[SamReidHughes]

I'd say, don't avoid the gray market. You'll get lower prices, and you probably won't need to use the warranty. It's a net win, if the price drop is good enough. Many popular watches (e.g. JDM or non-USA-market Seikos) are only available gray-market in the USA.

[twblalock]

That's fine for cheap watches, but once you get into the $500+ price range you are taking a big risk.

If the watch has problems you'll need to pay out of pocket for repairs, and parts and service can be difficult to obtain for a watch not normally sold in your country.

[halbritt]

Warranties cover defects which are few. A $500+ watch will need servicing after a few years, which is not covered and will generally run a few hundred dollars.

Not really a "big risk".

[coldtea]

Not sure what your definition of gray market is, but there wont be any warranties usually...

[emptyfile]

He's saying warranties are mostly useless on watches.

[halbritt]

Precisely.

A decent new watch isn't going to have a defect. The parent referred to a theoretical $500 watch. Let's take something like a Hamilton Khaki Field Automatic. Decent watch, very handsome, and usually comes in around $500 (or less).

Hamilton is a Swatch Group company and gets the very, very popular ETA 2824-2 movement. This is the same movement that can be found in watches costing thousands and some times tens of thousands.

The quality and the internal components are the same. More expensive watches sometimes get nicer finishes on the movement and occasionally get a COSC certification, but by and large, there's little difference.

ETA has been making the 2824 since 1961. It is the workhorse of the watch industry. I've literally never heard of a defective one that wasn't a clone.

So, I'll personally guarantee that your $500 ETA 2824 will run for five years without defects at which point it'll probably need servicing, i.e. cleaning and re-lubrication. That's going to cost $200-300 from any Swatch Group authorized service center regardless of whether the watch has a warranty or is grey market.

Anything much cheaper than $500 is either going to be a Miyota or Hattori movement or a clone of a Swiss movement. I'd consider those watches to have a finite life span of a few years. Likely they'll not be worth servicing when the time comes, though there are definitely exceptions.

[KyleBrandt]

The same ETA movements (e.g 2824) have different grades, so higher price watches generally are using the higher grade even if the same movement. That being said still agree with the general sentiment on the value of a $500ish movement.

[SamReidHughes]

That's right, you are -- but with these watches usually the movement is a basic standard one, and a movement swap is a cheap fix.

You're already signing yourself up for that sort of cost, after a few years of wearing.