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Orologi & Dintorni - any experience?

Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2020 4:24 pm
by TheJohnP
Posted this in the Help Me Find a Bargain thread, but since no response, thought I'd start a new one.

Interested to know if anyone has purchased from Orologi & Dintorni before.
Or have heard anything about them.
Not much about them on WUS either from what I could find.

They have a really good price on something I'm looking at, but hesitant.
Their last Facebook post was September of last year.
I signed up for their newsletter a week ago and haven't gotten anything in my inbox yet.

This seems encouraging if true:
All our watches come with the Manufacturers International Warranty, this means that if you have any problems with the watch you can take it to your nearest Authorised Dealer who will take care of the problems for you!

Re: Orologi & Dintorni - any experience?

Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2020 4:49 pm
by Boourns
Never heard of them, but they have a decent Chrono24 profile: https://www.chrono24.my/dealer/casioenonsolo/index.htm

And they seem to be a member of the Rolex forum. I am not a member there, so I can't see their profile though: https://www.rolexforums.com/member.php?u=151459

I would probably trust them and just use either my Amex or Paypal to be safe.

Re: Orologi & Dintorni - any experience?

Posted: Tue May 05, 2020 10:14 am
by tnmats
Long-time lurker here, first time posting.

My experience was good with them, it was for a Longines 36mm Conquest Heritage, one that you couldn't find in the US anymore. I had excellent communications with them, shipment was prompt and the price was great. Zero complaints. I got the entire kit, the fancy Longines box and all paperwork along with the stamped AD card.

One thing that I thought was peculiar was they claim they sell with the stamped warranty card. I know Swatch Group is REALLY fussy about that stuff for warranty work but for the price being asked I assumed gray market anyways. When I got the product it was indeed with a Longines stamped card from a dealer. After I got the watch I checked with Longines with the serial number using their free authentication service via the web site. Longines sent me a certificate of authenticity that it was invoiced to Swatch of Italy originally and the date on the invoice was about 6 months before I purchased the watch. It was definitely legit product and the dealer's name on the warranty card is listed as a Longines AD. So, I got a watch that indeed had a 2 yr. warranty. The watch was flawless, looked to have never been taken out of the box. That was over 2 yrs. ago and the watch still works perfectly and keeps good time (+10 sec/day, well within the 15 sec/day Longines claims in the manual).

I did a Google search on O&D's address, it was in an area that seemed to be industrial looking from the Google street view shots. I then checked on the dealer that had stamped the card and they were not far from O&D. My guess is the dealer runs this side business and has his excess product sold via O&D. I have zero evidence of this though. The other possibility (much less likely) is Swatch is dumping excess product via this site. That one I doubt though since O&D sell non-Swatch product too.

In the end though my experience was above board and I'd buy from them again. As a side note, I used to get a newsletter or ad via email from them every 4-6 weeks. Now that I think about it I've not gotten one in about 6 months now. Not sure why.

Re: Orologi & Dintorni - any experience?

Posted: Tue May 05, 2020 10:25 am
by tnmats
Turns out they still list the watch I bought from them:

https://www.orologiedintorni.com/us/lon ... -75-2.html

One thing to be aware of: you WILL pay some import duty since they shipped via an express shipper (UPS or FedEx; can't remember which right now). I asked if they could ship by postal services, they said "nope, since we won't get a refund on the VAT easily, we have a deal with (shipper) to get the kickback immediately".

My experience with UPS and FedEx is you always end up paying duty and the angering part is you have zero idea what it is until they deliver it. I've had some watches shipped from the same AD in the EU (those watches weren't sold in the US) that were approximately the same price and it was a $25 duty one time, 6 months later it was $45. That's the only thing that was angering about ordering from overseas, not the fact I had to pay a duty but it was so capricious as to what the $$ amount would be. The USPS rarely collects duty but UPS and FedEx sure as hell will and their "brokerage' fee is just a rape charge that you cannot find out until the item is delivered.

I noticed they now use DHL, maybe they're not as capricious as FedEx/UPS but don't bet on it.

Re: Orologi & Dintorni - any experience?

Posted: Tue May 05, 2020 10:34 am
by TheJohnP
Thanks [mention]tnmats[/mention] for the detailed experience.
Other than their stellar Chrono24 feedback, surprised there's not more online presence for them.

Re: Orologi & Dintorni - any experience?

Posted: Tue May 05, 2020 10:41 am
by tnmats
My guess is they may not be that big of seller in the US. I was really skittish about buying from an overseas dealer until I did it once (dealer was in Spain) and it was a good experience

I though O&D was dodgy at first but I tried to check them out best I could, it was legit. The part that I was baffled about was the stamped card, I refused to believe it but it did come with one.

This is the AD that stamped the card (it was in early 2018, my warranty expired by now):

http://carlaviegi.com/

If you do a google maps search they're 4 km apart, hence my guess it's the same owner(s). Even if they're not they sure seem to have some kind of relationship.

Re: Orologi & Dintorni - any experience?

Posted: Fri May 22, 2020 3:56 pm
by TheJohnP
I emailed them a few days ago asking about the watch I'm interested in. Have yet to get a response. Even accommodating for the current situation, they're still late in getting back to me.

Making me less likely to purchase if the do ever reply.
Back on the hunt.

Re: Orologi & Dintorni - any experience?

Posted: Fri May 22, 2020 4:14 pm
by Boourns
What are you looking for if you don't mind saying? I am not likely to be able to out deal hunt you, but I am willing to try .