********WIS’ers In Blighty….UK********

thx67 said:

It would also be handy for sales to members. I’ve just practically given away a black bay Chrono. If I list it on WUS I tend to only get enquiries from the US and I don’t want to get involved with international shipping. The alternative is to let eBay authentication bash it to pieces and then sit out the 30 day return period.

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You don't have to accept returns on ebay. You can have it stated it in your listing. (If it's broken - always the risk of course - you would have to refund or compensate).
But, with the Authentication Guarantee you have outside conformation the watch was fine and working when they received it. Its why I love it.
It makes selling pricier watches much less stressful. You still get battered by the 13% fees though.

I was coincidentally talking to a watchmaker today about a watch that needs attention. While chatting he mentioned that he knew the guy in charge of the Authentication Guarantee process, and that its all fairly centralised.
It's common on here for "experts" to claim that the AG is practically worthless. I'm sure there are some that slip through. But if it was as bad as people say, you would be hearing a lot more about it.

*Controversial opinions. So if you can't take a giggle, stop tickling.

I'm going to pick fights and upset everyone by saying that, though impressive, I don't get the Bel Canto.
I get the nature of a halo project, and that skeletonised diver with the SH21 and orange lumps on the dial was great. But a sports watch brand making a high end dress complication with a SW200 🤔
It's like, I don't care what the rest of the watch is like. I just want to pay a relative pittance for a complication that normally starts at multiple 5 figures. Am I being unfair?

I've loved CW since I bought my first C60 Trident Mk2 in 2016, and have owned several including the Jump Hour Mk2.
But now I'm finding that the Aquataine, Dune, and the latest C60 with massively over proportioned hands and indices leave me stone cold. Though I can see they're well designed and popular.
(It's nothing to do with the swish and rebranding, I can see that's clever).

Am I the only one who thinks this? Am I now not welcome on BigClives new thread and have become the equivalent of a social leper?

PeteJ said:

My view might be even more controversial. CW does nothing for me. There isn’t a single model in the catalogue I like the look of (and I’ve had a good surf). Most of their designs look like a take on something else and they aren’t so interesting or different to my eye to get me excited. I understand the prices are keen and can be made even more keen with a bit of negotiation, but at that end of the market, there are so many other brands I think knock their socks off that I’m amazed at their proliferation.

That said, I’ve literally never seen one in the wild. Perhaps they’re amazing in the hand, but there hasn’t been one I’ve seen and thought ‘phwoooaaaar’.

What am I missing?

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That's totally reasonable. We all like, what we like. Taste is relative, (except mine which is fact).....

I'll just defend them a little first. You're correct, the quality has been very good. The finish particularly, is very good for the price. Though anybody who follows the CW forum and FB groups will know QC has been a real issue lately.

However, I have two big problems with them lately.
First - What happened to all those fantastic dressier style watches? So attractive, and gobsmackingly good value.
Secondly - Though I preferred the knife, fork, and spoon hands. As @bigclive2011 said, the C60 Mk3 is very good. But that's last thing they released that I liked and impressed me. They've changed their house style, or to put it another way, their language of design. It's all just gobbledygook now.

As for them looking like other watches. We've all seen the Aquataine advert on the telly. (It runs constantly on Sky News). When I first saw it, all I could think off was how blatantly they were chasing the Rolex GMT style.

PeteJ said:

In my own humble view, if I’m asking someone for a couple of grand for a watch, a dark and blurry photo with two lines of description just isn’t getting the job done. I’m amazed how earth shatteringly lazy some of them are. I’m more than happy to take the profit they should have got had they done a proper job.

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I've wasted so much of my life on ebay. I think it's possible to get used to the patterns and styles.

It's like a dictionary or Wikipedia, you start by looking at a specific word. Then two hours later you know about the physics of fluid dynamics, how to weave Azerbaijani carpets and why they're different from Khazakstani ones, and finally why flower arranging reached it's popular zenith in 1958.
But imagine that with watches. There are hundreds of thousands of them, on both the "sale" and "sold" listings. From 1915 to 1923 models.

Anywho. I agree, unbelievably you can find people putting watches on sale that are worth several hundreds to several thousand with three blurry pictures and two lines of text.
The watches often just look dodgy, so everyone just ignores them.
But if you do the due diligence, you can buy watches still in their stickers, for almost pennies on the pound.

I pretty much only watch 24 hour news, (not the new ranty ones, the traditional ones), and often just put it on for company more than anything else. So I know they've been cycling the Aquataine advert heavily on Sky.
But yes I believe they did release an integrated bracelet watch.

I never got to the bottom of it. But I think when that sister brand Tribus got set up, there was a big shake up in who was running the company, and what the design style/emphasis should be.
I think we're now finally seeing the fruits of that work through into the catalogue.

thx67 said:

Not accepting returns means nothing with ebay. I checked that box. They just say it's broken. Even if it's not.

I had this exact problem last year. Someone bought the watch, even emailed me to say how much they liked it etc etc. During the negotiation he let slip that his partner wasnt happy about him spending so much on a watch. He even got cold feet and back out at one point. After about 3 weeks I just got an email from ebay saying he wanted to return it. After contacting him, his reason for it being faulty was "it's not as accurate as my quartz victorinox". I sent him a link to Omegas website that explains accuracy etc, plus a few others that proved his expectations were ridiculous. Even got an email from him saying it was gaining 2 seconds a day!

Armed with my defence info, I explained it all to ebay ie it was working fine, it was in spec and it had a factory warranty. All they would say was "you have to refund him as its faulty". When I asked what would happen if I refused (he had opened the factory wrapped spare strap and worn the watch for almost a month) they said they would just take the money back and refund him. That was me done with ebay. They werent interested in even looking into it. Eventually I talked the guy down but it was a fairly stressful situation.

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Ahh that massively sucks. I got sting with a Tissot T-Touch. He paid at the last minute at the end of the week, so I kind of knew he didn't want it. Then claimed it arrived with the bezel fallen off in the box - bullsh1t.
So he sent it back, fortunately it just clicked back on.

I now write this in the Watch Sales Description. In bold, hence why its in bold. I copy pasted it.
I've sold many watches on here and am a modest collector.
I only sell to people who have plenty of recent positive references. I will cancel the sale otherwise. However, if you're new to eBay and wish to buy, you can contact me to talk about

I have since cancelled about seven or eight (at least) sales because I dont like the buyer. It's also why I love the Authentication Guarantee, because you've got independent confirmation that the watch was working

bigclive2011 said:

Common scams…

I worked at an airport for twenty years, the favourite one was the tomato ketchup trick.

Team of three…male one walks past you and squirts tomato ketchup on your back.

Male 2 approaches you and helpfully says..you have ketchup on your back.

He helps you off with your jacket and kindly gets out his hankie and wipes it off for you.

Male 3 walks past on your blindside and steals your bag whilst you are engaged with male 2.

Male 3 then passes bag to male 1 and they starburst out to the car parked outside.

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🤬 Some people.

I'm a great believer in two things.

1 Self respect - So pay your way, pay your taxes, don't cut corners, do everything properly. That way you can sleep at night.
2. Open hands - Be generous with: your money, your time, and judgements. (That definitely doesnt mean being a mug though).

I worked in Hospitality. I'm now semi retired from hotels, (currently I rent properties). But when I worked full time in the big hotels there was one type of customer we dreaded. Fortunately they mostly can't read, so can't book online. Plus have very distinctive accents. So we can usually intercept them before they can book.

But if we did have them they would literally ruin everyone's day. All the staff and all the other guests. The most distinctive thing is their lack of self respect. They'll perfectly happily break things in the room, or claim things don’t work, or that staff insulted them, to try and get money back.

There's an etiquette to behaving in hotels, everyone knows it. (If you were brought up properly that is). So don't shout in the corridors, don't steal other guests bags, don't fight, that sort of thing.
I had one hotel where we had to refund over two thousand pounds to the other guests because they'd had their stay ruined from one night!
In my last place they'd break into any contractor/works vans parked over night.

I know I say don't be judgemental above. But I also say don't be a mug. I've had to clear up after them several times. It's been a scaring experience. So don't judge me too harshly for judging harshly, if you know what I mean.