Roffensian wrote:
JacksonStone wrote:
Fleetlord wrote:
Think about it. All the warnings about Internet watches being of dubious origins on their website are there to DETER the consumer from buying gray market and side stepping the AD's. They very well won't accept those same "bastard" watches for repair. It's another way to deter gray market sales.
My understanding is that if the watch is genuine, and all the numbers are intact, Breitling will do repair work on the watch. If it was a grey market sale, they won't perform warranty service, but you can still pay for Breitling service. Obviously, this does not apply to a watch missing the serial number. Am I correct in that understanding?
Almost.
Breitling doesn't try to determine whether watches were sold grey market. They refuse warranty work if there is no warranty and generally grey market dealers withhold warranty papers to protect the sourcing AD. They refuse service entirely without a serial number (unless there is an existing record of service and the serial number has been worn away over time) because that used to be standard practice in the grey market to protect ADs. A few years ago a few of the big grey market dealers started leaving serial numbers intact and now most do it.
Slightly off topic, but I find Breitling's stand here to be total hypocrisy. If they want to kill off the grey market they can do it very easily - just buy a few pieces from grey market dealers, track the serial numbers to the AD and terminate their contract for breach of terms. Bottom line is, Breitling encourages the grey markey by imposing minimum sales volumes on ADs that many cannot achieve without grey market sales.
There is a reason why Hong Kong is the largest market for the Swiss watch industry!
You have a very good point, and I've seen this before in other industries. Some companies will provide NO warranty on internet purchases, but the company openly ships to distributors who solely sell on the internet...If you wanted to discourage internet purchases, then don't sell them to those who distribute them via the internet..
I think the policy Breitling has about Grey market product is set up to appease their current AD's and give them a sense of protection and also ammunition in order to dissuade potential customers form going grey market. It's a PR deal...
But Breitling knows damn well that when they overload dealers with a high minimum that that is going to spill over into the gray market. From a manufacturing point, it's a sale...no matter who sells it, and that movement drives the business.
I am starting to reconsider my belief that Breitling will be going to a heavy boutique model in the future. I'm not sure Breitling can survive losing the sales movement generated from the grey market...Their business model now requires a distribution channel that can move a large amount of product in bulk orders, regardless of where the final point of sale occurs. That is a drug that is hard to get off of...
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