Beautiful Barbara Bel Geddes (though, in the film, she was supposed to be the "homely" one.
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.
No, you’re incorrect, this is exactly what’s been happening in the high end watch market for the last few years. Patek, Audemars, Vacheron, Rolex, A.Lange & Sohne are all affected by this. This is how business is conducted for these highly sought watches. For example, a Patek Nautilus with a green dial that list for 37K, can immediately be resold after purchasing for 300-400K. This massive increase in value on the secondary market has caused real problems with purchasing in demand watches, and for the AD’s ( authorized dealers) on who they should sell their limited number of pieces too. They know flippers can make way more money on the sale, they they, the authorized dealer can by a very large margin. No, the AD’s are not allowed to raise the list price themselves ( sell@ market rate)
There are clocks built into just about every consumer electronic gadget. I don't need a reminder of the time on my wrist as well.
If other men wear watches, I take no notice of it. I might have a co-worker walking around the office with a $10,000 Rolex for all I know. Point is, nobody notices except the man wearing it.
PT Barnum said it best.
Okay, I’ll ask; what is Shreve? Where is it? And why was she contemptuous?
Okay, I see the what and where. S.F.? But not why.
Shreve, Crump & Lowe is a snooty, over-priced jewelry store with locations in a number of “important” cities. Only the finest people shop there. To indicate that you haven’t heard of “Shreve” is to mark oneself as a classless peasant. I assume that the lawyer thought I was “from a good family” and headed for a brilliant career after attending Harvard Law School. When I didn’t know “Shreve”, she realized that I was not in her social class.
Shreve. Crump and Low not in the west cost…..just Shreves……different owners.
I have shopped at S,C,and L and I am far from rich .
….
“You can’t take it with you.”
A portrait was hung in the Legion of Honor for 'Vertigo.' No one's seen it since
By Katie Dowd, SFGATE, September 14, 2019
The painting is lost. It was just a prop at the museum and got lost after they tore down the set. The suspicion is one of the set decorators took it home. Not set decorators have passed on.
The fourth painter, John Ferren, was a founding member of The Club, an American group of abstract expressionist artists. He'd done some work for "The Trouble with Harry," another Hitchcock film. Ferren was in Los Angeles at the time the shoot was getting set up in San Francisco, so he set to work on the revised portrait. The piece, obvious enough for the film but still elegantly rendered, was a winner.
The people trying to find the painting tried contacting Ferren's son Bran who, you may be surprised to learn, holds the patent to the pinch-to-zoom technology utilized by smartphones.
Now you know the rest of the story.
Beautiful Barbara Bel Geddes (though, in the film, she was supposed to be the "homely" one.
Regards,
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