Buying an Omega on the Gray Market: Pros, Cons, Warranty and Service Explained

Here are my two cents. Not all gray market dealers are created equal. I have purchased watches from AD and non-ADs. My dealings with non-AD or gray market dealers have taken place at brick & mortar shops. This gave me the opportunity to inspect the watch to my satisfaction before handing my CC information. I got all the pertinent documents, cards, boxes etc. w/matching and intact serial numbers. At the end of the day, I saved several hundreds of dollars on a new, unworn watch but I was fully aware that I was trading the initial period of warranty and service from the original manufacturer for the one provided by the watchmaker sitting in the back room with the gray dealer. To me, this was a low-risk proposition - after all, I’m buying a high end watch with a solid reputation in terms of quality and craftsmanship. Now, I will never use an online, gray dealer/retailer. There are just too many stories out there of unhappy customers who purchased from these dealers and got the short end of the stick. For one, none of the ones I called offered me any better deal than the AD, plus I bet that many of these online, non-ADs don’t have the watch you are looking for on their inventory and ready to ship. Instead, you must first pay for the watch before they reach out to their network to find the watch. By the way, I’m not referring to “boutiques” when I write “AD” as these follow a different business scheme where paying full MSRP is the norm.

Not all grey market dealers are created equal for sure. As for sourcing watches after you pay is very rare if you are dealing with someone who sells privately quite a bit. We will tell you if we have it in stock or not. If it is a unique request or very hard to acquire we may ask for a deposit. This business goes both ways as I have had customers that put in a 10k order and keep saying how they want it so bad and I end up eventually getting the watch but to be told the day of that they had changed their mind. I'm just trying to say that please deal carefully with any non-AD dealer and they should be friendly and attentive to your questions/needs before, during and after the sale if they want to have repeat business. Gluck!

Unfortunately I had my fair share of "wife got mad" returns lol 🙁

Glad to help and enjoy!

Congrats mate, is that a brand new piece?

Add my name to the list of Satisfied Customers after dealing with George a.k.a @Kringkily ! 👍

https://omegaforums.net/threads/wruw-today.567/page-1756#post-374006

😉