![]() ![]() I'm OK with my way, they're fine with their way, you'll have to find yours. I'm more the AD guy, because I'm not after the last penny, though most of my friends buy on the grey market, even 20000$ watches. The decision whether you buy on the grey market or from an AD is your own. The grey market dealer can now sell this submariner to a customer for 13500, making a 1500 profit for himself. He can resell the watches at a lower price than the AD because he usually doesn't need to pay for a 5th Ave store, a workshop, employees, advertising etc. So what is a grey market dealer: Someone who has a good relationship to one or more ADs, he buys large amounts of merchandise there every year and through this gets better prices than me and Bobby McGee. A completly different thing is that you often get strange looks when you tell an official service center that you bought the watch on the grey market, the manufacturers simply don't like the fact that a third person did earn money through the watch, but hey: that isn't your problem. In this moment the manufacturers guarantee starts, no matter if the owner changes afterwards (at least if there is no owners name written in the papers). If the grey market dealer is reputable he will insist on getting the guarantee papers filled out and stamped correctly. This means in 99 out of 100 cases the grey market dealer also bought the watch from an AD. Also, in the comments below please feel free to clarify, or offer your own suggestions on how the traditional watch industry can best adapt to the fact that consumers want quick, efficient, and easy ways to buy watches.Every watch sold on the grey market was once sold at an AD, this is (at least at 99 out of 100 brands) the only way to get such a watch. It will be interesting not just for one another, but also for the industry itself to see how the timepiece buying community self-reports on how they prefer to buy watches in this day and age. The point of this article isn’t to talk about the background of the watch industry’s current tough situation more, but I say all this to explain why we are asking the question about how you as consumers prefer to shop for watches. ![]() This “ask the audience question” seeks to understand how your online buying preferences meet those of fellow watch buyers. Things need to change, things will change, and I think the consumer should have a voice in how the industry adapts. Every watch sold on the grey market was once sold at an AD, this is (at least at 99 out of 100 brands) the only way to get such a watch. What is a problem, however, is how consumer behavior clashes with the expectations of the watch industry itself. This is basic consumer behavior and it would be odd if consumers did not follow the path of least resistance. The consumer is not to be blamed for seeking the most efficient (economical) solution to getting the item that they want. ![]() Please do not feel that I am somehow talking down to consumers for their buying preferences. The old way of doing business can’t exist anymore. Many if not all people reading this who have purchased a watch in the last five years have likely either used a gray market dealer or negotiated a discount. Thick margins designed to pad the actually difficult task of traditional watch stores have made it possible for a massive discount economy to take place just outside the walls of the narrow system of “authorized dealer” sales. I’ve been talking about this since 2010 when I first asked if there is a “doomsday coming for third party watch retailers.” That is all happening now. This is how Jomashop can sell new watches at significantly lower prices than a dealer. However, they sell them outside of the originally intended distribution channel. Jomashop’s business model is entirely legal, and they sell authentic watches. Simple capitalism mixed with a globalized economy has laid utter ruin to the traditional watch industry’s core way of doing business that tends to be about selling wholesale directly to a retailer or using various distributors. Likewise, Jomashop is a grey market watch seller, which makes it a totally legitimate business. Of course, there are people buying new watches in traditional brick and mortar stores, but few of them are paying retail prices. The often unspoken reality of 2016 is that people are buying mostly gray-market and pre-owned watches, and they are doing so mostly via internet means. Part of the context of this conversation is the fact that traditional watch retailers are mostly suffering in terms of perceived low consumer demand, but at the same time, the data seems to indicate that we are experiencing a time when demand for watches is higher than it has been in the last 30 years. It should not be surprising that aBlogtoWatch not only favors being able to purchase watches online, but is attempting to actively be part of the force that helps the traditional watch industry transition to more modern ways of doing business – many of which involve internet shopping. ![]()
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