First time Breitling buyer, and I just wanted to tell everyone the story of how I acquired it. Well, I think I just wanted to tell myself the story, but needed a place to post it
. The watch is nothing crazy. Just a 46 Superocean Heritage in bronze (is that the color name?). Little background first. Breitling was the first watch that ever intrigued me. It was back in the 90s when the Emergency first came out. I thought it was so damn cool. I love the outdoors and hiking, so the idea of the watch being for a serious adventurer, was pretty romantic. The price tag though, wasn't haha. So the years went by. I never had a great job. The idea of an expensive watch left my brain entirely. Figuring out how to get my own apartment became the goal. Somehow I got a real good job, I worked my ass off, and I got my own place. Then in 2009 my brother and I started our own company on the side. We moved into together to save money. He quit his job to work on the side business full time. In 2013 we were making enough that I could quit my job, and get my own place again. We've been growing ever since. Now I live in Manhattan and I thought it was time to finally make a Breitling happen. Success!!
I've been keeping my eye on ebay auctions for this watch since the new year. This was the one I wanted. I loved the color. I'm an orange kind of guy. And the preowned price wasn't bank breaking at all. It was actually extremely affordable, for a Breitling. Then I saw a great opportunity. There was one available starting at $1800 in Rochester NY. The pictures seemed great. The listing stated it was barely worn and like new. Here's a picture:
Now many of you might see the issue with this watch right away. But my untrained eye, did not. Not only am I not a Breitling buyer, I'm not even a watch buyer. I've only recently started to like watches. So I just focused on whether it was fake or real. There's actually a lot of fakes of this watch. That I knew. But this one looked totally real. The B had depth. It wasn't painted on. The date filled the box. Everything was signed. And the bracelet had the serial number. There was no box or papers, but neither did a lot preowned watches. I was excited. So I contacted the owner, and used an old ebay trick of mine. I asked if I could pick it up, if I won. See, if this wasn't real or if the owner was hiding something, they would say no. There's no way they would allow me to meet them in person, if they were trying to screw me. The owner replied and said he'd rather that because he didn't like shipping an expensive item like this. Nice! It was real. And my GF and I were actually going upstate to fly fish, so taking a detour was totally in the cards. I replied and asked him if he'd consider ending the auction and I would pay him $1800 cash. He took the night to decide, and replied in the morning with a yes. Heyo! Then something weird happened. He didn't end the auction. There was 3 days left and he just left it up. He gave me his home address over text. He said he would end it. But he didn't. I even sent him a text 24 hours before it ended and asked him again. He said he'd do it when he had a chance. 6 hours before it ended, he canceled it. I should have immediately bailed, when he did that. But I didn't.
On Saturday I took the drive up to Rochester, from Roscoe NY. It's about a 3 hour trip. I arrived at 1pm. The owner was there with his wife. He handed me the watch. It looked perfect and was ticking away. Ahhhh my first Breitling. So happy. I asked him why he was selling it. He said his Ex wife bought it for him, and his current wife didn't want to see the watch ever again. Classic haha. It also made sense. Just get the thing out of here. No box or papers made sense too. He wasn't a watch guy. He tossed them right away, I bet. I handed him the cash, and jumped back in the car to head to Niagara Falls. My GF had never been there. So we were both excited to get back on the road.
I pulled out of the driveway, headed down the street, made the first left, and then the next right. When my wrist got into my field of vision, I read the time. It was off by an hour. I should set this, I thought. I looked at the crown, and noticed it seemed wrong. Like it was out. I knew it had a screw in crown, so I thought it was just unscrewed. I pushed it in, and turned. Nothing. I pushed it in harder, and turned. Nothing. I immediately pulled the car over. "Something isn't right." I took the crown and moved it out 1 click, and turned. Nothing. "Why isn't the date advancing?" I moved it out another click, and turned. Nothing. "Why aren't the hands moving?" I grabbed the crown again, and it sort of wobbled in my fingers. "The crown and stem are busted. Shit!" I grabbed my phone and sent the owner a text. Careful to be nice. "Hey when's the last time you wound this watch?" He replied saying it was tough to do, and he should have shown me before I left. "No problem. I'm right around the corner. See you in a few seconds." His reply..."ok". I zipped right back. Handed him the watch. Still careful not to accuse him of anything. He messed with it a bit. Couldn't set it of course. I showed him the wobbly crown. He said nothing. I showed him that when you pull it out one click, it didn't advance the date. He replied, "Well I think you need to move the hands 24 hours, to get the date to move." Wow. Did he just say that? I told him that I wasn't comfortable with this purchase anymore. He happily gave me my cash back, and I gave him the watch. He must have not realized the watch was broken. No way he'd give me his home address, if he did.
I hopped back in the car and told my GF I got my money back. She felt like crap, for me. 3 hour drive for nothing. But I was happy. See, I got my money back. I had no idea what was going to happen, but in the end, I got my money back. We went on with our weekend, which turned out to be the best one we've ever had together.
Then sunday night I decided to look on ebay to see if I could find another one. As I was scrolling through auctions, up popped the one I just tried to buy. I looked at the price, thinking it would say 750 or something. $1800. The description unchanged. Like new. He let me come to his home, knowing the watch was broken. His wife was there. Desperation will do crazy things to people. I still don't believe it happened. After that, I said no more private sales until I knew what the hell I was looking at. The picture clearly shows the crown out. I didn't pick that up. I didn't scrutinize the pictures enough. Couple of days later I found a like new one at an ebay store called Phillipes Watches
http://cl.ly/cEFV. Their feedback was great on every watch they sold. This one came with original box, paperwork, 1 year warranty and overnight shipping. I paid $2150 (best offer).
The watch came yesterday and it's exactly as described. I'm really happy, as well as relieved. I learned a great lesson too. If you don't know what you're doing, buy it from someone you trust.
Hope you enjoyed my story. Thanks everyone.
P.S. what happened with the broken watch auction???? It ended. No bids.
http://cl.ly/cELs
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