I stand corrected. I never bothered to read the whole ad.
As long as Costco stands behind the watch and a jewelry stores fixes it, it really doesn't matter to me where I bought it as long as I get it at the cheapest price possible.
I always take my watch to Mayors when I'm in Florida to replace the batteries (they will do it on premise instead of sending them out) and never have had a problem, nor were we told they were gray market watches.
Costco sells good stuff. However, I thought it was pretty well known that most luxury goods manufacturers don't exactly want their stuff sold there based on the premise that they're exclusive.
Authorized dealers have a lot of worries. They're dealing with an expensive product that should yield them really high margins, but then they need to compete with other retailers willing to discount. I've heard there's no particular reason why anyone should buy a fancy watch at full price, because some authorized dealer will be willing to discount it. How much they're willing to discount is tricky though. I've heard that some dealers have been cut off when the manufacturer found out how much. Some US dealers might sell at a steep discount to warehouse stores, but insist that the numbers be scrubbed.
The manufacturers are kind of left in a strange situation. They're basically selling exclusivity and price. But if it's too cheap it kind of hurts their reputation, yet as a business they like it when their stuff sells.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-swiss-watches-grey-market-idUSKBN17E2E8
A diamond-studded Rolex at 40 percent off the $34,000 retail price or an Omega Speedmaster Moonphase for less than $10,000? While still out of reach for most people, the increasing prevalence of such deals highlights the perplexing predicament in which luxury watchmakers now find themselves.
With sales falling, more unsold timepieces are finding their way from the Swiss-dominated industry's carefully controlled official retail networks to online platforms where they are often offered at steep discounts.
Swiss watchmakers say they loathe this "gray market" because high discounts damage the meticulously crafted aura of prestige and make it harder to sell their goods at the full price.
"In luxury goods, when you break the illusion of prestige, the dream, the prices, it takes away the confidence. It means slow death for luxury goods," Jean-Claude Biver, head of LVMH's (
LVMH.PA) watch division, told Reuters at last month's Baselworld watch fair, describing the gray market as the "industry's cancer".
However, a sudden end to a boom in Chinese demand is forcing the brands to begin working quietly with dealers in the gray market, occasionally to help with sales but mostly to secure some influence over the unofficial resellers, according to dealers and industry executives interviewed by Reuters.
I remember years ago when I thought of getting an Omega Seamaster. I wanted their most popular model, which was the full size Seamaster 300M water resistant automatic with the blue dial. It wasn't that expensive, but if I had it would way more expensive than any other watch I've ever worn. I think it retailed for $1750 back then but I was going to authorized dealers seeing what the biggest discount was for it. I think one place was willing to give 30% off while another was 35%. In the end I didn't buy it because I figured it wasn't even that great at telling time, as my Casio was more accurate. On top of that I looked up how much the factory servicing cost, which was something like $250 for a replacement of the spring and lubrication. However, the dealers were worried about their bottom lines by discounting, but working against the manufacturers' people who were out there checking for dealers who discounted too much.
I told a coworker who had a fancy watch he bought in Europe. He told me that the price was way less than any dealer in the US would be willing to sell the same model. When I told him how much the Omega cost, he said it was well worth it.
