This question may be better answerd by Keith but I am addressing it to everyone. I'm sure we have all noticed that practically every fine watchmaker Omega included always have a blurb on their company websites stating that their watches are only sold by authorized dealers and any product with their trademarks sold on the internet are of "dubious origins". Omega, Rolex, & Breitling all make a very obvious issue of this on the opening pages of their sites. Yet, most everyone here, myself included, have purchased our Omegas via the internet from sites recommended here on chronocentric or by some other source that they trust. Likewise, I have not seen any posts by anyone claiming to have received a counterfeit. In fact, I have only seen one post recently wherein someone was displeased with their watch that obviously came to them through the gray market. Everyone else seems quite happy with their watches, their warranties, etc... So, were the online sellers authorized dealers who were bucking the system a bit by selling via the internet or what? I'm just curious. Like I said, I am quite happy with the 2 Omegas my wife and I own and they were both purchased via the internet. Both have been serviced at least once requiring the case be opened by a local Omega dealer. Both are real, and both have valid Omega warranty documents.
Again, I only ask out of intense curiosity. It is obvious from the company websites that the watchmakers prefer to keep their products available through normal retail dealers (for easy to understand reasons), but are unsuccessful. I would just like to understand how the system really works or perhaps at what point and why the system breaks down for all of the watchmakers since there are obviously reputable online sources for all the fine watchmakers.
