Watch Companies secrecy and Our Win…

Have you ever wondered, how did you get so lucky, which lead you to find the watch that you wanted for 20% cheaper than original price?

Have you ever wondered, how does watch companies get rid of their access inventory, which they can’t get rid off?

Lets dive into this….

Well there are “two tiers” of watches, and “three watch markets”.

The first tier of watches are the independent and highly sought after and collectible, which gets grabbed, pre ordered, and sold out right away, like the Patek Philippe Nautulis, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, ROLEX Daytona, MB&F , Konstantin Chaykin , Tim Gr?nefeld , just to name a few of them.

The second tier are not necessarily bad watches or lower quality, but they don't fly off the shelves as these hot watches, as you see when it came to the bigger brands like AP, Rolex, and PP, not all their watches are top tier, the reason is because there are a lot of models, which don't go “so well’ or “over produced” or “undervalued” which makes the companies stay with excess inventory.

Lets speak about watch markets. There is obviously the “white market”, this market is the ideal market as the name states, and the intended way of selling the watch, which is the manufacturers and authorized dealers, and official company stores - and online.

”The black market” as you guessed, that is counterfeit watches, stolen watches, watches that you don't pay taxes on it, i would suggest you to stay away from even if you can get it for free (its not worth the juice).

The third market which this article is actually written for, is “The grey market”, the name sounds deceiving, as if you are doing something wrong, illegal and you should stay away from it.

The truth is it is completely legal, without a doubt, and we dont have to worry about counterfeit. Companies like Jomashop.com , Prestige Time LLC , Ashford.com , and The Solist buy from companies their access stock of watches, or showcase pieces at a 30% or so discount. As well they buy some of their watches in different countries with lower exchange rates, and lower taxes, which brings down the prices.

These watches are 100% new, real, and in perfect condition, which some of the companies or authorized dealers just wanna get rid off, as example Jomashop has over 50,000 watches in stock today, just to give you a idea of how much there is excess in the watch brands.

Obviously when it comes to tier one watches, you mostly won’t find it on these websites, and if you do they over charge you by insane amounts, that it makes your hair stand up (sorry that’s the market today, you gotta wait for the call).

The question is, “Motty why shouldn’t I buy at these websites”? I”t is 20% cheaper”? “I work for my money I don’t wanna pay it for no reason”? I get these questions all the time.

To answer the question lets go deeper. Why is it worth for these big brands, like OMEGA SA , Corum Watches , Hublot , and more, willing to sell it for so cheap to other brands instead of selling it themselves on sale? The answer is that these brands, don’t wanna be a brand associated with “sale”, that’s the simple answer.

The more complicated answer is, as soon as you buy it from these websites, for one you don’t have to speak to their associates, thereby saving money on salespeople, second and most importantly they void your “warranty”, and any service you have to do, will come out of pocket, and this saves them a lot of m only, and bring in much more.

Most people when they look at a watch, they don’t think about service, they don’t think about parts, they just think its a new watch it will last forever. If you are a long time collector you know how much service costs. A friend of mine serviced his Patek Phillipe which is recommended every few years, for a nice few thousand CHF, he said he can almost buy a Toyota Corolla from these services, it is not a joke these costs.

Also god forbid a watch has a issue even a minor one, these websites a lot of them, are very limited with what they can do, besides sending it to a watch repair company and hoping the person knows what they’re doing, I have heard of batteries not working on quartz watches, or the mechanical movement needing to be lubricated from sitting so long in a warehouse, or worse brown parts, who wants their brand new watch being opened up and serviced by some watchmaker, or better sending it to the company itself and having to shell out thousands of dollars (for all the savings), and then not even getting a warranty due to scrambled off serial number.

Another point which is very very important is “relationship”, when you buy watches from authorized dealers, you build relationships and trust, this brings you to get the right product, the right consultation, the right service, and pulling the right strings when you need it mostly.

I have had times when the dealer would tell me, this watch doesn’t suit you, or rather buy something else that’s better value or quality, you don’t have this with buying online, and definitely not when buying on third party websites that its all “volume selling driven”.

I am not the one to make the decision to buy grey market or not, some people care about the savings today, some people value relationship and warranty, some people flip the watches and don’t care for any of this, although its a mistake, because watches with out a warranty and scrambled serial number are not worth a lot on the second hand market.

To conclude this week, i just wanna say before we make a decision on what we are spending our hard earned money or how, we should decide what we really want, and what are our plans with the watch later on in its life time, and based on that make a informative decision, not just a good deal today.

I wanna clarify, I do not indorse grey market, or black market watches, nor do i indorse watch flippers, this content is for entertainment and facts only, please reach out to the company before making a decision to know if it was dine legal.

See you next week

BH