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I use CWS/Jura for many of my purchases.
I can both testify to having a flawless excellent experience with them AND having issues when stock control went wrong.
I'm sorry that it's so frustrating.
I've never had to buy in haste so I've never had any worries over orders taking longer.
My take on it is that Jura is a big old operation relatively speaking that carries a LOT of stock and is the distribution behind a number of retail outlets that have managed to survive in the UK including Hamonds and CW Sellors (and possibly others). You'll find a number of rebadged websites in different names carrying the same stock and the same deals. I have found them to be a company doing their best with a very limited 'small business' model where it would be very easy toncross wires on orders across the stores and the web outlets and get confusing stock control. They also seem to have VERY privileged access to the brands they sell. I once ordered a watch from a French brand from an 'old stock' clearance which did exactly what your order has done. Fortunately for me the brand really wanted to help and to sell a unit even at discount price and they extended my lead time a little and then supplied me the brand new facelift model and the sale price was honoured.
I'm different, I suppose, because I shop sale events and anticipate special gifting a long time in advance to get deals, I totally understand that the timing of this is disappointing and you need to make other arrangements. For ninety nine out of a hundred times, I'd bear with them...
My experience makes me think they're hard working and committed, a small team trying to run web sales and multiple retail outlets at once.
Hamonds in Whitby are a well known and established store and multiple branches around North Yorkshire and are Sellors/Jura outlets.
They absolutely have my full confidence and are one of my first ports of call when I'm allowed to shop for new items.
Yeah, she's great like that. She listens and observes, sees what's interesting me in respect of hobbies, what I like 'generally' and then tries to get involved with choices that please me that she can engage with it too and bring her own 'style' into play.
She is a "fashionista" by profession so I know I can always trust her to have a strong sense of style and design flair.
I often run my choices past her, and if she gives something an admiring nod I know - within reason and with restraint - that as long as I pursue it biding my time to grab it as a bargain, it will be well-received and celebrated.
She's always been really respectful of my individuality in that sense and in return we end up talking through her fashion choices and I similarly nurtured an interest in her favourite fashion brands, always on the lookout for great designs, bargains and gifting too...
We also share a love of France and of classy perfumes... we're a good fit it seems.
I consider myself amazingly blessed with her.
I do have two watches that were quite a big sell on her and went without consultation...
My oxblood Orient Kamasu II was rejected when she saw it in pictures, principally because Orient's product shots were a bit flat and lifeless. I ordered anyway (import) and when it arrived the colour was mindblowingly rich, and she agreed the choice.
The other was a bigger gamble altogether because she was vehemently opposed to "boring" dress watches when I barely attend any dressy events at all, and especially opposed to rose gold on men. I, on the other hand, got a great deal on a Certina DS1 Index in rose gold and then took the leather strap off and replaced it with a cheap black milanese... And when she saw it she kinda grudgingly admitted that it really worked...
Funny (final) story about my Herbelin Newport Chrono...
This was my 2021/22 grail watch. I'd tried it on... tracked it... monitored sales... nearly bought it at 30% off... held back... kept looking... Finally put the hammer down when I spotted a barely used one, in a mistreated box, on a CashConverter's listin where they had listed it as an older model with no warranty. I happened to know that the watch HAD to be a 2021 sale and that therefore it would still have warranty left and could see in the photos the corner of a warranty card tucked into the box packaging. It was basically 60% off retail. So I grabbed it. Buy now, think later.
Having received it and checked it out I stored it, as we do, to introduce to the wife at a "good" time. And left it there for two months. See, we'd just arranged a holiday in the South of France, first in three years and a bit of a spending splurge on accommodation.
So I've been good and said nothing about it... and we're walking through this affluent Cote d'Azur community, by no stretch are we wealthy, we just like nice things, and as we walk past art shops and jewellers we do some couple-y window shopping and she goes 'there's a watch shop over there (a very fancy one) - do you want to look?' Is the pope a Catholic? And there in the window is something that is quite rare in the UK - an Herbelin display, Herbelin being a famed french watchmaker. So we stop and look and straight away she spots my green face Cap Camarat which I was wearing... she admires the blue and red versions... and the new edition square face... and then she grabs my arm and says 'out of all of these in here if I could pick one of these for your collection it would be THAT' and points to a Newport Chrono. Not just any Newport Chrono... one of the less widely available ones... MY Newport Chrono with the oxidised darkened steel and the black sailcloth strap, dark blue/grey face. The. Same. One. I point to the shiny chrome metal bracelet versions, to leather strap versions, to white dial versions... no, she says... that one is the best looking watch in the whole window...
I had to quiz her for a bit to ascertain whether she was taking the mick or had seen something back home... no, she said... never seen one of those before... it's just beautiful.
So we had a 'I've got something funny to tell you and I hope you're not mad...' session. She put it down as fate and the cosmic alignment of our taste which she credits herself as owning and allowed to rub off on me... she was thrilled at the discount, and her only sadness was why I hadn't brought it with me to wear on holiday because she'd love to be seen with me wearing it.
Special occasions, she reminds me to wear 'her watch' and comments that she doesn't see it on me enough...
It's in the nomenclature... 'complication.'
For me it's that the watch has gone beyond elegance and into extended function which in an odd way makes the joy of wearing a miniature self-contained machine even more like a mystery box...
I pick my watches with a very aesthetic bias (graphic designer by background) and so for me increasing the complication while maintaining an effective, quality design is like an extra layer of challenge.
My collection is still growing but in the chrono department I currently have a Michel Herbelin Newport Chrono and a Certina DS2 Precidrive. Both are quartz.
That's the Herbelin. Excuse my mammoth limb.
Next on my list will be the black Herbelin Cap Camarat Chrono. Oooooh.... slicker than a greased weasel...
No worries.
I have two of theirs in my modest collection - the Cap Camarat in green (sorely tempted to buy a blue and a red square version as well) and a Newport Chrono (dark finish with black sailcloth strap).
I wanted my choice to look the part on honeymoon & regular holidays to south of France and in my opinion they look mindblowingly good as a casual watch demanding simplicity (you can get chrono versions too.)
They seem to be a good maker and make a really classy take on the Royal Oak design.
First saw them wandering round Paris and kinda fell in love, double bonus that of all the different pieces I have, my wife loves them the most.
And my first auto in over 20 years was the Seiko SNK807 although it is a little dwarf on my huge wrists...