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Modern Omega Mahogany Box, Original or NOT?

  1. pmontoyap Apr 22, 2018

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    Sorry for the long post. Ill try to be brief.

    I had a box in my collection for 7 years, it had its white thick cardboard outer box stamped OMEGA in gold letter, inside sat a beautiful mahogany box with a separate compartment for the very thick instruction manual and card holder, both of which were present. The box meant nothing to me as I literally dont remember how I got it, for sure it wasnt with a modern Omega, it was just an extra I received and it sat in my closet for years.

    Just last month listed on Ebay one of the few modern Omegas I have, a Coaxial DeVille, and decided it would be a great chance to put the mahogany case to good use. I listed the watch with the case and stated that the watch comes with a beautiful original Omega box.

    Three weeks later I receive several emails from
    the buyer stating this box is a fake and that if the watch came in it, it was probably a fake too. He then explained how he has been an Omega dealer for 20 years and so on. What caught his attention was the fact that the manual had the chinese fonts on the index printed with little detail.

    My first though was that Omega boxes of 8 years ago arent particularly known for their good quality, we all have a few of the red or black leatherette boxes fallin apart in our closet.

    I have compared my box with other available on ebay rightnow and find it to be exactly the same as this one:

    https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/142756914457

    It has the same finish, same tubular hinges, same brass latch. The finish on the inside is the same, with the double cuff pillow and all. These is the only pic I have of my box prior to the sale:

    FCECCA27-4D42-41A4-AF53-93DFC7CAE89A.jpeg

    Im not so sure what the buyer intentions are, he has not mentioned a return and In fact he already forwarded the watch to China from the US address I shipped it out to. I asked him for pics showing the issues that worry him and here they are:

    2683056F-DEAD-4E60-AC04-DA8A1D629A24.png ACD6D58C-2D9C-4CA3-AC34-3E1DDD5C3212.png 9AC3880C-8EC8-485D-BC59-684070AF120C.png 37E63072-5801-4FD9-870A-B9764F19B97B.png BC87DE67-9515-4203-9207-4F3D446D61AF.png 0B8F9588-899D-4664-AE8A-31D7F99BD86D.png 3590B150-C07A-4395-96F4-B30B53CA7197.jpeg 4F37D757-85C8-41BC-AC27-B2ECBB76F1B7.png
    I must admit the OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS wording seems cheap, but like I said, Omega was not particularly known for their luxurious packing. And I really doubt some fake watch factory in asia would be interested in copying the luxury wooden case of the brand down to the last detail.

    Please let me know your thoughts on this matter, not sure when I will be hearing back from the buyer and what his intentions are. At this point All I know the box is broken after being handled by a freight forwarding company. I want to make things right but not sure who is right regarding the authencity of the box.

    Thanks in advance

    P
     
    BABE21F0-8791-47A2-B295-22FE114AF340.jpeg A6B1BCFB-EF6D-41B4-91FF-47B4077D0230.png 3E2E4831-2DE5-441E-B52F-DA318A5E14EC.png 34C4905A-C4F7-41CE-8399-651716D00182.png 413B05A2-B0D5-48C9-A264-AB8F7AF5A43D.png
  2. Meme-Dweller Apr 22, 2018

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    To me, your box looks a little "off" compared to what I have. Also, the paperwork from 7 years ago shouldn't look like that. I have no comments on the watch itself as I don't know enough about the DeVille line to guess if it's real. Did the watch include the cards ("papers") to validate its authenticity? Did you purchase the watch from a legitimate source like an Authorized Dealer?

    Here are shots I took a while back that compared the genuine wood to the leatherette box. Notice that mine has some grain in the wood:
     
    20170727_144540.jpg 20170727_144448.jpg 20170727_144458.jpg
  3. thatonewatchdude Apr 22, 2018

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    The box seems original, these boxes were presented when a precious metal timepiece was purchased before they re-vamped to the wood boxes they currently use now.
     
  4. pmontoyap Apr 22, 2018

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    Thanks for the input, its true, yours does have a very nice grain to it. The watch’s authenticity is not in question here, as I said I was just trying to present the watch in a nice box, and at the same time claim back the space an empty box takes in my small watch closet
     
  5. RES13 Apr 23, 2018

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    Unfortunately, what you said in your auction was “Comes with the original Omega solid wood case, no papers.”

    https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/112855781798

    Using the word “a” and “the” implies different things in this case. I would think some people may have an issue if they received “a” random Omega box, as you stated it was in this post, if the auction explicitly stated they would be receiving “the” original Omega box.

    While I am not doubting the authenticity of the watch or box, someone could argue that what they received was “not as described”.
     
    dxholdren likes this.
  6. ulackfocus Apr 23, 2018

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    If that exact box did not originally come with that exact watch, then it is NOT original. Authentic? Yes. Period correct? Yes. Original? No.
     
    dxholdren likes this.
  7. pmontoyap Apr 26, 2018

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    Good point @ulackfocus, and indeed a bad choice of words as @RES13 has noted. Next time Ill rephrase it to “comes with a nice Omega box”.

    So outer box and box seem to be authentic Omega? To be honest those fonts on the cover of the OPERATING MANUAL do look suspicious and when compared to other examples the position of the words in relation to the balance wheel are different. Plus the illegibility of the Chinese character

    I have suggested to the buyer that I will send him another set of booklets which will meet his expectations and he agreed.

    And althought it could be argued that what was received was not as described, I did specify it was a US ONLY sale, which I do on watches that cost 1k+ Just so I can provide a no questions asked (silent) return policy.

    Unfortunately once a third party receives and forwards the package (specially to another country) it is very hard to win a case on ebay. Unless it was an obvious rip-off, the fact that a third party handled the package and forwarded it out of the country would have made it very hard for the buyer to make a case. Nonetheless Im glad we worked it out at the end :)

    Thank you all for your input