aussie watch buyer needs help

October 9, 2010 6:59 AM

I would like to buy a Tissot PR50 Automatic watch. I am in Australia and want to buy online from overseas, given the strength of the Aussie dollar. What are your preferred online retailers that ship to Australia?

I live in Victoria, Australia.

The watch sells for US $249 on Amazon. However, Amazon doesn't ship to Australia. I could use a site like priceusa which is a glorified courier service. The total cost there would be about $290. Alternatively I can buy the watch from precisiontime.co.uk for 176 pounds + 8 pounds shipping which equates to about A$300.

The Australian online price seems to be about A$320-340.

I have not even tried to get the Australian retail price, but I presume it would be higher than any of the above.

My question is, having only done basic google searches, is there a cheaper avenue to buy a watch?

I would like the watch delivered within 2 weeks, and prefer not to have to go on eBay.

Any feedback about the best discount online watch retailers in the US, UK, Australia or elsewhere would be much appreciated!

posted by kid A to Shopping (6 answers total)

Response by poster: Actually, precisiontime.co.uk doesn't ship to Australia, damn it.
posted by kid A at 7:10 AM on October 9, 2010

Amazon does, in general, ship to Australia. Are you saying it doesn't ship watches to Australia?
posted by AmbroseChapel at 3:00 PM on October 9, 2010

I know you say not ebay, but for this sort of thing I usually just check ebay for high-ranked sellers selling new items. You can get that watch, new for $270 delivered to Australia off ebay right now. You probably want to search for "T34.1.483.52" not just PR50, since PR50 will cover a range of watches.

And to AmbroseChapel, in my experience Amazon won't ship most things, except books, to Australia.
posted by markr at 3:37 PM on October 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks markr. Unfortunately the $270 one from the US is the black dial model; I preferred the white dial (T34.2.483.31) though that might not have come through in the original link I posted. There aren't any white dials going on ebay except a used one.
posted by kid A at 7:05 PM on October 9, 2010

Be cautious about buying via priceusa. My understanding is that they are the ones buying it, not you, so if you were to have a problem with your order you would likely need them to approach Amazon on your behalf. Things could get messy, particularly if they were in fact the ones responsible for the problem.
posted by Joe in Australia at 10:52 PM on October 9, 2010

I got a Longines watch delivered to Sydney via ebay store authenticwatches*com, they have a solid feedback record.

i think you can also buy direct from their website http://www.authenticwatches.com/

not sure if they have the model you're after. Maybe they could order it in for you if they don't have in stock..

I had fast and good all round service about 12 months ago.
posted by MT at 12:45 AM on October 10, 2010