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My local Los Angeles boutique shut the doors

tpatta
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One of two Omega boutiques in the greater Los Angeles area has shut their doors after ten years.
No "we are closing soon", "our last day is...", just shuttered doors and an email letting me know they are looking forward to seeing us at the other LA boutique. Sadly that boutique is 25 miles away and in Los Angeles traffic probably a good 1 1/2 hour drive. No more 10 minute hop to browse, buy and shoot the bull with the staff.
Happily the store manager from Westfield's will be moving over to the Beverly Center boutique.
Sorry to see them shut down. A really great boutique and a wonderful staff. Thanks for the 10 years and best of luck to all.
 
Larry S
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We live in a rarified bubble when the closing of a store where we can frequent, hang out and buy watches costing thousands can be viewed as having a significant quality of life impact. First world/1% er problems....😁
 
Flysatchmo
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Larry S Larry S
We live in a rarified bubble when the closing of a store where we can frequent, hang out and buy watches costing thousands can be viewed as having a significant quality of life impact. First world/1% er problems....😁

What’s going on? My OB manager just announced his resignation (moving to Europe for family reasons) so I and my two friends, that I introduced the Omega addiction to, took him out to celebrate 8 great years of buying watches and shooting the bull. I agree Larry S...I used to tell my now three grown amazing kids...”you live in a bubble of unreality...don’t get used it”. They didn’t and are making their own way...thank goodness.

OB Manager AQ GMT
My PO
Buddy 1 Speedy 1861
Buddy 2 Speedy Racing Co Axial

4F5F76ED-E3D5-4444-B9EA-90611ED77164.jpeg
 
J
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The Boutique in Boca Raton closed recently. I'm bummed. No notice to loyal customers. Nearest location now 30 mi. away.
 
cvalue13
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MikiJ MikiJ
Govberg is no longer an Omega AD :-(

Could it be because Govberg supplies so many greys? 👎
 
ipreferjester
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J jaybrams
The Boutique in Boca Raton closed recently. I'm bummed. No notice to loyal customers. Nearest location now 30 mi. away.
Did they really? I've always gone to the Miami or Orlando ones, but that's sad to see. Anyone know of why so many OB's are closing doors or is it just a select few?
 
J
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Don’t know but it was rarely busy. They recently located a seamaster 1948LE for me. Excellent service. Free refreshments.
 
texasmade
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MikiJ MikiJ
Govberg is no longer an Omega AD :-(
Probably a good thing. More and more brands are pulling their license from them as Govberg has gotten huge as a GM dealer.

I wouldn't be surprised if customers were complaining about how they can't get popular new releases from them meanwhile Govberg is selling them at a markup as BNIB on the GM.
 
cvalue13
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texasmade texasmade
meanwhile Govberg is selling them at a markup as BNIB on the GM.

or at deep discount TO the DM dealers

which is all well and good if they don’t mind losing a few AD positions eventually
 
chief3630
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Same thing at the Sacramento Boutique. There one day, gone the next without any word during my last visit.
 
Syrte
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Those Swiss watch companies are absolutely not warm and fuzzy.
They're not listed on a stock exchange and don't have to be accountable to the public; they're quite opaque, their main headquarters are in a country where I haven't seen much sentiment about anything, people are paid very high salaries compared to the rest of Europe and companies have very low taxation yet a majority of the public holds very strong views about keeping migrants out;
I would not expect them to be sentimental when they decide to cut costs.
one would suspect the virus has taken a toll on their sales and they're cutting fixed costs everywhere fast.
 
gatorcpa
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There used to be 5 Omega Boutiques in about a 100 mile range from South Miami to West Palm Beach. They are all closed now except for the Midtown Miami location.

I also noticed there are now several more local AD’s now than before. These are branches of larger jewelry chains (Mayors and Jared) that dropped Omega from competing locations when the Boutiques first opened.

My guess is that in the age of COVID, Omega found that it didn’t make a whole lot of business sense to pay all that rent for 5 stores if people could order the product online for the same price.
gatorcpa
 
Evitzee
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Syrte Syrte
Those Swiss watch companies are absolutely not warm and fuzzy.
They're not listed on a stock exchange and don't have to be accountable to the public; they're quite opaque, their main headquarters are in a country where I haven't seen much sentiment about anything, people are paid very high salaries compared to the rest of Europe and companies have very low taxation yet a majority of the public holds very strong views about keeping migrants out;
I would not expect them to be sentimental when they decide to cut costs.
one would suspect the virus has taken a toll on their sales and they're cutting fixed costs everywhere fast.
LVMH, Richemont and The Swatch Group are certainly on stock exchanges, but some biggies like Rolex, Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe are private.
 
8100_RPM
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chief3630 chief3630
Same thing at the Sacramento Boutique. There one day, gone the next without any word during my last visit.
They replaced the Roseville boutique with a new San Francisco boutique.
 
Foo2rama
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Come down to south coast plaza…

omega, Rolex, IWC, JLC, Paneri, GO, Patek, Mount Blanc, Tiffany, swatch, VC…. Tornue
 
Syrte
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Evitzee Evitzee
LVMH, Richemont and The Swatch Group are certainly on stock exchanges, but some biggies like Rolex, Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe are private.
I stand corrected,
funny I never think of LVMH as a watch group despite their purchase of Tag Heuer and Zenith - and for me they’re still quintessentially French.
 
Bobcat Sig
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Same story here, though it was an AD that had their Omega flag pulled. After protesting and riots turned downtown Portland into a warzone (of which this shop was a well-published victim), they pulled up stakes and moved across the river to a new, safer location. When they did, Omega pulled their AD status.
 
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