What do you think about your local AD? Please share the good memories but also the bad experiences.

I've yet to have a bad AD experience, but I'm not really a tire kicker. When I go in, I've done my reading online, know exactly what I want to see, and decide on a watch pretty much immediately after trying on/seeing in person. 

I've never bought from another AD but have visited quiet a few all have seen to be welcoming. We don't have many brands down where I live so I like to visit stores when I'm in the city. Have you bought from multiple ADs.  

Only one, most by buys have been online. 

For clarity, I'm also not talking watches costing more than $2K, I don't play in the more expensive end of the pool. 

Most of my purchases are either through online shops or chrono24. The last time I visited an AD the lady there was nice and helpful but didn't give the impression that she was very motivated to close a sale and I ended up buying the watch at a lower price through the online shop of another local dealer.

In my experience, it depends a lot on the AD.
I had several dealers who ignored me and treated me badly. (Which may be due to the young age)
Now I have found my main AD and am very happy. They take their time, show me everything I want to see and like to talk about the watch world. Here I then also gladly pay a little more than on the gray market

I have never bought on chrono24 but do use it alot to track the trending price of watches that I am thinking about purchasing. How's the experience/ and what do you think of that platform?

Well the last experience was buying a Nomos from a German private seller. Everything was fine until DHL almost lost the parcel.

Yeah that's kinda of how things have gone for me also, does your AD have a lot of brands or are you somewhat limited?

My AD has Omega, Rolex, IWC, Tudor, A.Lange&Söhne, Longines and Panerai.
So I am currently building a relation with an other AD for GS, Breitling, JLC and Patek

Past 5 visits to #rolex AD was all smiles and them pointing to ”exhibition only”. Feeling frustrated walked into #omega, #tudor and #frederiqueconstant AD and now I have 5 more watches. This the money Rolex would have made. Overall a good experience from AD who have inventory

Have you tired going to an AD that had multiple brands. At mine we have Rolex and there is a wait list but they are really good ay making sure people get the watches they are looking for. They have also done a good job of only taking care of the people who live in our local communities. 

I have two ADs, and I've bought a couple watches from one of them.  The other one, with Rolex, Omega, Breitling, Patek and so on, I've gotten exactly zero watches from. Nice enough people in both, but never had a chance for any of the Rolex I wanted at the AD with Rolex.

So I did some traveling out of state to get the ones I wanted.  It all worked out.

I don't like retail much, in a general sense, so a lot of ADs with their added snootiness and such, just don't excite me at all. They drain me. I recognise that this is a 'me thing', however, and some people just LOVE the experience of it all. And that's cool, too. Horses for courses. Doesn't excite me at all.

Personally have had better experiences at Boutiques than ADs.

 I always try and purchase direct from sellers I trust. My main AD has helped me find a lot of watches that I wouldn't buy sight unseen. 

My only issue with my AD is they have my number and know my weak spots. Which is a double edge sword.  You know the scenario, You go in for spring bars and come out with a watch

DHL has been 50/50

50% of the time they stress me out beyond words and I have to go into detective mode to find my package.

50% of the time the package shows up with no problems

but the 50% that is troublesome makes any shipment from them 100% stressful 😉

I conducted two transactions on their platform. In one, I cancelled the sale because I quickly found a MUCH lower price elsewhere. In the second, the watch I bought through a private seller had a defect and had to be returned. My interaction with the seller was pleasant and not at all contentious. Still, Chrono24 stepped in and oversaw everything until both the seller and I signed off as satisfied. It made us both feel very secure.

I have a real big issue regarding quality AD’s in my city. There are really only three jewelry stores that sell the main Swiss & Japanese brands. My primary AD has Rolex, Tutor, Longines, Oris, TagHeuer, Seiko and Grand Seiko. There is one other small jeweler is only a Rolex AD but sadly they only allocate Rolex’s to people who have spent tens of thousands of dollars with them on regular jewelry. (I was even told this to my face and never went back) The other jeweler is trashy and only carries Brietling & Omega plus loads of preowned Rolex (Probably bought from people who purchased them new from the other AD‘s across town.😠) So, I’m limited to one solid AD that plays by the rules and doesn’t push pieces out the back door to flippers. This results in a very limited supply of desirable Rolex models and extremely long waitlists. I do love the people I work with though. My client advisors are top notch and I consider them friends. My AD truly takes the time to learn about their clients and provide the proper level of service that a particular client is expecting. Their watch service manager along with the watchmaker and I have become fast friends. The watchmaker even brought me back into his clean room to show me how he operates his equipment. They’ve truly done everything in their power to fix any issues that have come up. They’ve even eaten costs for replacement parts due to the mishandling of my watch resulting in a dented crown. I handed the watch over in perfect condition and Rolex reaches out to say the crown was dented. It wasn’t even a conversation with the watch service manager- she told me she was covering the replacement. That’s top notch service! They even provide solid discounts to try and match grey market dealers. They came off almost a thousand dollars on my SLGH005 White Birch and even gave me last years pricing on my Yacht-Master 40 Everose on OysterFlex! They’ve earned my business for sure. Because of that I’ve even decided to use them to fabricate a custom gold urn pendant necklace⚱️for my dogs ashes. When you do right by people in one transaction, it leads to more business opportunities. 

That's great brother I feel very similar. Due to the great customer service at my AD I tend to only shop the brands they have.