This is my first post here, and I wish I had known about this website a year ago. In May of '04 I went out to buy something that I had always wanted, which was an Omega Gold & Titanium Seamaster, specifically 2296.80. Bumbled around the internet, found places in Thailand with really low prices, other places in the US with PO Boxes, and finally settled on a local dealer in Minnesota that surprisingly had a price that was 35% off list, and comparable to some of the US gray dealers. This store is a heavily advertised high end single location store, and the owner is quite aggressive. They had about 15 Omegas in stock, however, and were clearly an authorized dealer. Got the watch with ONE warranty card with the Omega hologram and the dealer's name, and went home happy. Less than three weeks later, the stopwatch start button stripped its gaskets and came loose, and I took it back in to be fixed. To compress a three month waking nightmare into a short story, the watch never got fixed and I finally got my money back. During that time, I was told twice by the store that the watch was in, and then drove over and found it WASN'T. Thought it was a software glitch at the time. In addition, when I brought the watch in for repair, one of the sales people asked me if I had "the other" warranty cards that came with the watch in addition to the single red colored one I had been given. Since then have tried to find another 2296.80 (in August '04) and found they are obsolete, and have been for some time. Tried plan B to get a 2298 (I fell in love with the Blue Wave dial), and found out those are now all gone. Plan C is the 2293.52 which I have read up on, and have found a dealer in Chicago (that has an affiliation with my personal jewler) that will give me 25% off on it.
I have three questions for which I would be grateful for some answers:
1. Anybody know of any NEW 2298's left in the system which are still available?
2. Is 25% off a 2293 about as good as it gets?
3. Does anybody know for sure when the last 2296's were sold? The 35% discount, along with the immediate watch failure and subsequent oddities all make me wonder what the real story was with the original watch. Has anybody ever heard of an authorized dealer using their credentials to run an occasional gray (and maybe used) market deal on the side?
Thank you in advance for your advice. In addition, it's nice to see evidence of people out there who have Omega's and are HAPPY. That 2296 was by far the worst single purchase of my adult life, and I wouldn't put one back on my wrist if you gave it to me.
