I almost had a heart attack when I opened the big wooden box and it was empty. I then looked in the separate envelope and found the watch. I still get a little flutter thinking about it.

 

For what it's worth, I haven't had great success buying Omega watches through AAFES. Over the past two years, I've tried buying three. The first one I bought was fine. The second one was lost buy FedEx and AAFES initially told me that I had to get a refund from FedEx. A few hours on the phone later, I was given a refund by AAFES, but they refused to let me buy a replacement at the sales price. The third was dead on arrival –– when I asked AAFES for an exchange, they said sure, mail it back and they'd have another one shipped. Instead, they are going to refund me and have now refused to let me order a replacement at the sales price.

 

I have purchased two Omegas from AAFES - both were flawless transactions in every respect. They even matched the price from another online [gray] dealer, essentially making the bottom line of my purchase as a gray dealer pricing with a full OEM warranty.

 

Oh, nice! Maybe I'll give them one more try the next time there is a sale. In the scheme of things, it has only been been a moderate hassle to get my money back when the watches were lost or broken in transit.

 

My transaction was far from easy or straight forward. It was pending for several days and then shipped with no tracking numbers for a good while. Then I was informed that the way,ch had been rejected by the shipper (FedEx) and the transaction cancelled. I went through the dispute process to get them to honor it and was getting no where. Then I called back and found someone that would/could help. She resolved it in a few minutes and I had my watch a few days later. As a bonus, I got $20 gift cards for spending $1,000. So I got 3. A little balm for my burn.

 

Will Omega honor the warranty because the warranty card from AAFES is not filled.

 

I have never claimed service under warranty on any of my Omega watches purchased from AAFES (with blank warranty cards) so I can't say one way or the other -- this is however, one reason to keep the original AAFES sales receipt as proof of purchase (from an AD).

 

Sale going on. Not as big as others but okay.

No speedys this time.

 

$3,629. And they have the black, gray and blue in stock. That’s $500 more than the Thanksgiving sale, but still a great price. And no tax and free shipping.

 

I called AAFES on another issue and they said additional 15% for your first purchase using your new mystar credit card. Goes until jan 28.

Catch is you need your new card. The card takes 7 to 14 days in mail. But if you are near a post/base you can go in and get your temporary number. Either that and hope your new card arrives befor jan 28. Of course the sale will be over.

But if you don't use your card and wait until tgey do the 15 % off again and time it with another sale you can double up.

It's possible, just tricky. Anyone who previously got a new milstar card and hasn't used it yet can use it now in this sale and get an extra 15%

 

Speedmasters have been missing from the AAFES website for a few weeks now. While I don't think there was an official 1861 retirement announcement, I have to wonder if it's connected to the 3861 release.

 

I love this. Maybe I'm old fashioned but I firmly believe anyone in the service (plus frontline healthcare workers & teachers) should have opportunities like this more often. TBH, it should be the norm.

 

I've been out of the military for years (since 1997--I'm old!). I need to start checking out AAFES again!

 

I'm expecting the new speedy will be available at AAFES as soon as production picks up. It will take awhile as omega has to get Snoopy3 going. But if you can wait a few then we should be able to get the new speedy at AAFES.

But back to the 1861, it's going to run out sooner or later. If it's not gone now, it will be soon. Not a terrible thing as it means the 3861 is closer.

 

I don't believe Omega's production is as linear as that. I'm sure they can produce more than one model simultaneously. As I said previously, I would have picked up a 311.30.42.30.01.005 at the AAFES sale price ($3600 or thereabout) if they had them, but that was only to tide me over until I'm confident enough to buy a birthyear 145.022-71. If the low-low-price last gen speedys are gone, then so is my desire to get one. I'll wear my FOIS until the birthyear comes along.

 

Sale ongoing. 20% off list

 

I'm sort of confused.. AAFES doesn't stamp warranty cards when you buy an Omega through them? I've seen posts (not sure if they're older ones) where guys have received Omega's with their cards stamped.

 

Could be they aren't consistent. My purchase was a little over a year ago ( fairly recent.) I could be an anomaly but it happened with more than one watch.

One factor was that my purchase was made online. Perhaps an in store purchase would be treated differently.

I emailed Omega customer service with questions about how they would handle a warranty card like the one I received from AAFES, as well as questions related to the AAFES status with Omega (i.e. AD or not.) If and when they reply I will pass it on.

It would be interesting to hear from others about their warranty cards.

 

Mine came the same way, embossed with AAFES on the card, no other info.

 

There was another thread about this. https://omegaforums.net/threads/buying-omega-at-military-exchange.130193/#post-1764733