MoT's WDF

Purely speculation... This seems to have started a couple of months ago, when Ashford and Jomashop started selling some inventory which Gemnation had previously been listing. Not aware of an ownership change but the companies may have entered into an agreement to help move some existing stock by partnering on sales of specific brands.

I think there are fewer combined companies than we’re thinking, and that the sellers having access to distributor databases and having drop shipments from the distributors is leading to them looking like the same sellers.

I used to know a lot more about who was who, and even knew a few.

I could be wrong, but I’ve been thinking for years that the gray market is just exploding and getting a lot more sophisticated. I think distribution to the gray market is even more streamlined for the small seller that moves a ton of watches than it is from distributors to ADs.

Taking Ashford for example, their return address is no longer the dock in Brooklyn that it was for many years. Their website now says to use the address on the email they send with the RMA process. That’s because because shipping and returns are going in and out of different places depending on the brands. I’m pretty sure watchgooroo is some type of enhanced affiliate of Ashford’s who got involved with them a few years back when they became United Time Group. I also believe watchgooroo is and has been an eBay seller that somehow got involved due to Ashford’s long history of partnering with eBay. It’s possible watchgooroo just has the scale and muscle to handle Ashford eBay volumes and was handpicked by UTG and eBay, hence the orders that supposedly come from Ashford’s newest location in NJ.

It’s fun speculating and trying to keep up.

FYI, the original gray market seller to sell discounted Glycines back 2010 or so was Darrell Spencer at upscaletime.com, now I think only Upscale Time on eBay. He is in Virginia and had deals at half MSRP or so. Lots of other brands, too.

Edit - discountwatchstore.com is definitely a United Time Group company now. Some guy named Josh Cruz claims to be the owner on LinkedIn. Has anyone noticed if watches from that site ship from United Time Group in NJ?

Also, the Ben-Shmuels (former owners of SWI: worldofwatches.com, thewatchery.com, e watches.com, Swiss Legend, Lucien Picard, and others) have some role in United Time Group. Probably the real owners. Izac is the CEO of Ashford now. If so, there’s no telling how many storefronts are all under them now. They are deep in the business. Deep pockets, too.

Robotaz wrote, "Taking Ashford for example, their return address is no longer the dock in Brooklyn that it was for many years."

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I returned a watch recently to Ashford; the return address was in Florida.

The Sultan of SoWhat wrote:Robotaz wrote, "Taking Ashford for example, their return address is no longer the dock in Brooklyn that it was for many years."

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I returned a watch recently to Ashford; the return address was in Florida.

Either one of these addresses?

Robotaz wrote: ↑Tue Dec 28, 2021 2:15 pm

The Sultan of SoWhat wrote:Robotaz wrote, "Taking Ashford for example, their return address is no longer the dock in Brooklyn that it was for many years."

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I returned a watch recently to Ashford; the return address was in Florida.

Either one of these addresses?

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Luckily, I saved the email, so I just looked it up:


ASHFORD/MOstrow
RMA # 7323731MO
3833 NW 121 Ave.
Sunrise, FL 33323

DiscountWatchStore.com just started redirecting to Ashford.com. The full URL might include an affiliate code. DWS still has an eBay storefront here, but their newest listing is from July 26.

Didn't make much sense for them to have separate websites.

Bought a glycine from ShopHQ and it had Ashford packaging. Not sure if they are somehow affiliated , but maybe a reseller or something?