Buying watches online?

[Tha Baron]

Hey Fellas-

I have a handfull of watches that I have bought from ADs... some expensive, some not so much. My questions to you guys is:

Have any of you purchased a higher-end watch (i.e. >$2,000) from an online retailer that was not authorized to sell that particular brand?

I am thinking of getting my next piece from a website, which has a pretty solid rep. Is there anything other than the obvious I should about (the voided warranty, buying the seller, etc.)? I am thinking that I should really be self-insuring these from now one since I can't justify the need to spend 10-15% more just to have the purchase from an AD.

Any experience with these particular sites?

JomaShop
Prestige Time
Authentic Watches

Thanks!

 

[binowatch]

Try looking at Timezone.com-best info. Be really carefull-watch forgeries are now a fine art-even experienced collectors get taken.

 

[Kouros]

Authentic Watches is an excellent site.

 

[Alacrity59]

Don't worry . . . hey it is getting late. I can tell by looking at my Roladex AjustDate watch. Amazing Swiss time keeper it is.

 

[dklaiman]

Don't worry . . . hey it is getting late. I can tell by looking at my Roladex AjustDate watch. Amazing Swiss time keeper it is.

I've purchased from JomaShop in the past. They were great.

 

[betat]

Several years ago I bought my wife a Tag for Christmas from Ashford.com. Got it at a great price and was not worried about warranty or if it was grey market. Took it to a local jeweler the day after Christmas to get it sized and the guy butchered it! Scratched the case, bent the links and then told me he couldn't size it. When I bitched him out about what he did he just laughed at me and said if I had bought it from an authorized retailer, I wouldn't have this problem.
So pissed off I went home and called Ashford and told the customer service rep what had happened. She asked me to send the watch back and they would take care of it. They removed a couple of bent links which sized the watch for my wife and buffed out the scratches the local idiot caused. They picked up the shipping charges too!
I did get the last laugh on the local guy though. He went out of business the following year! What goes around comes around.

 

[RayG]

Is there anything other than the obvious I should about (the voided warranty, buying the seller, etc.)?

1. That I was not buying a fake. It is really hard to tell these days.

2. That if/when time comes I want to sell it, no one will be willing to take the risk to buy it. Even if someone did, you'd take a bigger depreciation hit.

In either case, you'd lose much more money than what you saved.

IMO, if I were buying a $2000 watch, the extra 10% or so would be worth it if only for my piece of mind. Especially since this would (I am assuming) be to purchase something special, not something you plan to do on a regular basis.

 

[moshulu]

It's always good to be careful, but I would trust a retailer who has been on the web for many years, specialises in high-end watches, and has a reputation to protect. I bought two expensive watches on ebay: a Cartier Santos (which is massively faked) and an IWC Mark XII (not faked as far as I know). They were both BINs, each was a steal, and I had to make up my mind instantly. I ran quick checks and pulled the trigger. Everything worked out fine.

 

[Thebigspendur]

It's depends if you like to gamble or not. I've had enough new Swiss watches to know the defect rate is high, very high. So if you buy an expensive watch and there is an issue and there is no factory warranty it goes to his low cost good deal watch repairer. If your lucky he does a good job and if you're not he does a bad job and if you're like me and buy an IWC which eventually had to have the mvmt replaced you're in big trouble cause he isn't going to buy a new mvmt at his expense so he just bounces the watch back and forth to you until you get the idea you will have to spring for the repair cost yourself. In that instance I bought from an AD and even then it was trouble enough to get the official repair ctr to replace the mvmt. If I had bought Grey market it would have cost me a mint.

 

[AFG]

It's always tempting to got the gray market route but so far I have not done it. I might on a good quality quartz watch but probably not on an automatic. It's doubtful you'd have to worry about counterfeit watches from any of the dealers you have mentioned but I'd surely be careful about ebay. It's always better to buy from an AD if you can. Tag Heuer is having a factory direcet sale now that is better than any gray market price so it definetely pays to shop around even among AD's. The only way I would buy from gray market is if the savings was so significant I could afford to pay the cost of having it repaired locally if something went wrong. And that's assuming its a movement a local watch shop can repair.

 

[Xman74]

A couple years ago I bought an Omega from an online retailer in the UK. Like you I was concerned that I could easily be duped by the amazingly accurate fakes coming out of China (they even fake the boxes, warranty cards, etc perfectly!). The website had links to their business registration with Companies House in the UK (a number of years earlier), Better Business Bureau links, actual phone numbers (which I called, just to see - and sure enough was answered by a person from the company). I took my time, did my research and pulled the trigger.

My watch also included a full international warranty, which is critical since Swiss watches can be temperamental (as mentioned by someone else).

A couple months ago, my daughter dropped my watch HARD and after that I could tell something wasn't right. Went to a local dealer and he sent it to Omega with my warranty card. They fixed it under warranty, no problem.

All this to say 1) do your due diligence on the vendor, 2) make sure it comes with a warranty and 3) enjoy the watch!

If you can save some serious coin (I saved around 30% from retail), I think it is worth it!

 

[Tha Baron]

1. That I was not buying a fake. It is really hard to tell these days.

2. That if/when time comes I want to sell it, no one will be willing to take the risk to buy it. Even if someone did, you'd take a bigger depreciation hit.

In either case, you'd lose much more money than what you saved.

IMO, if I were buying a $2000 watch, the extra 10% or so would be worth it if only for my piece of mind. Especially since this would (I am assuming) be to purchase something special, not something you plan to do on a regular basis.

I'm confident I will not be sent a fake. I own quite a few of the brand I am contemplating buying this go round. Also, it comes with all paperwork as well.

I traded in a Breitling at Torneau and the salesman just checked the serial #. He never asked once where I bought it if I had the original papers. I probably wouldn't be interested in selling outright to a third party, so I'm not as concerned with the grey market history.

Good points though.

It's depends if you like to gamble or not. I've had enough new Swiss watches to know the defect rate is high, very high. So if you buy an expensive watch and there is an issue and there is no factory warranty it goes to his low cost good deal watch repairer. If your lucky he does a good job and if you're not he does a bad job and if you're like me and buy an IWC which eventually had to have the mvmt replaced you're in big trouble cause he isn't going to buy a new mvmt at his expense so he just bounces the watch back and forth to you until you get the idea you will have to spring for the repair cost yourself. In that instance I bought from an AD and even then it was trouble enough to get the official repair ctr to replace the mvmt. If I had bought Grey market it would have cost me a mint.

This is my main concern... The handful of watches I've owned, nothing has gone wrong. I am due at some point, but if I buy enough watches and self-insure them all that would cheaper in the long run.

The movement I am looking at isn't all that complex. If something were to go wrong, the place I am thinking about actually sends it back to the original AD to have it fixed by the actual watch company. Turn around times aren't all that attractive, but at least it may be something to protect be from the "big bill."

 

[Austin]

I have never bought a gray market watch. However, I have a friend that purchased a Rolex Daytona from pacific watch company. At that time they were dealing with higher end gray market watches. I don't think they sell these type of watches anymore. The watch came with an inhouse 2 year warranty. He started having problems with the chrono dials 1.5 years after the purchase. He sent the watch back and it came back still not working correctly. He went back and forth with them for 4 months. He finally gave up and had it repaired at a cost of $1200 out of his pocket.

I would not buy a higher end watch to save a few bucks. The only risk I will take is purchasing a gently used higher end watch.

 

[furious1]

I agree with the posters who advocate just going with an authorized retailer. BUT, ask around on Timezone and the other watch forums to see what the best price any AD is offering, anywhere in the country.

When I was in the market for mid-level watch, a helpful Timezone member PM'ed me with info on a store that had a great deal. When negotiating for the watch at my local retailer, I used this info to get about 25% off their price.

You should be able to haggle a bit (at least 10-15%) on any watch in the over $2000 range. The only brand where this would not apply is Rolex, as a sucker is born every minute and they don't generally mark down. But other makers give their ADs room.

Also, you can always have it (or an empty box ) shipped to your place in the Hamptons or Vail to avoid sales tax.

 

[scottish steve]

....if I were buying a $2000 watch...

If I were buying a $2,000 watch I'd only buy direct from the manufacturer..and only if an authorised dealer was not in the country/state. I'd happily pick up a cheap flight and go to London (from Glasgow)to get a Sinn or Stowa. Could I suggest you make your rare and special purchase part of a memorable day, including a nice lunch? I'm sure it'd make owning it more pleasurable.

 

[AL3X]

I purchased a few sub $500 watched from the forums on watchuseek. They also sell some very expensive ones and you can get great deals, but you might have to find someone local in order to verify authenticity yourself.

 

[Obiwan]

"Tag Heuer is having a factory direcet sale now that is better than any gray market price"

-----------
any more info on this? Would this have to be at one of the outlet stores or is there a site?

 

[TheDoctor]

As others have said, the so-called gray market can be a treacherous one. One of the more common scams is to post photos of genuine watches (let's say a Rolex Submariner) but then send a fake. Personally, I don't know enough about midrange or to high end watches to trust that I could spot a decent fake. (Note: "mid-range" would include most Tags, Omegas, Rolex Date Just (and perhaps Submariners) and typically any watch in the $2,000 -$5000.00 range whereas "high end" are typically well over $5,000.00.) [disclaimer: These ranges are based on my rather parse research that I did some years ago and should not be viewed as authoritative]

There are of course very reputable dealers online. The problem is that most of the manufacturers (especially Rolex) will not authorize online sales of their watches, so you probably will not find a true "authorized" dealer of new Rolex watches. That said, some authorized dealers will also sell used watches online.

If you do choose to buy online, you should immediately take the watch to an authorized dealer and ask them to authenticate it.

As usual I'm starting to ramble on, so I'll just add one more point. If you are simply looking for a decent watch in a $1000.00 - $3000.00 price range, you may want to take a look at overstock.com. I bought a very nice Hamilton Khaki Automatic at a 75% discount from retail. The downside is the site is hit or miss, so if you are looking for a particular watch, you'll need to be patient. Another option is to buy a used watch from a b&m dealer. Again, patience is the key.

Good luck.

 

[RayG]

http://forums.watchuseek.com/f25/tag-heuer-friends-family-sale-starts-now-ends-12-6-a-476291.html

"Tag Heuer is having a factory direcet sale now that is better than any gray market price"

-----------
any more info on this? Would this have to be at one of the outlet stores or is there a site?

 

[Austin]

http://forums.watchuseek.com/f25/tag-heuer-friends-family-sale-starts-now-ends-12-6-a-476291.html



Thanks Ray. Great price on the Carrera.