The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I must say..I love this site. The other Breitling sites are mostly about everyone patting each other on their backs for buying a particular Breitling. This site has that and some real discussions of substance.

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18k Rolex Datejust / Breitling Crosswind Special / Patek SS Nautilus / Bvlgari Diagono Chrono / Bvlgari Scuba / Omega Speedmaster Professional / 60s Omega Constellation

Give it to em Roff!

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"I don't got the bright watch I got the right watch" -Jay Z

The bane of my life as an AD is those bloody grey market dealers, and nothing seems to be done about them...and as roff was saying it would be very easy to trace who was actually supplying these GMD's with the watches. These companies are who we are regularly competing with and they should be taken down!!

Aziza

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Banks Lyon Team
http://www.bankslyon.co.uk
01524 384858

And that's really the key to that issue - Breitling are setting artificially high sales volume requirements on ADs, saturating the market with retailers to make it harder for any one retailer to achieve those targets, allowing ADs to hit numbers by selling to the grey market without recognising that all that is doing is taking sales away from legitimate ADs, and then hammering the ADs who are trying to play by the rules when they try to compete on price with those grey market dealers in order to achieve the sales numbers that Breitling insist that they hit.

It's apparently fine to sell to the grey market stores at 40+% off, but heaven forbid that they sell to a customer at 20+% off.

Aziza, if BUK is anything like BUSA you can expect a secret shopper in the store within a few weeks after this post.

Quote - "Aziza, if BUK is anything like BUSA you can expect a secret shopper in the store within a few weeks after this post."

My AD in the UK told me this has already started with secret shoppers particularly looking for in-house movement knowledge and for discounters.

For me it seems that by Breitling turning a blind-eye to grey market sales suits them, sell them to retailers (Breitling make their full profit) and the ADs who supply the grey market move it out of their store, the retailer orders replacement from Breitling who again make their profit.... and so the cycle continues

Of course - that's how the sales volumes are retained. The same logic also applies to an AD who discounts to make a sale - it's still a sale and Breitling makes just as much money because ADs buy at fixed price. Breitling just applies a double standard.

I guess there is one slight advantage for Breitling to letting ADs dump to grey market dealers, they don't have to worry about paying/providing for warranty work, whereas they still would on AD sales. Still seems like poor business tactics.

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Chrono Jetstream
Montbrilliant 1903
Aerospace E79362

I was trying to justify a grey market watch but in the end established a new relationship with an AD and am glad I did. Until the grey market is settled, we will have our used Breitlings worth less. My solution, don't restrict the AD's pricing and they won't have to sell to grey market sellers.

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Breitling Chronomat 44 Evolution C13356 Rose Gold/SS
Breitling Chronomat 44 B01 LE Black Pearl Rose Gold/SS
Breitling Chronomat 44 B01 White Pearl Rose Gold/SS
Rolex Daytona TT White Face

Not true in all cases. Some of the grey dealers provide all paperwork, including the warranty booklet. As long as the watch is within the warranty time, Breitling will honor it. After all, Breitling doesn't know if the watch you're sending in for repair was bought from the AD directly or from a grey dealer, who bought from that AD.

Btw, I know someone who wanted to buy a particular watch, not a Breitling , from an AD, but the AD wasn't willing to discount. They finally bought the same model watch from a grey market dealer. Ironically, once they received the watch, it was discovered that, based on the warranty card stamp, the watch originated from the same AD who wouldn't discount to him directly. So the AD didn't want to discount 20% to a retail client but had no issue discounting much more to a Grey dealer.

Also, I spoke to a few local Grey dealers who said that they can source any watch, including the hot new sellers at the moment. So it's not just the less popular models that grey market dealers sell. As a matter of fact, it seems that some grey market dealers have the new releases before some ADs.

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Regards,

Peter

BREITLING for Bentley Motors T & Mark VI, Aerospace
ROLEX Submariner Ceramic116610LN
OMEGA Plantet Ocean 8500 42mm Orange arabics
OCEAN7 LM-3

That won't help dealers who are forced to buy models and or quantities that they simply can't sell.

Agreed.

But I suspect that Breitling would counter any design plans with a proposal for a DLC'd rubber bezeled piece.

I agree, Breitling has given us, AD's, a list of Breitlings that are obligated to have in stock at any time. You are obligated to immedately reorder that particular Breitling if it is sold. They send mystery shoppers to check your knowlegde of the brand and to check your stock if it is sufficient and if you have all obligated Breitling's in stock. That list is a list of the worlds best sellers but I must admit that not all models on that list are easy to sell for everybody. You don't even have a choice of dial and bracelet. The models have to be exact as they state on their list. And a few of those are very difficult to sell in my region to be honest. (for example: Chronomat 41, steel/pink gold/steel pink gold bracelet and white dial with roman numerals. Almost impossible to sell for me. So I hope I get a lot of tourists in my city who do like this combination)

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My AD no longer carries Breitling because of BUSA's demands on the amount of stock they should carry and watches they must buy.

Not sure on the reasons but I note that my local AD has dropped them in the last two months as well (and has twice as many Omega instead).

There are a number of BUSA driven changes happening at the moment so expect more ADs to stop carrying Breitling.