The Breitling Watch Source Forums

i just purchased a navi 01 LE from japan that came with everything except COSC certificate and the warranty booklet. i was not concerned about the authenticity of the watch nor the fact that original sale was from an AD. i know this as it came with a Club Breitling Card that shows the Japanese AD, the serial no and the date of sale.

the date of sale was aug 2012 so i thought warranty was still in effect. the watch is running about -8 sec so i took it into the NYC Boutique. well it turns out it was never registered so im told im out of luck. i show the CB card and say doesnt that prove it was sold by an AD? they say no, the card holds no weight here in US and that it proves nothing. they go on to also say that theyre not responsible for grey market sales. i counter this is NOT grey market watch as it was sold by an AD originally... round and round we go and the end result is that no warranty card, no warranty. i feel the CB card establishes the fact that it was a legit AD sale so warranty should be good for the 5yrs. this is such BS. i asked if i bought it from the Boutique and lost my warranty card would i suffer the same outcome? they say no, they have records to establish sale date and would honor any warranty claims.

so my question is does this sound right? how does the Breitling main database not know the watch as it was registered in japan with Club Breitling? just doesnt smell right to me. is there a course of action i can take to establish the legal AD sale so that i can get warranty service? i will talk to BUSA next week to see if it can get sorted out but given what happened at the Boutique, im not very hopeful...

any japanese members here that might be able to shed light on how the Club Breitling works to help establish date of sale?

thanks in advance for any input.

_________________
FW

Crosswind Special, White
Chronomat 44 B01 LE
Navi 01 LE, Vapor Silver

Hi. I suspect Breitling have a central record of AD sales. I bought a Transocean from ebay with no warranty proof, the watch autowinder stuck on my watch winder, I took it to my local AD expecting to have to pay for a service as it didn't come with a warranty cert Breitling told me it was covered still under the original warranty and repaired it for zip.
They must have their own records of AD sales.

The warranty has to be activated and registered by the original dealer for it to be effective. If they never registered it then Breitling has no record of it and therefore the boutique is correct in stating that there is no manufacturer warranty. For me, if the watch does not come with an activated warranty card or certificate I just assume that it is coming with no warranty.

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what is puzzling is that Club Breitling card is issued only if the watch was purchased from an AD... you cant get this membership any other way. so why it wasnt registered by the selling AD or that it does not appear on the Breitling database is a mystery.

im gonna try to contact the AD in japan to see if they can help. i fully realize they have ZERO incentive to help but japanese people tend to be very courteous and helpful so i will keep my fingers crossed.

_________________
FW

Crosswind Special, White
Chronomat 44 B01 LE
Navi 01 LE, Vapor Silver

Maybe it was bought as a gift and the understanding was that it would be sorted out when the recipient went back to get the bracelet sized ?
I did this with a Rolex I bought for somebody once .

Lesson learned. No warranty card, no warranty coverage, period. The CB is as worthless as $3 bill I am afraid. Breitling is very strict with this.

Reach out to the Japanese AD but it seems to me that whatever savings you originally fetched from buying this watch from a non-official channel will go to pay for service and a regulation. Be prepared to pay $600 more or less for a full service on this watch. On the up side Breitling will give you a 1 year warranty on the work performed.


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Well avantgardetime, no warranty card, just go get a replacement! Also, full service is $850 as best as I can tell. Lastly the CB card gave me the name of AD so it proved invaluable to me.

Just wanted to give all you inquiring minds a full update. Shortly after posting here, I called the selling AD in Japan, and as I expected, they were very courteous and helpful. The guy I spoke with apologized and told me neither they nor BJAPAN can provide a letter confirming the sale I was hoping to provide BUSA, to have them honor the warranty. He counters with "would it be alright if we simply issued a new warranty booklet instead?".... I said ummm, YES!!!!! That would be utterly, perfectly and satisfactorily OK with me.

A week later warranty booklet arrives via EMS. I take my watch into BUSA boutique, who btw has a new watchmaker- so glad as I thot the last guy was a cocky little jerk, and the watch is taken in for service under warranty. Now that's a very very happy ending! Just got it back last week after a full complete overhaul.

I guess the punchline is that warranty booklets can possibly be replaced/reissued if you're lucky enough to trace it back to a Japanese AD. I fully understood with no warranty card I was taking a risk obviously. I will say I felt pretty confident this is where I was gonna end up with the Club Breitling card as proof of original AD purchase one way or another. I was very comfortable given the legit seller, that the watch was purchased from the named AD on the card as it was represented to me at time of sale. It was a very calculated risk but the worst case was no warranty... and at the price I paid, I was prepared to accept that, pay for the service and still come out ahead.

One more thing, before I heard back from the Japanese AD I called BUSA and they actually said send the watch in, and they will see what they can do. The woman rep I spoke with was very empathetic and sounded very sincere in trying to help. Thankfully I never had to go down that path. So if you can somehow provide evidence of an original AD sale, don't give up. There is hope. You may end up with a happy ending like me.

Rock on everyone! I am one happy dude with a freshly serviced watch!

_________________
FW

Crosswind Special, White
Chronomat 44 B01 LE
Navi 01 LE, Vapor Silver

fwskyracer, glad to hear it worked out for you in the end.

For my clarity, are you saying you purchased your navi from an AD in japan and did not get the warranty card with it? Or was this a second hand sale form someone who had purchased the navi from the japanese AD?

From my dealings with the BUSA NYC boutique I believe I know who the "cocky little jerk" watchmaker as you put it is. Glad to know the new one has the proper customer service attitude.

Good to hear things worked out in your favor, but you were lucky.

I wonder when Breitling will stop honoring the paper warranty booklets since they switched to electronic e-ink warranty certificates back in 2013. This was done to curb on grey market resellers and the possibility of bogus warranty certificates issued on watches sold through non authorized channels.

i bought it secondhand from a Japanese seller, who represented that it was originally sold by a Japanese AD. that was very easy to verify... i called the Japanese AD directly and was told original sale details are on file, and that Breitling Japan also has same record of sale in their database.

the new NYC Boutique watchmaker Gerhard, is a super nice guy and is very very customer service oriented. he is an utter pleasure to deal with.

_________________
FW

Crosswind Special, White
Chronomat 44 B01 LE
Navi 01 LE, Vapor Silver

im wondering what you mean by lucky... i wouldve sent the watch back if the selling AD did not have record of original sale as that was clearly stated at the time of sale. i would never buy a watch without proper history.

so lets go over this once again... i bought a watch originally sold by an AD that came with a 5yr warranty... the warranty follows the watch... BUSA honors warranty. this is the what was supposed to happen so where was i lucky? if anything i wouldve viewed not getting warranty coverage UNLUCKY.

oh wait, i was lucky that the selling Japanese AD sent me a replacement warranty card. this will help me with possible resale down the road as it makes my set complete with no missing docs. other than that things unfolded as they should. oh wait again... i was lucky that they performed full service so im now good for 5-7yrs!

i have no interest in buying a grey market watch. zero, zip, nada. and your reference several times to "non authorized channels" has no bearing on the issue i had. my purchase of this secondhand watch properly sold originally by an AD was definitely thru a "non authorized channel"... youre absolutely right!!! if one is buying a preowned watch, you can only buy thru "non authorized channels" since no "authorized channels" exist... just thought i clarify that in case you were thinking there were special "Breitling authorized channels" like a BMW or Porsche CPO program. i could be wrong... someone please enlighten and chime in if there is an "authorized Breitling preowned channel or programme"

so based on your comments, it seems to me you advocate only buying new from an AD as you seem to abhor used watches as something needing "service and a regulation" at a cost of $600, negating any savings. errrr, ok.

"Lesson learned. No warranty card, no warranty coverage, period. Breitling is very strict with this."... here i hope YOU learned a lesson. that is clearly not the case so while its your right to say anything you want here, i would not make definitive statements unless i really knew what i was talking about. i talked to BUSA and they said warranty card is not always required. if its lost and you can prove original AD sale, they should honor the warranty per the rep. warranty doesnt suddenly get invalidated once warranty card is lost or destroyed. see donmenzies's comments above. NYCBoutique was quick to point out watches sold there would have no problems getting warranty coverage with or without actual booklet or card.

Rock on everyone!

_________________
FW

Crosswind Special, White
Chronomat 44 B01 LE
Navi 01 LE, Vapor Silver