Well, after they said they would send it to Switzerland, the next day I called to ask for someone in charge and they put me through to a swiss guy I had delt with before (not someone in charge) who is quite a nice guy. I again explained everything to him and he gave me two options after conferring with his boss. They can get a new case sent out but it will have a different serial number, or I can send it to switzerland and they will give me a new case with the same serial number. I opted for the latter. First option - 10 days, second option - 2+ months. The one concern I have is that they will just refurbish it. Time will tell. They did say that they would replace everything except the movement and the bracelet. This after I asked for a replacement or a refund.
I get the feeling, that maybe this is a replacement watch that I bought, because the manager said to me - this is the second time you have brought this watch in and I said, no this is the first time - so maybe he was going on my warranty and serial number and perhaps someone had bought it and returned it. This is of course just specualtion on my part - but why else would the manager have said this to me? And what happens to all those returned watches - they obviously have to sell them don't they?