The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Sorry if this seems stupid and please advise me if I am not supposed to post links and I will remove them.

I have now decided on the watch I desire, called a few places and I have had the best deal from Ancient and Modern Jewellers, http://www.ancientandmodernjewellers.co.uk/

I have spoken to them and they appear very professional etc and I have an appointment booked to view the watch saturday. I happened to call banks lyon from the advert on here mainly, they were more expensive and advised me that they wouldnt be able to compete with the price of ancient and modern as they are not an authorised dealer and that they purchase Breitlings from a 3rd party therefore the insurance is Void in which I take this as my warrenty is VOID.

Is this correct?

Any thoughts would be great, should I not purchase from the first place?

I assume everyone is going to say Authorised Dealer but just wanted to check.

Sorry, thanks in advance.

Grey market dealers (non ADs) get their watches by buying from ADs themselves and then selling on. As a result there will not be any Breitling warranty and you will be on the hook for any repairs. Additionally, some grey market dealers remove the serial number (although that is less common than it used to be), and in that situation Breitling will likely refuse to work on the watch at all.

Additionally, you have to ask why the AD sold the watch to a grey market seller in the first place. In many cases it's simply because they need to maintain turnover to avoid losing the right to stock Breitling, but there is also the possibility that the watch has been returned - grey market is always a gamble with waht you are getting.

If it were me, I would buy from an AD for added peace of mind and the warranty, but it's your money.

It is true that Ancient and Modern are not a Breitling AD. However, if the watch has a correctly stamped warranty card and there is Breitling warranty remaining (2 years from date of purchase) then the warranty will be vailid. It's the watch itself that is covered not the person so Breitling would honour the warranty.
Having said all that it's always better to buy from an AD because Grey Market dealers often polish/refurbish watches so you have no idea of it's true condition and they also do their own watch repairs and if they have opened the case then Breitling will definetly not touch the watch under their own warranty

I would always say to go to an AD for (at least) your first. getting this wrong costs a lot.

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Al

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"

Which grey market sellers provide warranties?

While no grey market dealer will offer official Breitling warranties, some grey market sellers sell brand new watches with Breitling warranty cards that were completed by the originating AD. Generally it means that you get a fully completed (and therefore valid) Breitling warranty card with the balance of the 2 year warranty on it. The balance remaining depends on how long the grey market dealer has had the watch in stock.

Very occasionally I have also seen watches from grey market dealers whereby the warranty card was obviously correctly stamped up by the originating AD, but the date was then completed by the grey marker dealer at the time of sale - hence giving the full 2 years.

I should point out that not all grey market dealers stock watches like this, and even when one does you certainly can't guarantee that every watch they sell will. In fact, watches that do come with the warranty like that are very much the exception rather than the rule.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Thanks everyone for such speedy responses.

there is a couple of hundred pounds in the difference so thinking that it would be best to get it from an authorised dealer. I think that being my first and limited knowledge on warrenty cards etc could send me down a whole world of pain if I were to have any problems.

Here in the UK many of the Grey Market dealers provide their own warranties, Swiss Watch co, Ian Blowers, Watches of Distinction to name but a few...... Having said that I am not keen on Grey Market dealers and would never buy from them (I have sold to them in the past though) because I only like to use the correct manufactures warranty and as previously mentioned I don't like the way Grey Market dealers refurbish watches.

If there is only a couple of hundred in it I wouldn't hesitate and would buy from Banks Lyon, you can't go wrong buying from them. Their service is excellent, prices are good.

I've bought 3 Breitlings from Aziza at Banks Lyon and every time the experience has been faultless, they also respond to enquiries really fast, unlike certain other AD's here I could mention!

Stef

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Thanks Stef, Yes it was Aziza who I spoke to yesterday, very helpful.

I have actually called my local AD just by chance to see what kind of discount they could offer, they do not have a BB in stock but turns out that a member of staff (owners son) has a BB that he is looking at selling. So everything may turn out ok fingers crossed.

Thanks for everyones opinions, this forum is great, especially with all the help I have had over my queries. Much appreciated.

I just want my

Cool, well don't forget to come back and post some pics whatever you decide!

Stef

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Certainly will do, I wont be leaving in a hurry, think I may just have a new hobby

Just a couple of points here -

Firstly I'd never EVER trust a grey market dealers "warranty". My advice to anyway who buys a grey market watch that doesn't have the balance of the manufacturer's warranty on it, but has the GM dealer's warranty, is to assume that the watch has no warranty at all. If you experience problems with the watch, just bite the bullet and send it to Breitling yourself. Sure you'll have to pay for it, but better that than entrust it to the GM's "watchmaker" who could quite easily be a random guy in the back of their warehouse with a set of Bergeons!

The second point is that I personally believe that stories of GM dealers refurbishing customer returned watches for resale are grossly exagerated. Maybe it happened in the past, but the ones I've seen (from friends who've bought them), and the ones I've bought myself to sell on (when the FX rate was better!) have all been undoubtedly 100% brand new. Obviously you have to be careful which GM dealer you use but that's like anything in life. I'm certainly not advocating using a GM over an AD, but I think some of the concerns people have are a little over-egged at times. JMO.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Agree with all of that, and while I don't know all of the named examples, I wouldn't consider Blowers to be grey market - their main business is resale, not new.