Marathon Watch Reviews 5

My experience as a Marathon user is as follows:
TLDR; Disappointed, avoid.

I ordered a Quartz Steel Navigator 41mm (w date).

After maybe a week, I woke up during the night and the watch had stopped. This was concerning, especially since sometimes the watch would be my only source of timekeeping. I have had watches with more or less durability over the years, but I have never had a watch that would just randomly stop working.

I crossed my fingers and hoped it was just a weird one-off occurrence. Then it happened again a week later. But this time the crown was not completely screwed down (not unscrewed enough to stop the watch) and I hoped it somehow had something to do with this. But over the coming days and weeks, it would randomly just stop working.

I contacted Marathon support and was asked to send some info about the watch (which is fair). But in the reply, they wanted me to fill out a form (with basically the same info I had just provided) and print out the form and send the watch, at my expense, to their shop. I sent it with tracking and could see it was delivered (on 3/7). But I received no communication whatsoever from Marathon until two weeks later (on 16/7) when it had been repaired and was ready to be sent back.

From a quality and customer experience standpoint, this is what I would expect from a cheaper brand, but at a price point of around 900€, this is just lacklustre. Assuming that the watch was indeed just a one-off mistake, and not a sign of brand-wide decline in quality, at least the customer support experience could be better.

Small details like having the form prefilled with all the information I had just sent, covering the shipping cost, and including a waybill for me to print out would have gone a long way to give the impression of a more professional business. A confirmation of receiving the watch and an estimated time frame for the repairs would have been a nice touch. Even though Marathon covered the return shipping, it still cost me about 40€ (shipping and import tax and fees) to get it repaired. Given the experience and the price tag for the watch, those 40€ do sting a bit.

On a side note, I think that Marathon should be more clear towards the customers in the European market that they are not operating within the European Union as this will result in import taxes and fees that will essentially increase the total cost for the watch.

Got a watch that completely fell apart on the in side the first week. They will not do anything to fix or replace the watch. Marathon claims a high quality watch but doesn’t produce a high quality product. I would recommend to stay away from marathon watches because you don’t know the quality you will get at the time.

Bought an entry level quartz watch. Shortly after recieving the item in question, two of the hour markers fell of and rattled around inside the watch. Marathon watch company did not deem this issue to be covered by the warranty. Local watchmaker fixed it at my own expense. Obviously I will not trade with this company anymore.

Partner bought me this watch 3 years ago, within the first year it started steaming up (I never wore it in the shower or swimming) I contacted customer support but got no response. So I bit the bullet and put a little petroleum jelly around the seals, just a smear. Seemed to work. Then last week it stopped working, so although the battery had been changed a month before, I changed it again. No change, still not working, so I contacted customer support again. Still no response. I've contacted them again today, I'm not holding my breath. I would not buy another "Military Grade" watch from these people, when I was in the military I got support. Not here.

Good deals offered during the holidays, as well as discounts for students. Purchased an MSAR 2 years ago and had to have it serviced recently and they were helpful with getting it sorted out under warranty.