Is the boutique experience worth the premium sale price?

[PandaSPUR]

Evitzee

This is why the 'establish a relationship with your OB' recommendation that you hear on OF will often count for nothing. Team members come and go, whole teams are replaced, or the OB permanently closed. My closest OB was San Antonio and although I never bought a watch from them I did buy a few straps and buckles over the years and was on a first name basis with the manager, very friendly staff. Around the first of the year the location closed and no longer appears on Omega's site. They are supposed to be opening an OB in Austin, 90 miles away, but that will have a new team. So the value of paying full price for the 'relationship' in this case? Nil.

Might depend on how much of a "relationship" you've built. I hope i wouldn't be starting from 0 if the entire team at my OB got replaced. At least within the same country, I'm pretty sure your purchase history is visible with other OBs.

 

[Evitzee]

PandaSPUR

Might depend on how much of a "relationship" you've built. I hope i wouldn't be starting from 0 if the entire team at my OB got replaced. At least within the same country, I'm pretty sure your purchase history is visible with other OBs.

Your purchase history is visible, of course, but the new OB team and management doesn't know you, there is no camaraderie built up over a long period of time for them to go the extra mile to get a hard to source item for you. Human nature.

 

[Evitzee]

texasmade

He did say he could get me the platinum 321 if I was interested. I declined telling him that I don't have $70k to spend on a watch at this time.

A beautiful watch but not something I'd spend that kind of money on. A new team usually means the store isn't meeting sales goals and corporate management tries a Hail Mary that usually doesn't change things. The Houston OB is big and rent in The Galleria is very pricey, it's hard to compete against the Tiffany's of the world. I wonder if the store's viability is on the ropes and Omega is considering its future. There is Zadok's up on Post Oak which has many top brands in mini-boutique mode (Lange, JLC, VC, Panerai, Cartier, and others), and recently they expanded their footprint for Omega. Perhaps Omega is considering the OB's future and letting Zadok's have it in Houston. Most watch boutiques are small, look at Breitling, Panerai or Hublot in Houston, the Omega OB is twice the size. You mentioned previously that the Houston OB didn't have a lot of repeat customers, that makes it more difficult for a location to survive, always hunting for new customers is hard.

Edited: May 5, 2024

 

[Tekashi_145.022]

Get an AD discount and go out to a nice dinner with your new watch with some of that cash you saved.

 

[texasmade]

Evitzee

A beautiful watch but not something I'd spend that kind of money on. A new team usually means the store isn't meeting sales goals and corporate management tries a Hail Mary that usually doesn't change things. The Houston OB is big and rent in The Galleria is very pricey, it's hard to compete against the Tiffany's of the world. I wonder if the store's viability is on the ropes and Omega is considering its future. There is Zadok's up on Post Oak which has many top brands in mini-boutique mode (Lange, JLC, VC, Panerai, Cartier, and others), and recently they expanded their footprint for Omega. Perhaps Omega is considering the OB's future and letting Zadok's have it in Houston. Most watch boutiques are small, look at Breitling, Panerai or Hublot in Houston, the Omega OB is twice the size. You mentioned previously that the Houston OB didn't have a lot of repeat customers, that makes it more difficult for a location to survive, always hunting for new customers is hard.

Yeah, the only way I'd spend $70k on it is if I was making loads of money, probably like $500k+.

Zadok picked up Omega and Lange a few years ago from Lewis Jewelers that was right down the street from them. I doubt Omega is going to close their boutique in a major city but $ talks. The boutique is in the process of moving locations within the Galleria away from Panerai Bvlgari.

There is another Omega boutique that recently opened up in The Woodlands which I don't think is actually owned by Omega. It's connected to a Breitling boutique. Very weird setup.

 

[Evitzee]

Evitzee

This is why the 'establish a relationship with your OB' recommendation that you hear on OF will often count for nothing. Team members come and go, whole teams are replaced, or the OB permanently closed. My closest OB was San Antonio and although I never bought a watch from them I did buy a few straps and buckles over the years and was on a first name basis with the manager, very friendly staff. Around the first of the year the location closed and no longer appears on Omega's site. They are supposed to be opening an OB in Austin, 90 miles away, but that will have a new team. So the value of paying full price for the 'relationship' in this case? Nil.

Lo and behold, they reopened the Omega Boutique at La Cantera in San Antonio after closing it at the first of the year. Moved next door into a space about 2/3 as large as the original, but really nicely done. The team looked new, but I was not that familiar with the old one. Good selection. The old space is boarded up with 'Coming Soon, Louis Vuitton'. I asked about the white dial Speedmaster and they said right now about a five to eight week wait, less if you put a deposit down and advance up the list, but they regularly get them. I asked about the boutique in Austin and he said it's going ahead and they are hoping for an August opening. Maybe.

 

[Steerpike999]

My Experience with OB in Melbourne has been very good and i prefer to get my omega watches from them.
Great service and extras like cases / straps / sunglasses / accessories kit as freebies.
It also depends what you are looking to buy and if its available elsewhere easily.
YMMV

 

[Pastorbottle]

I don't even know where the local OB is, though I'm pretty sure it would be somewhere ghastly, with crap parking and lots of pretentious tossers about. So I would be inclined not to go to such a horrid place anyway

 

[redpcar]

Pastorbottle

I don't even know where the local OB is, though I'm pretty sure it would be somewhere ghastly, with crap parking and lots of pretentious tossers about. So I would be inclined not to go to such a horrid place anyway

That's pretty dark. My experience with Omega boutique sales teams has been pleasant.

 

[Evitzee]

Pastorbottle

I don't even know where the local OB is, though I'm pretty sure it would be somewhere ghastly, with crap parking and lots of pretentious tossers about. So I would be inclined not to go to such a horrid place anyway

But being among the pretentious tossers here on OF is a better experience? Odd.

 

[Pastorbottle]

Evitzee

But being among the pretentious tossers here on OF is a better experience? Odd.

Unfortunately there is an element of pretentious tossers here too, but not all here qualify and are deserving of scorn.
There is a large element of forum membership that are down to earth, have a real interest in watches and can take a joke.

 

[0002s]

Sometimes a luxury item, is purchased, to mark an achievement or milestone. In those instances, a boutique experience, may be worth, the additional price increase. Other than this it’s a really a matter of discount, no sales tax vs warranty. New vs used. Everyone has their preferences and price to pay formula. I buy the dials I like and what fits.

 

[GrussGott]

redpcar

That's pretty dark. My experience with Omega boutique sales teams has been pleasant.

yeah, my OB sales guy last Nov was super chill and he told us 90% of his customers were buying for a special occasion and had their watches engraved (as did I).

We took at least 2 hours going through all the watches and then another hour or so looking through a giant tome of all of Omega's history, and looking through all kinds of pictures (it was the 1st OB).

He also brought out the in-house watch maker and we spent an hour with him talking all things movements, went over all kinds of details of the watches, etc and of course he set up the watch exactly how i wanted it and also gave me a little tutorial on how to change straps, polish the watch, etc. Not that any of the stuff is particularly new but it was really cool to see all his tools and how he did it and how he recommended I do it.

Anyway, it was all 100% private in our own space, but super chill, lots of espressos & chocolates, etc. Yes they had all kinds of fancy hard liquor, champagne, etc but not my speed.

Great service and a great experience aren't pretentious unless you bring that in with you, and everyone I encountered on multiple days was a super chill normal, just excited to be there & see all the cool stuff.

I've been lucky enough to do BMW factory delivery a few times and I'd put this in same category. All of the fun memories are packed into the watch, so every time I wear it, it's a great memory.

Going back again this year.