In the market for a Tag Heuer-- just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on where I can get the best deal in the Houston area. Or SA, Austin, or Dallas for that matter. Anyone have a jeweler with great prices?

save your money and get a better watch

bought my last Tag on Ashford.com and saved quite a bit. it's a dallas company, fwiw.

every place in town is going to be about the same. 20% off the msrp is what most brick and mortar shops offer. i think you'd be hard pressed to find a better deal than that.

online is a different story. if you find the watch you like, i would buy online from a reputable dealer.

I always recommend Authentic Watches...www.authenticwatches.com

Did my research, bought my TAG from them, saved a ton, and still love it 5 years later.

Also, if you are set on buying local, go to 6222 Richmond Ave. It's a 7 story building with a bunch of jewelers that you can save some money with...

Ags r Better--

I found the watch I want from authenticwatches.com for 1k off retail price but after reading some reviews, I was left with the impression that it doesn't come with a factory warranty because the watches they sell haven't passed Tag Heuer inspection and are not warranted by TH. Have you not found that to be the case? I'm all about getting my Tag at $1k off retail but want to make sure it is authentic and has full factory warranty. Appreciate your thoughts...

Amazon

Honestly, I'm not sure how a brand new watch would not pass inspection by the orig manufacturer. Like I said, ive had my Carrera Auto for almost 5 years, it still looks great and works flawlessly, and I saved just under $1k on the purchase. I did a ton of research and read a lot of the thousands of positive reviews from eBay, amazon, yahoo, etc.

Now what I believe you might be concerned with is the potential for receiving a grey market watch, this would be one without the orig manufacturer serial number on it. I'd prob avoid those, but if the one you want states it comes with the orig serial you should not have an issue dealing with the manufacturer for warranty work. I did read on their website where they state the watches come with a 3 year warranty...if you aren't sure you can always call them.

That said, do a little more homework and if it doesnt pass you smell test pass on it. If you like what you see and the huge savings are worth it, jump on it. You can always return it.

Look on the myBCS board for Chucktheaggiejewler

he'll hook you up with a great watch and the best price by far.

Plus he is an aggie and will ship it to you for free.

I'm also looking for a place to buy a nice watch.

edit* for the husband

[This message has been edited by fourkids (edited 1/24/2011 9:14a).]

get yourself an Omega and thank me later.

If you visit the Tag Heuer website, there is a list of authorized dealers. The Tag website says if you do not buy from an authorized dealer, you probably bought a fake.

Not a single .com dealer posted on this thread is listed as authorized, hense most of these people are wearing fakes.

When I brought my Tag into Donohoes in the Woodlands for servicing a couple years back (originally bought at Tourneau), the guy said almost every time a person brings in a Tag for serviced saying they got a great deal online, when opened up, it's a fake. They will not service fakes so they call the client to take it back.

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Not a single .com dealer posted on this thread is listed as authorized, hense most of these people are wearing fakes.

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There are plenty of sites that are not "authorized dealers" that sell real watches. Ashford.com is the first one that comes to find.

They are considered "gray market dealers". Authorized dealers will sell off surplus inventory to them at deep discounts. I believe most of the bigger brands like Rolex, Tag and Omega will not allow their authorized dealers to discount more than a certain % (typically 20%).

This website has a good summary.

www.chronocentric.com/watches/graymarket.shtml

there is a Tag outlet in Fairfield... I remember seeng some steals on watches that were used in advertisments. I think htey were around $700 the only catch was they had no warranty.

Go to Hal Martin's on Westheimer.

I'm not sure how long the warranties are on Tag but I think my warranty was only a year or two.

The odds of anything going wrong with a watch in the first year or two are pretty slim (especially if you're looking at a quartz).

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The odds of anything going wrong with a watch in the first year or two are pretty slim (especially if you're looking at a quartz).

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This reminded me of something. If you intend to keep this watch for a long time, it would be worth your while to buy one with a mechanical movement. While more expensive, it can always (generally) be repaired. When a watch with a quartz movement breaks, it can only be repaired if parts can be found.

For instance, of the two Omegas I inherited from my grandfather, one was an automatic from the 50's and one a quartz from the 80's. The 60 year old automatic was serviced into pristine condition while the 30 year old quartz sits idle because of parts. My watchmaker said if you want a watch for forever, buy mechanical.

I'm a big fan of mechanical movement over quartz.

There's something very cool about having a machine on your hand that winds itself.

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There are plenty of sites that are not "authorized dealers" that sell real watches. Ashford.com is the first one that comes to find.

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I googled Ashford.com to see if there were any "customer review" websites with people talking about their purchases. Several like resellerratings.com had Ashford reviews. The overall score for Ashford was fairly poor.

Included in the reviews were quite a few people unhappy because their watches were clearly used and a couple who were skeptical enough of their watches to have the company who manufactured the watches look at them, with at least two cases I saw where the customer was informed the watches were not "grey" market, but fake.

Seems a dubious proposition at best buying from them.

If companies like this buy watches from "surplus" sellers, how do they know some of the surplus isn't fake?

My opinion, buy I think online watches is like buying golf clubs on ebay from China.

I have never purchased a watch from Ashford, but I have never read about anyone getting a fake watch from them and I scoured all of the major watch forums before purchasing mine several years ago.

As much business as they do, I seriously doubt they would still be around and in good standing with the BBB if they were selling fake watches.

I got my Tag Monaco about 3 years ago and love it! I got a great deal and did my research.

I ended up at Nazar's (listed on Tag's website), off of Chimney Rock and Westheimber in Houston. I paid almost %50 less than what my watch was listed on the "authenticwatches" website referenced above. I also did some sick negotiating.

Or you could just look at your phone?

Timezone and ebay are great places to find a watch:

http://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=threadt&frm_id=32

Here's a grand carrera for $2500:


Here's the link:
http://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=tree&goto=5485265&rid=0

[This message has been edited by hombre (edited 1/24/2011 5:27p).]

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Not a single .com dealer posted on this thread is listed as authorized, hense most of these people are wearing fakes.

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That's a fairly uninformed thing to say, but you have your opinion.

I could prove you wrong on many levels, but its not that big of a deal.

Chuck's watches are from an authorized dealer there bud.

Thanks for all your help on this ladies and gents

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Go to Hal Martin's on Westheimer.

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The true home for watch geeks in Texas. Best prices too.

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Not a single .com dealer posted on this thread is listed as authorized, hense most of these people are wearing fakes.


That's a fairly uninformed thing to say, but you have your opinion.

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Oh really.

1. No .com company posted was authorized.
2. Direct from the Tag Heuer website, "if you did not buy from an authorized dealer you probably bought a fake."

So if you add 1 + 2 together how do you not get "most people who bought from non authorized .com companies bought fakes?"

1 is a fact.
2 is Tag Heuer's words.

The conclusion is rational thought.

how on earth would Tag (or any company) know that?

They have no control over what their dealers do with the watches once they leave the factory.

You can understand why they're going to want to discourage people from going outside their dealer network, but that doesn't mean you have to believe everything they write.

[This message has been edited by Diggity (edited 1/24/2011 9:55p).]

Again, it's not a big deal, but you're clearly misinformed on the topic.

Here's one example of how you could be wrong...if I was trying to prove it:

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What are 'gray market' watches?

There are many places where you can buy fine watches. The most important concept to understand before making a purchase decision is the difference between gray-market versus authorized dealers and how that affects the price, warranty coverage, and resale of a watch you purchase.

All genuine Omega, Rolex and other fine watches come from the maker's factory. The maker only sells them to authorized dealers and distributors. To establish and maintain an authorized dealer relationship and volume discounts, authorized dealers must make large initial investments in inventory and continue to purchase minimum quantities of watches over time. This can involve minimum initial and ongoing inventory purchase requirements as high as US$ 250,000 for a single dealer to carry each major brand.

For smaller dealers, this often forces them to purchase more watches than they can sell directly to their customers and to hold in inventory an excessive amount of merchandise of a single brand. So some authorized dealers sell off at wholesale prices the surplus to the 'gray market' of unauthorized dealers--who then sell the watches at heavier discounts than authorized dealers are allowed to. This is not explicitly illegal, but it usually violates the authorized dealer or resellers agreements with the manufacturer.

The manufacturers, to protect their authorized dealers from the heavier discount offered to the consumer by the non-authorized dealers, refuse to provide in-warranty service on these watches. Unfortunately, this policy usually ends up hurting the uninformed consumer more than it protects the authorized dealers. The reason this policy is an ineffective deterrent is that the customer needs to know this before they buy the watch. But only a small percentage of buyers know this before a purchase. Many do not discover this until after they have a problem and are refused in-warranty service by the manufacturer or an authorized repair center. At that point, the customer sees the manufacturer as the bad guy for refusing to honor a warranty on a watch the customer feels they bought legitimately.

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http://www.chronocentric.com/watches/graymarket.shtml

While buying gray market may have an affect on the OM warranty, the dealer I bought through provided it's own 3 year warranty service. As with anything you find online, every possible service or product in existence will get bad reviews, but the overwhelming number of positive reviews of www.authenticwatches.com says something about them and the products they sell.

That's all...

[This message has been edited by Ags-R-Better (edited 1/25/2011 7:28a).]

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Here's one example of how you could be wrong...if I was trying to prove it:

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I think the key word here is "could." Is it possible to buy a real gray market watch from a company like Ashford......yes. Is it possible to buy a fake watch from Ashford....as a few people who have bought from them and then had their watch looked at by the manufacture......yes.

If you are going to spend $500, $1000, $2000 or whatever, do you really want to roll the dice on that kind of money?

If you do your research, you will be comfortable with your purchase. Why buy anything from a non B&M store?

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While buying gray market may have an affect on the OM warranty, the dealer I bought through provided it's own 3 year warranty service. As with anything you find online, every possible service or product in existence will get bad reviews, but the overwhelming number of positive reviews of www.authenticwatches.com says something about them and the products they sell.

That's all...

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Then you might want to read this article written by the BBB about authenticwatches.com. Hardly a glowing review.

www.la.bbb.org/businesslink/ArticleDetails.aspx?ArticleID=gf+blfJQXOg=

The link seems to have failed. It was the second entry on the first page when I googled "authentic watches BBB." Sorry about that.

[This message has been edited by aggiedent (edited 1/25/2011 8:54a).]

First, nothing comes up in that link.
Second, the BBB? really?