Buying a watch is hard

My long-awaited 5 year anniversary came and went, and yet I still don’t have a new watch to show for it. It seems my initial positive experience at Tourneau was a bit of an anomaly. On the day I got the email stating it was time to pick out my watch, I made a trip to Tourneau to check out my front-runners. My list of interest included the IWC Classic Pilot Chrono, Omega Speedmaster Broad Arrow, and Omega Speedmaster Broad Arrow GMT. To my immense disappointment, none of these watches were in stock. The salesman thought he could track down a GMT for me, so he promised to call me back the next day with word on his progress.

The next day came and went with no phone call. So I called him myself, and found that he had been unsuccessful in his quest. In the meantime, however, my concerns over the robustness of Omega’s 33xx movement had again made me wary of that brand, so I asked about my old favorite, the IWC Aquatimer Chrono. Once again, my watch of interest wasn’t available in the store, though this time the salesman assured me he could get one within a couple days.

When the promised “couple days” had passed, but I still hadn’t received a call, I again called the salesman myself. After an initial false alarm over the watch being unavailable, he discovered it had in fact arrived via UPS. So, I excitedly made a trip to check out the watch. I fully expected to leave with my new watch, but alas, it didn’t work out that way. It turned out that the watch had been sitting in a Tourneau display for a few months, and somehow picked up a couple dings on the case.

The salesman promised to locate a pristine version and call me back by Friday. Today’s Sunday, and still no call.   Sigh.