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Buying from Chinese dealers on Chrono24

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#21 ·
TimeWellSpent said:
Well, my question is if Chrono24 jumps in in case things break down.
Also, it seems there are plenty of buyers who over the past two years have purchased from the dealers I am looking at and left their reviews.
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C24 will certainly not step in, because they are only the intermediary. Your contractual partner is the Chinese dealer and usually the place of jurisdiction is in the country of the seller. Do you really want to fight with the seller in Chinese courts in case of doubt?
I would definitely leave it alone, buy in another country where C24 does not exclude the escrow service and rather pay a little more.
 
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#24 ·
TimeWellSpent said:
I have been looking at luxury timepieces north of $10k on Chrono24 and for most watches found offers from dealers based out of a China that are significantly cheaper.

it seems like for mainland China Chrono24 does not offer Escrow service, and most of these dealer require wire transfer.

I typically buy the seller, but Chrono24 limits the information it makes available about the dealers, and only some of them have extensive reviews.

Have you made any experience with buying from Chinese dealers (and not talking about Hong Kong here)? Any watch outs (no pun intended)?

Could I rely on Chrono24 in the hypothetical case that I never received the merchandise or that a watch was not authentic (but the dealer claimed it was)?

I understand that buying new at a local dealer is always the best option, but (a) price differentials are simply very attractive (and yet not too good to be true) and (b) some of the timepieces I am interested in are not available in the US. Any thoughts or experiences to share?

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don’t do it. @BundyBear said it best. Too much of a risk. The prices are below market to draw you in.

Ive had all positive experiences with chrono24. My only two rules are don’t buy from private sellers and don’t buy from China (and Russia when they were still on the platform)
 
#26 ·
Stchambe said:
don’t do it. @BundyBear said it best. Too much of a risk. The prices are below market to draw you in.

Ive had all positive experiences with chrono24. My only two rules are don’t buy from private sellers and don’t buy from China (and Russia when they were still on the platform)
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Yeah, I even hesitate about sellers from Hong Kong unless it is a reputable firm.
 
#27 ·
TimeWellSpent said:
I have been looking at luxury timepieces north of $10k on Chrono24 and for most watches found offers from dealers based out of a China that are significantly cheaper.

it seems like for mainland China Chrono24 does not offer Escrow service, and most of these dealer require wire transfer.

I typically buy the seller, but Chrono24 limits the information it makes available about the dealers, and only some of them have extensive reviews.

Have you made any experience with buying from Chinese dealers (and not talking about Hong Kong here)? Any watch outs (no pun intended)?

Could I rely on Chrono24 in the hypothetical case that I never received the merchandise or that a watch was not authentic (but the dealer claimed it was)?

I understand that buying new at a local dealer is always the best option, but (a) price differentials are simply very attractive (and yet not too good to be true) and (b) some of the timepieces I am interested in are not available in the US. Any thoughts or experiences to share?

View attachment 16816862
Click to expand...
Is what you're buying so rare that you can't buy it anywhere else? Most, as in nearly all, of the watches that we talk about here are mass produced items, and this includes almost all of the so-called luxury watches too. Why would you take the risk? Why would you volunteer for the worry? Why sign up for the headache of trying to return something that is fake? Surely there must be an easier, softer way.
 
Discussion starter · #28 ·
Maybe for a bit of background, two of my best ever watch purchases were on Chrono24 from a seller in Ukraine, both before and after the war started. Just like in China, Chrono24 does not allow for Escrow service in Ukraine. Wire transfer was the only payment option and the money went to a third party account in the US …
Tons of potential red flags, but I trusted the reviews and the communication with that vendor.

To this day I am excited about the purchases, and it may have increased my appetite for “risk” a bit more. Different countries different customs, China might be a different ballgame altogether.
 
#29 ·
TimeWellSpent said:
Totally fair point and I was hoping to get some clarity on that.

They do NOT ship watches to a watchmaker, I am sure of that. I would assume that when you buy a watch and, within a given period, validate that the watch is not authentic that they … get in touch with the vendor? … initiate an investigation?? … offer a refund???
Overall they protect the buyer more than the seller, but I am not sure how much they support buyers in cases of actual fraud.
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It used to be when you bought from chrono24, there would be a button you had to press to acknowledge you received the watch and release escrow funds to the seller. My most recent purchase had the funds automatically released when the fedex system updated the package as “delivered”

in my experience, there is no “inspection time” outside of what the seller offers to the buyer. Unless chrono24 rolled out a new Authenticaton feature, there is no third party inspector either.

Honestly buying from chrono24 is not much different from buying from WUS.

I’ve had my eyes on a few 20k plus watches and yes the prices from Chinese dealers are always better but there is no way I’m rolling the dice with that kind of purchase. I’ll spend a little extra for piece of mind.
 
Discussion starter · #30 ·
glassellland said:
Is what you're buying so rare that you can't buy it anywhere else? Most, as in nearly all, of the watches that we talk about here are mass produced items, and this includes almost all of the so-called luxury watches too. Why would you take the risk? Why would you volunteer for the worry? Why sign up for the headache of trying to return something that is fake? Surely there must be an easier, softer way.
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Sure, just so much more expensive lol 😆

I don’t enjoy overpaying, and there are also bad apples amongst US dealers (albeit the legal system here is definitely easier to activate).

I generally trust the reviews on Chrono24 - it is very difficult to fake those, particularly when a dealer has many watches for sale. The dealers I am looking at claim to have physical stores as well (waiting for confirmation). So there is definitely a country risk, which warrants a mark-down, but I am not too sure about the dealer risk.

So at this point I am just trying to figure out the different eventualities and ways I’d get support if things don’t work out, although I am not starting with the premise that things don’t work out.
 
#31 ·
TimeWellSpent said:
Well, my question is if Chrono24 jumps in in case things break down.
Also, it seems there are plenty of buyers who over the past two years have purchased from the dealers I am looking at and left their reviews.
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As far as the reviews go… if that ‘buys the seller’ for you by all means go ahead… but I feel that if they are so much significantly cheaper there will most certainly be a catch. Cheap restoration/service or healing stolen goods come to mind.

I would not risk a $10k+ purchase off of the willingness for Chrono24 to cover for you in case things go south. As a customer you have the duty to purchase with due diligence and if you already suspect something fishy it sounds to me that you already know better.
 
#32 ·
flylock said:
I won’t buy on that site at all I get a bad vibe from it overall
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Why? The company Chrono24 is definitely reputable and has been in business for almost 20 years.
My experience with C24 has been consistently exceptionally good, both when buying and when selling. When buying, however, I would always make sure that the seller is certified as a "Trusted Seller" or that the escrow service can be used. In my opinion, C24 is the safest way to buy high quality watches, safer even than buying from AD, because there it can happen that a bad guy before or after the purchase pulls a club over your head and your money and / or the newly purchased watch is gone.
 
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#33 ·
While I don't buy from Chinese, China makes up a significant portion of the luxury watch market. I think they make up about 1/3 to 1/4 of the market when it comes to Swiss watches. That said, they are the main producers of "fake watches..." So...it is all up to you...

Moonshine Runner ...I have had the same experience as he had on Chrono24. But I have only bought two watches on Chrono24. Japanese and American sellers, both had stores.
 
#34 ·
It is indeed a bit risky to purchase a watch on C24 if you do not trust the seller. But I don't think the risk is any higher just because the dealer is from China.

If any of us actually had some bad experiences or some hard statistics, please do share with us because I am really interested (I have not purchased from Chinese dealers so far). Otherwise, it does not make too much sense to me giving advice based on imagined story lines.
 
#35 ·
EllipticEquations said:
It is indeed a bit risky to purchase a watch on C24 if you do not trust the seller. But I don't think the risk is any higher just because the dealer is from China.

If any of us actually had some bad experiences or some hard statistics, please do share with us because I am really interested (I have not purchased from Chinese dealers so far). Otherwise, it does not make too much sense to me giving advice based on imagined story lines.
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Yup regardless of country, buying the seller, using escrow service is smart
 
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#36 ·
I am from Asia and the people I know and I make it a general principle to avoid buying expensive items from China that don’t come from recognised and authorised sources, in this case since we are talking about watches, boutiques and ADs, if we want to procure authentic items. There are many sources of scams in and originating from China (it happens elsewhere as well of course).
 
#39 · (Edited)
I lived in China for some years .

Many Chinese people buy luxury goods in Europe because they don´t want to buy fakes.

Some fake watches are so good that experts have problems to identify them .

When you want to buy luxury watches in Asia than look for Japanese Shops.
 
#40 ·
I've purchased a few watches through Chrono24 and all have been good experiences. I buy the seller. That being said, I wouldn't touch a watch or look at an ad from China. The scamming, lack of any integrity, and counterfeiting of luxury goods are just too easy for you to lose your money from anything inside that country. I wouldn't buy a piece of gravel from that area, as I would probably get a chunk of chalk.

I don't believe that Chrono24 would be able to guarantee anything coming from such a large market. If I can't use a card with a guarantee and have the ability for Chrono24 to use their escrow service, I would walk miles away from that crap.
 
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