Omegas on watchshopping.com

C Cod Holliday

I feel very poor when I read threads like this. How much saving is worth it for any of you to gamble with several thousand of your hard earned after tax income?

For me anything over $1,000 is way too much. I would rather walk into an OB or AD, perhaps pay 10-20% more and get my watch that's certified fresh and ticking. Not to mention the after sales service in case of issues (and they do happen for brand new watches).

And that's why I feel poor. Threads pop up all the time with people sending wires of several thousand to joe blow companeis or instagram user to save a grand. Perhaps I don't fancy living on the edge as much.

Thanks for the headsup but smart ones here either do the right thing or buy from forum sponsors, very well established members only.

E Edgeworth

In general I agree with you, although if the savings is substantial I will buy from a grey market dealer, and I’ve had very good experiences in the past going this route.

For this particular purchase, it was a discontinued Aqua Terra that I once owned and always regretted selling. I still want it, but the only options at this point are used or grey.

C Cod Holliday

I would rather walk into an OB or AD, perhaps pay 10-20% more and get my watch that's certified fresh and ticking. Not to mention the after sales service in case of issues (and they do happen for brand new watches).

Annapolis

This is the never-ending internal debate. Do you pay a premium—that is, full retail—for peace of mind, or do you pay fair market value and assume some risk?

I think all the variables matter. I have a (very) short list of secondhand or gray dealers that I’ll consider buying from, after many many hours of combing through forum reviews, BBB reviews, and various other sites, as well as (sometimes) actually speaking to them on the phone. I do my homework. Those are the only places I’d ever wire money to. Have never had any issues with any of them that didn’t get immediately resolved to my satisfaction. The OP’s site—not on the list. I’ll rarely sell on eBay or Chrono24; will never use either of those sites to make a purchase. I’ll do smaller person-to-person transactions here and on the Rolex Forum, but am always prepared to bail if someone is weird, flaky, or takes longer to respond than I prefer. Gotta have a code to live by!

My contention is that, whenever possible, you want to buy Omega gray or preowned. (Only talking modern/new Omegas, obviously.)

It’s funny: a lot of people rage against Rolex for their scarcity marketing/waitlist nonsense. Fair enough, but I’d be just as peeved with Omega for selling their watches so high above their fair market value, at least for most of the models. (Not saying I plan to organize a protest or internet shaming campaign; just saying I personally won’t pay that much if I can avoid it—doubt Omega cares.) You walk out of the store and the watch drops a couple grand. I’d always rather let someone else take the hit. Maybe you only get four years of warranty instead of five; maybe there’s a hairline scratch on the clasp. I, for one, don’t care. Or I don’t $3,000 care.

So, it’s just about minimizing the risk. So far I’ve never bought a fake, gotten burned, or had an issue that left me feeling bad.

…with the acknowledgment that everything I just said is pretty obvious.

E Edgeworth

I’ve bought from grey market dealers before and had a good experience. Watchshopping.com has good prices on Omegas and I bought and paid for a watch in late May. The website said to give 8-10 business days for them to obtain and inspect the watch then 2-3 days for shipping. I never heard boo from them after they took my 5k so I reached out multiple times via phone and email. No reply.

I should have done a bit more research first. On Trustpilot the reviews for the site were traditionally very mixed. Quite a few happy buyers and an occasional very bad review. But since Feb of 2023 it’s just a slew of unanimously horrible reviews. Same story as mine - they take your money and you never get your watch and they won’t respond to you via email or phone and web chat is dead. You just get ghosted.

Anyway I suspect they went out of business. Not sure how or why they are still processing orders and taking money. I called Amex and they suspended the charge for me and launched a dispute. They expect resolution in 10-14 days. But the charge has been suspended and I very much doubt I’ll have to pay as Amex is very good with this.

so this is just a PSA as there are still some very tempting Omega prices on this site, and they are updating the site daily and taking orders. But …. Caveat emptor

E Edgeworth

Just as a follow up (not that anyone cares, ha), Amex did cancel this charge for me. So it didn’t cost me anything other than some stress and disappointment in not getting the watch I wanted.

Again, in my defense, this website was once very comparable to Watchmaxx and Jomashop - two sites I’ve bought from before - in its online and TrustPilot reviews. My mistake was not spending two minutes to pull up the latest TP reviews for the site, which went to crap in March.

The place went out of business but someone is still controlling the website, selling product, and taking money. Kind of astonishing to me that this can’t be shut down. They are even updating prices daily and advertising seasonal sales but it’s all a total fraud.