I recently purchased the Seiko SKX009J. I love this watch and really have no complaints about it. That being said, the buying process was absolutely terrible. I purchased the SKX through Long Island Watch (LIW) and it was possibly the worst buying experience I’ve ever had. This comes from a gear reviewer, from someone who constantly buys new products, from someone who has to communicate with dealers on an almost daily basis, and most importantly, someone who actively tries to not spread negativity. It’s like that old saying, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”. I’m not one of those people who will, for a lack of a better word, shit on someone else’s work or will purposefully try to bring them down. I don’t even dislike YouTube videos unless it promotes something that I find truly immoral. Of the hundreds of videos that I’ve produced on YouTube, I can think of three where I was really negative about a product. This was because I truly believed that these were bad products and people needed to know about them in order to save some headaches. Don’t get me wrong, there’s room for constructive criticism, but there are those who set out to be negative just for the sake of it. I am not one of those people. Yet today, I’m going out of my way to do something that I really do not like to do and that is to make a negative review in an attempt to provide a warning for anyone looking to make a purchase from LIW.
Let me first lay out the groundwork. I’ve been into watches for a long time but would definitely consider myself a novice on the topic. Before making a purchasing decision, I do research on whatever it is. YouTube provides a big chunk of information as it is the world’s second-largest search engine and essentially has anything you can want to know about. That being said, anyone can upload to YouTube and that really muddies the water. One major influencer in the timekeeping space on YouTube is the channel The Urban Gentry. I’ve seen a couple of his videos and noticed that he repeatedly recommends the LIW storefront. I checked it out and it turns out that LIW is another major timekeeping YouTuber who happens to also sell watches via their own website. Again, my first experience with LIW was via The Urban Gentry who stated that LIW sells authentic watches. This planted the seed in my head.
Flash forward, I was in the market for a Seiko SKX009J. A Google search showed LIW as the first non-advertised recommended link. I went to the site because it was a name that I recognized.
After looking through the product page, everything seemed legit. The pricing may be on the higher side, but maybe it was worth it since this is a reputable dealer. Take a look at the image that I’ve attached to the side. The important thing to note is the advertised 2 year warranty.
It is now important to inform you about the difference between an authorized dealer and a grey market dealer. In summary, authorized dealers are authorized by the watch manufacturer to sell their products. Grey market dealers get their merchandise via other means. These dealers get the merchandise at a lower price so they in turn are able to sell the merchandise at a lower price. One of the benefits of buying from an authorized dealer is that you get the watch manufacturer’s official warranty for the item. The downside is that you generally pay more for the item than if you were to buy the same item from a grey market dealer.
Again, this product page seems pretty legit as information is lining up. The advertised 2-year warranty on the LIW product page adds to the facade that this product is not a grey market item because grey market items typically do not come with a warranty. If that isn’t enough, maybe this other statement will help convince you.
“Island Watch is an authorized retailer for Seiko...You can be assured that all of offerings are 100 percent authentic and new in-a-box”
So from what I can tell, this store sells authentic and authorized Seiko watches. This was great news because I could not find any other store that was an authorized dealer for the SKX that I was after. There were grey market sites that were selling the SKX for around $230 while LIW was selling it for $264, but in my mind, there was no point in going grey market. The price difference was only about $30. In this case, I would rather have the official manufacturer’s warranty. I felt that it was better to save the headache of trying to deal with possible manufacturer defects through an official warranty than to save a few bucks. So, I purchased the SKX from LIW.
LIW took two days to ship the package and it took two additional days for the package to arrive. The package arrived within the advertised shipping times via the LIW website so there’s no justified complaints here. I received the package in an unpadded FedEx shipping bag. I thought that the shipper just threw the watch box in a shipping bag and sent it off but the watch box was inside another box so there was some protection provided. Shipping packaging could’ve been better, but I’ll take it.
After the unboxing and taking a look at the watch for the first time, I was extremely happy with my purchase simply because I liked the watch. Shortly after, red flags started to appear. The watch was not only dusty, but had minor stains as if someone had been handling it. It’s that type of stain that you get when handling metal with bare hands and you leave behind oils, dirt, skin cells, etc. There were also some dried water spots. All of this wiped away, so I didn’t make a big deal out of it. Then, I noticed some micro scratches on the high polished portion of the watch case. I, again, didn’t make a big deal out of it because this is a watch. It’s bound to pick up some scratches. After a few minutes, I realized that I did not receive a manufacturer warranty card. This comes with all authorized watches and provides the particular watch’s information and seller details. This is a particular item and is required for warranty services. This is a BIG DEAL and the whole reason why I purchased from LIW in the first place.
Prior to purchase, I looked at the reviews for this watch on the official LIW website and remembered seeing a few different reviews mentioning that the buyers also didn’t receive a warranty card. One reviewer mentioned that he emailed Marc (LIW owner) and the card was sent out to him. I tried to do the same thing.
I have the full email correspondence but will save you the time and provide the Cliff Notes. Most of what you’ll see are direct copy & paste from the emails. The only changes where made to my first email which included personal and irrelevant information.
“My watch did not come with a warranty card or any warranty information. The only paperwork I received is the instruction manual. I purchased from (your) website because it stated that you’re an authorized Seiko dealer. If I’m not mistaken, that comes with the advertised Seiko factory warranty. Please let me know how I’m able to take advantage of this.”
“Hello. The warranty is through our store. So if you have any issues, just contact us.”
“Just to be clear, there is no warranty card/paperwork? I don’t have to register through Seiko or anything else? I was reading through the reviews for this watch on your website and noticed a few others who were missing the warranty card. One person mentioned that they reached out to you and you sent the warranty card.
Is the store’s warranty strictly handled by the store, as in you have your own watch makers to do the repairs or do you send the watches out to have Seiko do the repairs? Is this an official Seiko warranty?”
“We have our own watchmakers.
The SKX is not a USA model, so you cannot get a USA warranty.”
“I’m curious then, did you buy the SKXs through official Seiko outlets or through other backend dealers?
This is a major point of concern because this in turn would essentially make these watches grey market.”
“They are grey market. They have to be. I’ve even done videos saying they are grey market. This is not a secret.”
“This is very unfortunate to know. I’ve seen a few of your SKX videos but did not have the time to watch all of them as they span many videos and probably hours of footage. This info may have just snuck past me. I went by the “Island Watch is an authorized retailer for Seiko” statement on your Seiko page and took that as a general statement for all your Seiko watches. Had I known and had it been clearly indicated that these were grey market watches, I wouldn’t have made this purchase as there are other grey market sellers who list these watches for cheaper, other sellers who I’ve reached out to you about price matching with proof of pricing and you declined to do so and that is your right and I respect it. But I decided to buy from you anyway because I truly believed that I was not buying grey market. This is just an unfortunate situation and I personally feel misled by the information on your website. I know you will likely feel otherwise and you’re entitled to your opinions. We do not need to argue about semantics. It’s just too bad that this all took place. Thank you for your time and good luck with your business.”
This is a tough situation. Perhaps the owner did state that the watches are grey market somewhere within the hours and hundreds of videos that he has produced. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. But what if there was another buyer who doesn’t even know about the LIW YouTube channel or has no interest in watching the videos and wanted to buy this watch? How would they know that these are grey market watches? It is not specifically advertised anywhere. It is actually the contrary. More effort is made in an attempt to persuade people of the store’s authenticity and authorized status. I believe the buyer has absolutely no obligation to find that information especially considering how obscurely hidden it is within LIW’s YouTube videos, if that information is indeed even available. It is the seller’s job to make this information clear and apparent.
Purchasing from an authorized vs grey market seller is a major point of consideration for many shoppers. I wholeheartedly believed that I was receiving an authorized watch from LIW. That is the ONLY reason why I purchased from this store. Had I known that it was grey market and that was the only option, I would’ve shopped at other grey market stores and saved the $30.
On the bright side, LIW offers a 2-year in-house warranty. If that means something to you, then great. I’ve never personally trusted these kinds of warranties because they are not held to any strict standards. The seller holds all say over the warranty process and can deny that warranty at any point. Especially after a write-up like this? That warranty is probably meaningless for me.
Again, I’m not one to spread the hate or negativity but what happened here is absolutely distasteful.
P.S. If you’re in an industry where you have to provide customer service, especially service through text, put some time and effort into your communications. There’s a reason why there are memes about how one-word replies can set people off and end relationships. Simple, quick, short answers can come off wrong and really make you seem off-putting. Maybe, that’s just me.
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