Touch of Modern -- Flash Vintage Rolex Sale

[ChronGo]

Hey Guys,

Sorry if this isn't the right forum for this, but tons of vintage pieces are listed on touch of modern right now. Haven't had a chance to go through to see if pricing is any good, but figured I'd give the heads up!

Interested to hear from the experts here if this is interesting!

[Mike Wood]

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[Haywood_Milton]

If it's the website I just found (and logged into with a dummy email address) then it has a small range of 19 massively overpriced Rolex that no member here would benefit from visiting.

Reducing something from a more outrageous price does not make an item good value.

The site also seems to be selling a multitude of general household and consumer items, so may simply be acting as an outlet for a dealer, applying a further mark-up on top of his prices.

The forum would soon be tiresome if we linked to every such nonsense site; they're aimed at suckers and this probably isn't the place to find them.

HM

[Mark020]

Amen.

[John in MA]

Originally Posted by Haywood_Milton

If it's the website I just found (and logged into with a dummy email address) then it has a small range of 19 massively overpriced Rolex that no member here would benefit from visiting.

Reducing something from a more outrageous price does not make an item good value.

The site also seems to be selling a multitude of general household and consumer items, so may simply be acting as an outlet for a dealer, applying a further mark-up on top of his prices.

The forum would soon be tiresome if we linked to every such nonsense site; they're aimed at suckers and this probably isn't the place to find them.

HM

Touch of Modern is good for other items but NOT for watches. You can get decent deals on occasion but in many instances there is NO warranty or returns so if it goes wrong you're screwed. They are a middleman. I've ordered from them before and some instances it was good but the last time it was crap.

[ChronGo]

Originally Posted by Haywood_Milton

If it's the website I just found (and logged into with a dummy email address) then it has a small range of 19 massively overpriced Rolex that no member here would benefit from visiting.

Reducing something from a more outrageous price does not make an item good value.

The site also seems to be selling a multitude of general household and consumer items, so may simply be acting as an outlet for a dealer, applying a further mark-up on top of his prices.

The forum would soon be tiresome if we linked to every such nonsense site; they're aimed at suckers and this probably isn't the place to find them.

HM

You hit the nail on the head; but for a different reason. I have never seen them post that many rolexes at once, and I posted this note quickly; simply trying to help folks out if that was a "good" sale, you don't want to miss it -- because you are exactly right, their lack of watch knowledge creates the occasional sale (especially with vintage pieces -- but u have to know the pieces -- that's selling at half or less of anywhere u could buy a watch. The rest of the sales are garbage, overpriced, or unstated redials -- and after digging on my end , not only were they over priced but many were redials. So I sincerely apologize if anyone did buy from that particular sale -- if u did, return it and if you have issues, let me know as I've been quite aggressive in their misstatements previously and you should have zero issue returning.

But here's why u should consider them -- I have bought a few watches off of them at huge discounts, and kept a couple; the others weren't as described, so they refunded me (to the other poster, they say they have no refund policy, but they absolutely with refund watches despite what they say). It's frustrating because many are bad sales, but you absolutely can find the occasional steal if you really know your watches.


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[ChronGo]

Originally Posted by John in MA

Touch of Modern is good for other items but NOT for watches. You can get decent deals on occasion but in many instances there is NO warranty or returns so if it goes wrong you're screwed. They are a middleman. I've ordered from them before and some instances it was good but the last time it was crap.

Again, u have to be diligent and find the right sale -- and they absolutely will accept exchanges as they don't know when they are posting something wrong -- they very clearly know what they don't know, and if you tell them the error (last return was non-disclosed replacement hands -- and even though all else was good, you need to know that in any vintage purchase).


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[John in MA]

I was referring to their non-watch items not their watch related sales


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[Haywood_Milton]

Originally Posted by WCollector4

You hit the nail on the head; but for a different reason. I have never seen them post that many rolexes at once, and I posted this note quickly; simply trying to help folks out if that was a "good" sale, you don't want to miss it -- because you are exactly right, their lack of watch knowledge creates the occasional sale (especially with vintage pieces -- but u have to know the pieces -- that's selling at half or less of anywhere u could buy a watch. The rest of the sales are garbage, overpriced, or unstated redials -- and after digging on my end , not only were they over priced but many were redials. So I sincerely apologize if anyone did buy from that particular sale -- if u did, return it and if you have issues, let me know as I've been quite aggressive in their misstatements previously and you should have zero issue returning.

But here's why u should consider them -- I have bought a few watches off of them at huge discounts, and kept a couple; the others weren't as described, so they refunded me (to the other poster, they say they have no refund policy, but they absolutely with refund watches despite what they say). It's frustrating because many are bad sales, but you absolutely can find the occasional steal if you really know your watches.


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Would you please tell us more about the few watches you obtained from them at huge discounts?

I had concluded they are complete toot-merchants from what I'd seen so far, but hearing specifics of the great purchases you have made might sway me to think differently.

So, what models and what prices? Any pictures?

I'd be especially keen to learn more of those examples "selling at half or less of anywhere u could buy a watch. [sic]"

What do you think they would do if someone bought a watch and did not find out until a year or two later that it was a dog's dinner?

By the way, you say "they very clearly know what they don't know." Can you explain how this works? It sounds like a particularly brilliant form of ignorance the like of which I have not encountered before.

Touch of Modern will be sorry to read this thread : people debating whether they are entirely awful, or merely (if some of the examples requested above can demonstrate it) almost entirely awful, but so ignorant that just occasionally someone might get a bargain from them.

Thankyou in advance for exposing this outfit to scrutiny.

Haywood M

[Haywood_Milton]

Originally Posted by Haywood_Milton

Would you please tell us more about the few watches you obtained from them at huge discounts?

I had concluded they are complete toot-merchants from what I'd seen so far, but hearing specifics of the great purchases you have made might sway me to think differently.

So, what models and what prices? Any pictures?

I'd be especially keen to learn more of those examples "selling at half or less of anywhere u could buy a watch. [sic]"

What do you think they would do if someone bought a watch and did not find out until a year or two later that it was a dog's dinner?

By the way, you say "they very clearly know what they don't know." Can you explain how this works? It sounds like a particularly brilliant form of ignorance the like of which I have not encountered before.

Touch of Modern will be sorry to read this thread : people debating whether they are entirely awful, or merely (if some of the examples requested above can demonstrate it) almost entirely awful, but so ignorant that just occasionally someone might get a bargain from them.

Thankyou in advance for exposing this outfit to scrutiny.

Haywood M

Following my post (above), I find it very odd that the OP -- despite being on the forum every day since --- has not responded in any way.

While having been here for only a short time, he has started another thread on this forum linking us to Touch of Modern : https://www.rolexforums.com/showthre...=touchofmodern

I'd like to read some answers to the reasonable questions above, not least because in the absence of same people might draw their own conclusions about Touch of Modern, the OP's threads highlighting the business and the claims he has made.

HM

[ChronGo]

Originally Posted by Haywood_Milton

Following my post (above), I find it very odd that the OP -- despite being on the forum every day since --- has not responded in any way.

While having been here for only a short time, he has started another thread on this forum linking us to Touch of Modern : https://www.rolexforums.com/showthre...=touchofmodern

I'd like to read some answers to the reasonable questions above, not least because in the absence of same people might draw their own conclusions about Touch of Modern, the OP's threads highlighting the business and the claims he has made.

HM

Hi,

I did not intentionally ignore, my apologies; you asked extremely detailed questions to which I planned to write a similarly detailed response but I haven't had the capacity to yet -- but given that this somehow was taken as though I have some sort of motive here (and to make it clear why I use ToM but also why you need to be very careful), i will write up something quickly (so please excuse grammar/etc).

For starters, I have ZERO affiliation with ToM, have no idea who owns them, and have had both negative experiences and positive ones -- I was simply trying to alert folks that a sale was going on; there was a vintage rolex sale several months ago that I missed, where the prices were crazy good, and the watches sold out in less than 10 minutes. If that was the case here again (another blowout sale), I hoped to be helpful to folks on this forum as I have enjoyed getting involved in the forum and every connection I have made thus far has been positive. If you know ToM, they have two watch sales a day, and I have only posted about them for that single sale, and that single sale, for the reason I stated above. And here, I jumped the gun and given that folks perhaps have taken a negative reaction to the post, I do apologize for that -- it was simply an attempt to be helpful. period. I had no other intention than to try to be a positive contributor to the forum (and candidly, if it was a great watch sale, alerting more people (and therefore more competition) could, if anything, hurt my ability to get the watches I could have wanted -- so like I said, I have really enjoyed this forum and my only intent is to share a love for watches and try to be a valuable contributor as many of the rest of you are (and here I clearly missed the mark). And given that I am "new" to the forum, I do want to clarify that if folks thought I was with ToM, I am not. And there are lots of folks here already who know who I am, what I do for a living, and can vouch for my character.

Ultimately with that sale, and candidly on most of their recent sales, their prices have been awful and disclosure has been as bad! And since this post, I have had one positive experience with them and one negative one -- the positive was a planet ocean that I purchased at a fraction of anywhere else listed (the watch is redundant in my collection, but I know the planet ocean line very well; the negative? I received a beautiful black and gold speedmaster in a rare (for the states) model released only in Japan, and the whole watch rattles when you move it. I am in the process of getting them to refund me, as that obviously was not disclosed -- and clearly it should have been. As I mentioned previously, I have had now three different issues where I bought something and it was improperly disclosed -- and the first two were resolved without a problem -- I expect the same here, but it's not handled yet -- i am happy to report back on the results.

Now to your points -- if you buy a used watch anywhere, and you call the owner back "one or two years later", what do you think they'll say? the same thing ToM would say. I know places like govberg will give you a 15 month warranty, but I personally view nay third party warranty as useless and will not pay a premium for it -- my watch goes bad, it's going to the manufacturer. Period.

They know what they don't know: they know very little about watches. very little. and it makes it hard to be a buyer for less common watches. they don't know the models that are sold, they struggle to answer even minor questions, they don't know if a price is a good price or a terrible price, they just post them -- so what that leads to is the occasional very attractive sale and the (more frequent) way over priced sale.

"deals at 50% off or more" -- the rolex sale that I mentioned above that I missed (NOT the sale I posted about) were selling dirt cheap. The ones I have bought from them and were well under-price: a planet ocean, the Clinton PAM, and a pre-tiger tudor chrono. So, I do typically take the time to scan through their listings when a new sale is posted, but the vast majority of the time I don't find anything. But when I find a watch I want selling at a significant discount, I jump on it. And every watch I buy period, I inspect with the equipment I have at my home, and if it's bought off of a place like ToM or ebay, I will always take it to my watchmaker. And the lemons I have sent back, the good ones I've kept. And, to be clear, for all this uncertainty, I will only buy at a massive discount to where I can get it from my usual watch contacts.

So in my opinion, it's a useful site that consumes 5 minutes of my day, and something I do enjoy is looking at watches and scanning tapatalk. But if you buy from them, treat it like you would ebay: know the watch (well), know the market for that watch, only buy if it's a great deal, and get it inspected. So to me it's worth it to scan it, but to others it's not worth it.

Again, my apologies -- my intentions were good in original post, and I wasn't trying to ignore you -- you'll see in general I haven't really posted much these past few days as I have been slammed. I wish you and my fellow watch lovers the best, and hopefully this clears up my view on ToM.

[Haywood_Milton]

Thankyou for this further comment. I had wondered how (if they know so little about watches) they might deal with a watch that was identified as incorrect (fake parts or not as described) after a few years, rather than one which developed a mechanical fault. Most decent dealers would correctly stand behind a watch years later, if they accepted that they had misdescribed something.

I still have some questions, but won't stir the pot further - enough has probably been said about ToM now and I wouldn't buy a watch from them at any price.

HM

[ChronGo]

Originally Posted by Haywood_Milton

Thankyou for this further comment. I had wondered how (if they know so little about watches) they might deal with a watch that was identified as incorrect (fake parts or not as described) after a few years, rather than one which developed a mechanical fault. Most decent dealers would correctly stand behind a watch years later, if they accepted that they had misdescribed something.

I still have some questions, but won't stir the pot further - enough has probably been said about ToM now and I wouldn't buy a watch from them at any price.

HM

I wouldn't argue with that position at all. Your point is real risk that any buyer needs to take into account when buying any pre-owned or vintage piece. And with ToM, perhaps the risk is higher because they don't know watches and their disclosure stinks. But I personally would treat any pre-owner or vintage purchase the same way -- whether it's ToM, eBay, or even govberg -- get it inspected thoroughly.

Personally, I've worked hard over the last fifteen years to get the best relationships I can with specialized experts for both brands and types of pieces. With a thorough check by watchmaker and, as needed, validation by a specialized expert, I do feel confident that I will be able to validate the originality of the watch components and the true condition of the watch. And since they have handled the returns properly thus far, I am comfortable to buy the rare steal, but they are in no way my go to source or representative of my collection.

Back to work!


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[ChronGo]

For all the negatives I posted about ToM, I feel like I have to post this. They sent me this a short while ago to address the speedmaster Issue i mentioned earlier:

1) Return for inspection and service via our warranty protocol
2) Return for refund
3) Return for 110% store credit

For a firm with a no return policy, they continue to honor returns if something is misstated. I still believe you have to be careful regardless of where u go for used watches, but it's 3/3 with lemon watches that were addressed. But also 3 more issues then there should have been.


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