Hard to go in there and ask to have them verify the watch as genuine, and please do a time check and a pressure test while you are at it, without raising some suspicion. Plus it's dishonest. It took a bit of chutzpah to begin with to swan in there and ask for verification and testing as part of a sales transaction. Unless I knew the boutique staff it isn't something I'd feel comfortable doing.
I mean, I guess. But not really. Anyone who owns an Omega is well within their rights to take it into an OB and have it pressure checked and inspected. Through the course of having that done, its authenticity will be verified by default. Maybe it's just me but I don't treat these OBs as some sacred ground where I'm the one who needs to be thankful that they might help me out LOL
A boutique or AD has some leeway if they want to take a watch in for warranty service with no warranty card..
I mean, I guess. But not really. Anyone who owns an Omega is well within their rights to take it into an OB and have it pressure checked and inspected. Through the course of having that done, its authenticity will be verified by default. Maybe it's just me but I don't treat these OBs as some sacred ground where I'm the one who needs to be thankful that they might help me out LOL
Completely agree and that was my assumption prior to witnessing this exchange.
In this case they definitely didn’t know the seller and were very unhappy he was broaching a secondhand sale in their premises!
Indeed, I picked up maybe a whiff of perverse satisfaction from them when they delivered the news it had failed the test as I think they knew that I was very unlikely to proceed with the purchase!
The seller had already complained about their behaviour/tone to them as they made it very clear they weren’t keen on him/us being there prepping for a potential secondhand transaction.
I left him to further discussions with them shortly after news of the failed test tbh...Sharp exit made!
I only raised their standpoint on the watch being covered by the warranty as an interesting experience (which they explained prior to it failing the test)... and raised a few questions in my head.
Must say that the staff were very polite to me and any hostility was squarely aimed at the seller.
I have to agree with this. The sentiment of some people in this thread (as it reads to me) like they feel they are walking on hallowed ground in a boutique and need to tread carefully is patently ridiculous.
If one owns a luxury watch like an Omega, let alone a special and modern one like a recent LE, and they wish to sell it to a buyer who wishes to collect because they might be concerned for its condition or legitimacy, what better place is there to do it for everyone's comfort than inside a boutique? Why should one visit under the pretence that they are here with their friend or life partner to look around? Why should the store staff be unhappy at all, assisting known patrons of their brand; the two people in the shop are known owners or soon to be owners, whereas the other 80% coming in are window shoppers. This is part of their job description. What is all this pretentious bullshit?
I'm sure I am not the only one on this forum who has sold watches inside an AD or a boutique before, but personally I've been treated exceptionally every single time I have done so. Knowing the employees in the boutique so they are more liable to 'give permission' has nothing to do with it. I've been inside boutiques which I've never stepped in before, because often the location is dictated by the buyer's meeting preference, especially when one travels a lot like I do. I have been treated well every time and it would negatively affect my perception of the brand if I was not.
Besides, it is not like this must happen every day surely? More often than not more recent watches are sent in the post, or have been serviced and come with documentation confirming this. It's not like this is some endemic of shady people intermixed with genuine collectors coming in off the street to hawk their wares that the boutique is trying to deal with in their policy. If it's store policy, they should have asked you to leave and it sounds like they did not do this for whatever reason. If so, this is down to poor training and bad management if you ask me.
Also Omega and most brands carry out checks with the timegrapher and pressure testing machine as the norm for owners who walk into their boutiques, irrespective of context, and even for watches that are not in warranty. As relates to a failed pressure test, this isn't as big of a deal as one might think. A watch that has spent its life in a cardboard box can fail a pressure test after a few years. What is most important from any checks carries out is the visual inspection of the movement by the watchmaker and the timekeeping.
Which boutique was this by the way? Did the seller look shady or something?
Spot on. When I walk into an OB, I behave perfectly nice, and I expect the same from them. I don't say this out loud ... but they are there to work for me, not the other way around. I don't go into OBs very often but the people I've encountered in them have always been nice. But if ANYONE working in a watch shop, jeweler, whatever, ever gave me attitude as if they're somehow better than me, I'd be more than happy to rip them a new one and speak to their boss (assuming they weren't the boss) before I walked out. I'm not going to be bullied or intimidated by anyone in this world at this stage of my life, let alone by people who are ultimately glorified cashiers working in a store that sells items that are above their own pay grade in the first place. Ridiculous indeed LOL
I personally would not go so far as to comment on the worth of individuals I know little about. Maybe this is the actual policy, maybe the seller was genuinely shady or maybe the store employee just had not encountered this situation before and did not handle it well. Only OP knows.
All I am saying is that if it is a policy (boutiques refusing to serve patrons of the brand who decide to transact with one another for a watch of that very brand inside the boutique), then it is a bad policy. The notion of luxury is not simply in the metal for these brands but in their treatment of their customer base. I do not doubt there are people who would sell all their Omegas and never buy a watch from them again if they felt affronted a boutique employee without good reason. All of the the appeal of the brand's designs and aesthetics would not make a jot of difference. Now you could argue that this person is just petty and needs to get over theirselves. I would argue it's perfectly reasonable because these brands market perception and nothing else.
On the other hand, of course you don't want people counting pennies and bills on the watch display window. If they had decided to do it in cash, any self-aware person with the money to afford a luxury watch would just visit the boutique to get whatever checks they need to get done and do the actual exchange elsewhere. Otherwise, I see no problem with it. Most boutiques are empty most of the time and everyone is twiddling their thumbs or playing Candy Crush behind the counter.
If one owns a luxury watch like an Omega, let alone a special and modern one like a recent LE, and they wish to sell it to a buyer who wishes to collect because they might be concerned for its condition or legitimacy, what better place is there to do it for everyone's comfort than inside a boutique? Why should one visit under the pretense that they are here with their friend or life partner to look around? Why should the store staff be unhappy at all, assisting known patrons of their brand; the two people in the shop are known owners or soon to be owners, whereas the other 80% coming in are window shoppers. This is part of their job description.
Spot on. When I walk into an OB, I behave perfectly nice, and I expect the same from them. I don't say this out loud ... but they are there to work for me, not the other way around. I don't go into OBs very often but the people I've encountered in them have always been nice. But if ANYONE working in a watch shop, jeweler, whatever, ever gave me attitude as if they're somehow better than me, I'd be more than happy to rip them a new one and speak to their boss (assuming they weren't the boss) before I walked out. I'm not going to be bullied or intimidated by anyone in this world at this stage of my life, let alone by people who are ultimately glorified cashiers working in a store that sells items that are above their own pay grade in the first place. Ridiculous indeed LOL
Oh I agree with you. Don't get me wrong, I've never gotten into any nasty interactions and I'm not trying to. But just as a discussion topic as we're having here, there are enough stories told on watch forums from time to time about snotty, pretentious sales people (and not only in situations where someone tries to sell a watch in their store) that it makes me consider what a joke it all really is. I guess all I meant was, I wouldn't take crap from someone working in a watch store any more than I would from someone working at McDonald's. I don't walk into anyplace considering or judging the "status" of anyone who works there (in normal situations I don't care whatsoever about those types of things), but if those people start treating me that way, it would be a different story. An Omega Boutique is nothing more than a watch store, not the Vatican.
If I ran an OB, I'd probably allow the transaction but ask both parties to waive my liability.
My guess is that if you don't have the warranty card when you present the watch for service, the dealer can refuse to honor the warranty because presentation of the stamped dated card is an express condition of obtaining service under warranty. However, I don't think Omega can refuse to re-issue the warranty card if you present a sales receipt issued by an AD documenting that the watch is still within the warranty period for that watch model; and it doesn't matter who purchased the watch as long as you have that receipt to prove the date of sale. The serial # (itself) is only relevant if the manufacture date is more recent than the warranty period, because the warranty period starts on retail sale to the consumer, not the date of manufacture: so, if you happen to buy a new watch that (for whatever reason) sat around the dealer's stock room for 5+ years, your warranty still starts on the date of sale.
Even if you buy it on the grey market, if it happens to include the original sales receipt from an AD, you're probably covered and entitled to a new warranty card from Omega on request with presentation of the receipt. And Omega can probably charge a reasonable fee for issuing a new card; but I doubt they can refuse to do so. At most, Omega could probably refuse to reissue the card only if the original receipt omits the serial #, because that's what identifies the watch on the receipt and Omega does not have to absorb the risk of issuing a warranty on a watch that may or may not be the watch referenced on the receipt. Even that is doubtful, because if it was purchased at an AD, the AD also probably has a record of having sold you that watch on the date reflected on the sales receipt. If the AD only records the sale without customer info, then, you're probably still OK as long as the AD indicates that was the only watch of that model sold on that date. If the dealer sold more than one on that date and doesn't record customer info and the warranty card #, you might have a problem if the serial # isn't on the receipt..
Bottom line, Omega cannot be forced to give a new warranty card
I’ve purchased a 45th and 50th anniversary Speedmaster as well as a Racing model. All came with warranty cards that had the ADs name stamped on them but the AD never wrote the purchase date on them. I haven’t had to have warranty work but wonder how it would work if I had to send it off
