The Breitling Watch Source Forums

What's the purpose of an AD? They usually have regular retail prices, with the occasional sale, but other than that (excluding the highly praised, Govberg's) what's the purpose of one? You can get the same watches online at places like Prestigetime for much MUCH cheaper. Are gifts the only reason someone would get it from the AD?

Thanks,
cRaSiAn1030

This is a curious question.

An AD is the only place you can 100% guarantee that the watch is 100% genuine, as they are the only place that is officially authorised to sell the watches. As a result it is also the only place you can guarantee getting a full 2 years official Breitling warranty. Grey market watches may also have their serial numbers removed which means you can NEVER get the watch serviced at Breitling, even if you pay for it. And more often than not, grey market sellers hold back some of the paperwork to protect their source. Again only an AD can guarantee everything is in order.

Some grey market places (like Prestigetime) are very trustworthy and have watches with the serial intact and most (if not all) the paperwork, but the papers are often either undated and/or unstamped which can cause problems at service time. That's part of the reason why you pay less. (The other part being that on-line dealers don't have fancy shops with hefty upkeep costs, and they are also not constrained by the parant company setting an RRP).

_________________
Driver8

Site Moderator

I disagree,my Bentley GMT would have cost me far more online than at the AD. You just need to deal...

_________________
Who doesn't love BS??

True, there are a lot of variables. AD is the way to go

_________________

Just out of curiosity, what is a deal? What percentage do you guys usually get? As I have said before I work for an AD so we try to give everyone a deal by adding to the breitling warranty and things like that. What do you guys think?

_________________
Current collection: Breitling Superocean Heritage I 46, Rolex Submariner, Swatch X ****** Sistem51

Ah, the ignorance sometimes. Without AD's there would be nothing, including the grey market.

As kryuzh implies - every single Breitling comes through the AD network - even the ones on the grey market.

Breitling ONLY sell to the distribution network and distributors ONLY sell to ADs. The grey market is supplied by ADs breaching their contract with Breitling, and what you are effectively doing is adding another middleman. Essentially with the grey market you are rolling the dice by trading the security of a factory warranty to try and save a few bucks.

However, the grey market has to provide profits to Breitling, the distributor, the AD and the grey market dealer, so as has also been said you can likely do a better deal through an AD - especially with history. The only time that I have seen grey market cheaper than I can get is with 'sale' items (which may or may not be in stock), and frankly with my relationship with my AD I'm pretty sure they would match.

Sure, you can roll the dice with one of the internet sites or have the reassurance that you're buying from an authorized dealer that breitling stands behind. Even if you buy from an out of state AD, the local ADs will still service your Breitling. If you buy online, you have to deal with sending it to them and dealing with them.

_________________
Justin
Please contact me via PM for the contact details for Govberg Jewelers
Govberg is an AD for over 50 fine Swiss and German watch brands.
Visit them on the web at http://www.govbergwatches.com or call 800-528-8463

Plus if you develop a good relationship with an AD you can also get perks. Jackets, Hats, Pens, Lighters....and so on. You also may get first crack at limited or very popular models, whereas on the net you have to fight for it with a bunch of other buyers.

Oh, ok thanks guys, I'm guessing....AD is the way to go!

The AD route is always the safest but not always the best deal ($pricewise), at least not for Breitling watches. Yes the AD has a higher overhead and may not be able to compete as agressivly with another internet dealers pricing, but you and only you can make that decision as to whether or not you are getting the best deal, full waranty etc on the watch you like. I personally would like to see Breitling continue to take a stand against the heavy discounting by some dealer of our beloved watches. This makes it very difficult to go into your local AD and the watch you are interested in is 10%-20% less at another internet dealer offering a full 2 year warrenty for even first time buyers. Now, what would you do? I would love to only buy my new Breitling watches from my local AD, but they have got to get pricing to be the same across the board. I think that this will help over all with increasing the value of these time pieces, but who knows. As it stands right now I will by my watch from whoever has exactly what I want and can offer the biggest discount with warrenty. I have nothing but respect all the Approved Dealers and I think that the hope is that if you build a relationship with your AD you will start to see benefits, perks and hopefully build as friendship. Again this is tought to do when you see a certain BreitlingSource advertising dealer blowing out some piece st 55% discount!

_________________
- Nathan
_________________
Breitling Avenger Skyland (Black)

If those pieces are truly available.

I have been offered pieces through an AD at 50% off - if it's a poorly selling model that is high stock they are happy to shift. I have also been offered an LE non Breitling from an AD at 55% off.