Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/05/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Yeah, this one scares me. I lost my fear of buying camera gear over the net and ebay, but from what I can tell, ebay is getting really scary for camera gear. For watches, it must be a nightmare. If I decide to buy, this will be with authorized dealers; I have found one extremely trustworthy one in Hong Kong. Vick -----Original Message----- From: lug-bounces+vick.ko=sympatico.ca@leica-users.org [mailto:lug-bounces+vick.ko=sympatico.ca@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Rob McClure Sent: Monday, May 28, 2007 3:44 PM To: Leica Users Group Subject: Re: Subject: Re: [Leica] OT: Watches - can you provide advice ... One must be very careful buying new watches on the internet. Most quality manufacturers won't permit their authorized dealers to sell directly over the net. As a result the watches sold by online sellers like world of watches, amazon.com dealers, overstock.com, etc. are gray market. This means they were obtained through backdoor deals in foreign countries from dealers, distributors and who-know-who... Sometimes the watches are "Frankenwatches", made from different components or are factory returns. Some sellers grind off the serial number so the origin may not be traced. Usually these gray market watches carry an "international warranty" which is only honored by the seller or some other third party. Some manufactures will not work on gray market watches. Ebay is even scarier. One of the Omega newsgroups monitors the Omega auctions and finds up to Omegas being sold are fakes. I am sure other quality brands have the same issue. Be careful out there! Rob McClure