Hi there,
I have been looking at A Lange & Söhne (ALS) vs F. P. Journe (FPJ) pieces for a while. For ALS, the piece I am interested in the most is the Zeitwerk. In the FPJ current collection, the Souverain or Automatique are really cool!
Now, the reality is, I prefer to go grey for either of those options, for various reasons. For the Zeitwerk, it’s because ALS Zeitwerk can be found at a discount, and for FPJ, because I don’t want to wait. However, I was talking to a ALS rep and they said this about buying grey:
I never recommend gray market retailers because you do not get a factory warranty, and a brand like Lange can be pricey to service. Even if you can get a better price, it’s still a lot of money to buy from someone unauthorized. And, should you choose to sell or trade the watch later on, you won’t get as much with it being sold to you on the gray market originally.
Is there truth to the aforesaid? Also, as I will be buying from Chrono24, is there a way to double check with those brands if the watch I end up getting is legit? Since, I will have 14 days as per Chrono policy to return / flag something.
It’s somewhat true what the als rep said. But what he didn’t mention was some other interesting parts that come with a purchase from a boutique or AD.
You’ll get invited to events, get presents and you’ll be one of the first to get some high demand or new release watches. You’ll be integrated in a circle full of people who share the same passion with the same taste for some things.
I personally enjoy and value those things a lot. Ap events are awesome and VC is probably the best I’ve ever been to.
Up to you. If you just want one watch from the brand go gray or if you want more then one go ad
Is there no way to be a part of that circle without buying the whole timepiece from the AD? For example, I was thinking of buying a piece at a discount, and going to ALS and having them do a overhaul of the piece, thereby making it new for me at a fraction of the cost of the actually new piece, and also registering me into the ALS system. Does that make sense? What am I missing here?