I see SO many pictures of seemingly decomposing or trashed Omega "Red Boxes" while looking online at used Omega's...is it a fait accompli that these beautiful leather boxes will just disintegrate with time? :-s
I still have my PO "Red Box" from 2007 and another from early 2011 and they both look pretty good, but I live in San Diego where the weather is fairly consistently in the low to mid 70's and humidity is low to midland most of the year...IDK if it is a humidity thing or what but these boxes sure seem to fall apart after time...
The problem is that they aren't leather. The newer, padded ones last better but the older, dark red ones are, frankly, crap. If they touch any object for any prolonged length of time, the thin vinyl coating makes a bid for freedom.
Thank you Gary...that would make sense as to why they fall apart so quickly...I'm a bit surprised that a $4000+ watch would come in such a cheap box...
My GS Seiko came in a lovely, but extremely spartan, cardboard box which has lasted remarkably well. Personally I want as much money as possible put into the watch itself. I don't wear the box!
Is that one of the Grand Seikos from the second coming? I haven't seen the older ones but the new ones are beautiful. There are cardboard boxes and cardboard boxes...
The bigger the box the more space it takes up in my closet. Having a beautiful presentation set might be cool when you first get the watch, but it's really a nuisance after a while in my opinion.
The red boxes are awful, I agree. But my guess is that they'll be upgrading the boxes soon. That would fit in with the boutiques, the in-house movements, and the higher prices.
I understand the thinking that once the watch is worn, the box is just stored and not used, but C'MON for heavens sake, with a $4000+ watch just give us something that won't fall apart for no reason so I can actually sell the watch with it's original contents if I decide to do so...Geeeez!
I have three of the red boxes from 2004, 2007 and 2011. If I put them side-by-side, they all still look brand new. Mind you, as soon as the watches were taken out they went back into the white box and the cardboard outer. I only get them out as that's where I store servicing dates for each watch.
Is that one of the Grand Seikos from the second coming? I haven't seen the older ones but the new ones are beautiful. There are cardboard boxes and cardboard boxes...
The bigger the box the more space it takes up in my closet. Having a beautiful presentation set might be cool when you first get the watch, but it's really a nuisance after a while in my opinion.
There are a lot of products where packaging sells the product, such as perfumes, but it's also about 85% of the products total cost.
Watches do not seem to be one, as you rarely see boxes out on display at any AD. I do think the limited edition watches should come with some special packaging, but as far as the majority, I'd be happy with a cardboard box that can securely transport the watch and hold the paperwork.
As a side note about packaging, when I worked for Nike, we had a limited edition Anaconda skin Air Force One shoe that was being made in Italy. It had special box versus the normal orange recycled cardboard one. Normally, the flat cardboard is sent to the factory to be assembled and then the shoe is shipped in it. These were made by a specialty supplier and were finished completely assembled. The full shoe boxes were then shipped empty from the Far East to Italy. The shoes retailed for about 10x the normal shoe price (about $2000) so they could easily afford the special packaging that was about on par with a typical high end watch box.
The box 'automatically' disintegrate even though I put them in a not-so-humid storage place and put in the moist absorbent product with it. It nevertheless still disintegrate albeit rather slowly.
The gray box that came with my 1990 Seamaster that was purchased new from an AD has the same peeling/flaking issues as the red boxes. Not an concern with me though.
I just think if you are going to sell a quality product for a lot of money the packaging should at least not disintegrate in a years time...heck, I'd take a nice cardboard box if it just lasted for a few years...this red box is just a joke...I agree with those saying if Omega is going to ask the prices it seems they are going to, they better improve the packaging...
Its funny how the box deteriorates so rapidly, but the massive instruction manual with its many pages covering all models and alternate languages always seems to remain brand new
I'm wondering if the newer red boxes react in a negative way with the thin foam layer surround them. I've noticed that, with all the ones I've had, the foam tends to stick to the red vinyl a bit, and it appears to take off the red coloring. Maybe it's this interaction that weakens the thin outer layer of red vinyl?
Either way, I agree that they could be made better. I really like the color and design of them, though. I think the presentation is fine, it's just the materials that need to be sorted, IMO. I also agree that they're likely to start offering a new style of box soon, with all the new models coming out. It will interesting to see what they come up with....
My Omega Railmaster 2007 came with a very nice natural mahogany wood box. I purchased this watch in San Francisco at a rather exclusive AD. Maybe this particular AD made their own boxes but it did have the Omega logo on outside of box. And then, the 2006 DeVille I bought in Sinapore came with the standard red box that deteriorated just sitting in a cabinet. My local AD in Chiangmai make their Rolex boxes out of teak wood. Such a nice box I joked with the saleslady that I might buy one of their Rolex's just to get the teak box.
Omega needs to step up their boxes. I know that a box is a box and that you wear the watch inside the box and not the box itself, but a presentation box is somewhat of a token of appreciation from a watch company to it's customers. You wouldn't appreciate a chipped plate at a fine dining restaurant, so why does a $3000+ watch box come with some cheap vinyl? Even my $500 Steinhart came in a better box than the Omega one!
The box from my 2001 SMP is in pretty bad shap. I left it on a shelf at one point for over a year and not paid any attention to it, now it seems like the box has melted. The red "stuff" would come off each time the box is in contact with any hard surface.
I have a couple of Burett watches...very nice quality...IMO similar to the lower end TAG's, but I must say, the presentation box is just fabulous...beautiful solid hardwood with an orange felt lining and a very cool button latch in the front...very stylish and they still look like new some 5 years after I bought them..Quality stuff from Burett...
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