Regards,
Posted on 06/23/2023 12:39:36 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Buying ultra-expensive watches not so simple
Ali Rezaei wanted to buy a $109,000 gold Patek Philippe watch, but a prominent Bay Area jeweler refused to sell it to him — first, he had to buy other fancy items from the swanky boutique, according to Rezaei’s newly filed lawsuit.
Rezaei had walked into the Shreve & Co. jewelry shop, nestled among other high-end retailers near San Francisco’s Union Square, “and expressed an interest in purchasing a Patek Philippe 5980/1R-001 watch,” according to his lawsuit filed this week.
No, no, no, he was purportedly told by the shop. One does not just waltz in off the street and saunter out with a 5980/1R-001: No watch for you, sir — yet.
Shreve, which dates back to the Gold Rush and operates a second boutique in the posh Stanford Shopping Center mall in Palo Alto, told Rezaei on that day in 2020 “that if he built up his ‘purchase history’ by buying a sufficient amount of other merchandise over time … they would offer the Promised Watch to him,” the lawsuit filed Friday in San Francisco County Superior Court alleged.
So Rezaei soon bought a different gold Patek Philippe watch from Shreve, for $71,000, his lawsuit claimed. Then he picked up another timepiece by the legendary Swiss watchmaker, this time a women’s model ringed with diamonds, for $50,000. Then he bought a third Patek Philippe from Shreve, for $47,000. Finally, after he shelled out $53,000 for a gold and diamond necklace in March last year, a shop salesman assured him Shreve “would offer him the Promised Watch that year,” the lawsuit alleged. That offer never came, Rezaei’s lawsuit alleged.
The Shreve shop in San Francisco referred an inquiry about the lawsuit to Schiffman’s Jewelers, the North Carolina company that bought Shreve & Co. in 1992. Schiffman’s did not respond to requests for comment.
Would-be buyers of certain Patek Philippe watches must jump through hoops to acquire one, according to auction house Christie’s. “Some Patek Philippe watches are so sought-after that buyers must submit to an application process to demonstrate that they are sufficiently high-calibre collectors,” Christie’s said in an explainer about the brand. Watch-strap maker Horus, in a 2022 guide to buying luxury watches such as Patek Philippe’s, said building a spending history with a watch shop can be crucial to obtaining certain scarce timepieces. “The more you have spent, the better and more desirable the watches offered to you will be,” according to the company.
All told, Rezaei, of Orange County, forked out more than $220,000 over 18 months in pursuit of his chosen Patek Philippe, his lawsuit alleged. Before each purchase, he was assured by a sales associate that he would eventually be offered the $109,000 timepiece he sought, the lawsuit claimed.
But meanwhile, Shreve — which in 1887 became the second U.S. jeweler in the U.S. to represent Patek Philippe, according to the company — knew as early as November 2021 when it sold him the women’s watch that it was losing its status as a Patek Philippe dealer and would not be able to sell him the 5980/1R-001, the lawsuit claimed.
Shreve did not tell its sales associates, or Rezaei, that it would stop being a dealer for the Swiss brand, the lawsuit alleged. Instead, Shreve strung him along “to continue to reap additional sales revenue” and Rezaei was “deprived of the watch that he was promised,” the lawsuit claimed.
His lawsuit accused Shreve of offenses including fraud, false promise, breach of contract, and intentional and negligent misrepresentation. He is seeking at least $500,000 in damages.
Doesn't pass the smell test at all, for me.
Ski
Yup - for high end watches, the racket jewelry stores run is to make you buy other stuff. Lots of other stuff. Then you have a hope in hell of being offered the watch you want at the retail price...someday. The cheaper alternative, if you just have to have that AP or PP or even a lowly steel Rolex, is to just go gray-market and pay the markup.
Eh. Jewelry is largely a scam. Aside from a few high end names most jewelry depreciates ruinously after purchase. Stupid investment in my experience. Your $1000 Zales bracelet won’t sell for anything near that.
Regards,
Haven’t worn a watch in 40+ years. No jewelry at all actually.
Thanks!
I had always heard that. Then, one day at the race track the guy in the pit box next to me was in a new 430. So, I asked him what Ferraris he had owned before, he told me this was his first. I asked if he had bought it used, he said he had not, that it was brand new off the showroom floor. I then asked about the maintenance costs, and he said that he had only had 1 scheduled trip to the dealer for routine service, and that was just under $1500. (He owned a paving company in Calgary IIRC).
Now, all that being said, the SPECIAL Ferrari models, the F40/F50/Enzo/LaFerrari/Monza, etc., are DEFINITELY this way. There’s an interview with Jay Leno where he talks about why he doesn’t/won’t own Ferraris. And it’s just this.
Good tires and they kept the streets pretty clean in winter. At least that was my experience living there for 7 years and commuting by bike. Riding in the snow is an art.
He should have gone to NYC to the diamond district at 47th St. and he would have found one. Lot cheaper than what he did.
The dealers usually have more buyers than new cars. That is why they can do this.
Same with some of the luxury watches etc.
Maybe in Feb 2009 there were new Ferraris available...
I would have told that jewelry store and the Ferrari dealership to eff off.
OK, guys & gals, for the big bonus round, “What is the connection between beautiful Carlotta and the ‘pinch-to-zoom’ feature you use on your phones and tablets every day”?
I had read that this is the game (show us that you are a real enthusiast of our product; we have people standing in line to buy oru elite offerings) that is played at Ferrari dealerships. Sounded koo-koo.
But then an acquaintance who had the money to buy Ferraris (and McLarens) told me a story about his purchase of his first ... Ferrari!! Seems that the fact that he owned a McLaren P1 (which he had purchased new from authorized McLaren dealership) allowed him to go to head of the line.
I imagine a similar form of scam is also involved in the sale of “art”.
Wow, that's a tough one. The only thing I could think of is that the feature is based on the dolly zoom effect that Hitchcock created, where the foreground stays the same, but the background gets smaller or bigger?
Nope, not even close. A clue...SF Gate has the answer.
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