Hi All

I was just curious about this. Alot of times the retail prices of any watch depends on the taxes of any country. For example: I would never buy a watch from china because of the high tax rates.

HK is a good country to buy watches, I recently visited there, they sell at international retail prices and offer good discount. They also have so many parallel importers and many watch sellers, so the competition is high so they offer good discounts.

I heard that UK and USA also have good pricing.

Off course sometimes you get a good deal in a watch in a random country. It is difficult to generalize but which countries do you think have good watch pricing?

Disclaimer: I am not planning to buy a watch any time soon but am curious about it.

 

I second HK. The market is so flooded with supply that it’s easy to find some dealers (even gray) that can provide good discounts for the watch that you want. No tax, but a slight price increase is already factored in. Still is cheaper than buying with tax in the US.

 

Thank you for the reply. What is the taxes like in US? Does US also have a tax return.

 

The 'best' place is always changing....back in the early 80's the Swiss Franc was 2.50 to a US dollar.....EVERYTHING was a bargain relative to the US, now the Swiss Franc is at par with the US so not that much better than buying at home. State sales taxes are now starting to be collected even if an item is shipped to another state (courtesy of the recent Supreme Court decision) so that advantage is rapidly going away. Hong Kong and Singapore have always been good places to buy due to their competitiveness and low tax structure.

 

I second HK, however it is not a country...

And as a personal preference, I don’t think buying new Omega is a good idea financially as they don’t hold their value well. Unless not available at used market, and I have to have it at this point, I typically would look at the used market for Omegas. And for that, the Japanese market is unbeatable.

 

I would recommend buying from Omega AD,s in India. Because of the currency conversions I almost saved more than 30% from US AD retail price on Railmaster 40mm. Also depending on time of the month and the location of AD you can get another 5% discount. I declared the watch for the value I bought in India and paid 60$ in US customs fees. So overall worked out very good. I think the watches were priced when 1 US was around 50 INR and now it’s around 65 to 70 INR and my guess is that Omega has not readjusted the prices to account for currency fluctuations

 

Which every country you happen to be in when you find one you want.

 

HK used to be a good bargain. I find prices are about comparable to US if you know where to go.

I found London Heathrow airport offers good pricing. A photographer we worked with travels to the UK a lot and said go shopping at Heathrow airport. I thought he was joking.

Last year, when I was connecting from Scotland, I checked out the AD of Rolex and Cartier and they were indeed cheaper than the discount I got in the US by a $500-700. Also, it helps the US dollar being stronger than the pound years ago.

You have to go to actual Rolex and Cartier individual shops. Not ones that sell multiple brands. When I went to one that sold multiple brands, the IWC price was the same exact price but in pounds. 32% more than US. Umm, no thank you.

The prices at Heathrow are duty AND tax free.

 

Wow,so the retail price of the watches are different based on different states? As someone said in this tread, this is now changing, so probably it will be the tax will be the same in all states is it?

 

Agreed, but recently I noticed that their retail price is already 10-20% higher than international retail then they give around 20% discount depending on the brand, so it doesnt turn out to be a good deal.
In that regards Nepal is better but the Rolex AD has become up tight and Rolex Sports novelties at almost double

 

Wow, this sounds so interesting. Different taxes within a city! i cant imagine how difficult it would be to work in USA with so many laws!the opposite is true here, less strict laws so every govt employee is the king

 

This concept is so new and out of the world to me

 

The channel island is a good source. No VAT in Guernsey and only 5% GST in Jersey. Both have both high street jewellers and independent AD for high end brands.

 

Interesting! do they offer good discounts as well?

 

Depends on what model and brand. The independents do on their older models , but I’ve noticed recently it’s only about 9% where it used to be up to 15%

 

The best Country to buy watches from is Omegaforumland!

 

If you are a tourist on holidays, claiming back the tax at the airport then it doesn't matter. If you are not then it's somewhere with low tax and good customer service.