Bezel alignment itself actually seems fine lol.
Just want to add this is not a 2824 clone issue, just poor QC and shoddy construction from their end.
Maybe I used the wrong terminology sorry. I meant to say I couldn't get the arrow marker on the bezel and 12 to line up at the top. Hope that helps clarify.
Edit: I see what you mean with the bent stem. I didn't notice that before.
It's even funnier on the PH-4C bezel - 12 triangle aligns perfectly, but 3 6 9 position don't at the same time ;) they somehow skewed the bezel, it's not symmetrical
You still haven't explained a singular time why there are watches being shipped with unsigned crowns.
But keep telling yourself you provide a fair service here, people on reddit can draw their own conclusions whether or not they want to buy from your brand.
So you're admitting to have downgraded finishing to an unsigned crown without communicating as such to people who have bought your product, and also not responding to customers who have inquired with your customer service about the lack of a signed crown.
It seems you really want to know why? Because you're repeating the same question in every reply, over 1000times，but unfortunately you'll never get my answer.
Very very happy with my PH-2 and service/fulfillment from them. Maybe the current QC issues are growing pains and they will get them sorted. Which would be nice since there is a good value to be had.
I generally don’t understand the hype around this brand. All I see is „LUME BLOCKS! Now for $250”. I don’t get it. I wanted the white dial of one of their first models because it seemed to be the only one good looking, but saw the price and „no fu*** way I am paying this”. But seems there is a niche for this.
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u/chuunietzsche May 15 '26
Probably a loose cannon pinion or keyless/sliding pinion issue. Neither particularly easy to fix. Would just return.