I’m a regular on the CW website these days, pondering my next totally unnecessary purchase - currently own the Dune GMT which is black, so have convinced myself I ‘need’ a white dial watch as an alternative in the same way I need food and shelter.

Seems to be though that everything that takes my eye is always pre-order only - literally everything from Sealander 36mm to Aquitaine to Trident Pro to Sandhurst. Do CW have supply chain issues? Do they underestimate the demand for their products and thus seriously need to upscale production? Is this some sort of Rolex Lite attempt at marketing - reduce supply to increase demand? Half the stuff doesn’t even have info about when you can pre-order it for - is it next week? Next month? In time for my holiday? Don’t know.

This isn’t a moan about CW, I’m generally interested to know why can’t a man just go on their website, order a watch and have it delivered a few days later?

Interesting questions and actual answers can only really be provided by CW; we here on the Forum will only be able to speculate and hypothesise.

However, I've just checked a few watches that I might possibly be interested in, and it seemed to be 50/50 between in-stock and pre-order on them.

I know, at times in the past, CW have had a run on bracelets on particular models, causing a watch on bracelet to be pre-order BUT that watch can be bought on one or more of the strap combinations available.

Do they underestimate demand? Possibly. Well, certainly they did if you think of the Bel Canto.

Just a few quick thoughts.

Guy

I have no insider knowledge about CW inventory and supply chain but this has been on and off for some time. I suspect they don’t sit on much of a stockpile.

It ties up a business’s cash holding a lot of stock, so part of it may be down to working capital management.

This may be a slight side issue, but if you have ever been given a guided tour of CW Towers, you will realise that it is not a huge place. It’s basically a sizable townhouse, and all the rooms are relatively small in commercial terms. The showroom, offices, store rooms, areas for picking, packing and dispatching, meeting room, service and repair workshop, all have to be shoehorned into this fairly limited space. I don’t know whether they have any secure storage off site, and I know that watches on individual basis don’t take up too much room, but when you add in all the packaging materials as well…

Just wait few days. 36mm sealander was out of stock 2 weeks ago (all versions), preorder date was 19th of may. I e-mailed them to ask if this date is correct, they said yes, everything is correct. Next day i randomly opened my bookmarked link, woala, back in stock. Ordered 2 colors.

P.s. yesterday i checked leather straps, white/black sealanders 36mm was in stock.

Thegreyman wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 8:01 am It ties up a business’s cash holding a lot of stock, so part of it may be down to working capital management.

Especially with limited editions. They may not make the whole batch initially, and some may end up slightly delayed. You see this with a number of suppliers. It may also be the case with some watch manufacturers who are not quite as transparent as CW.

@Charlie Big Bananas If you are not comfortable with the stock situation at CW, just go for Rolex instead. The ADs are cutting prices like there’s no tomorrow, the stock is piled up in the aisles, they are practically giving them away.

Amor Vincit Omnia wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 7:30 pm @Charlie Big Bananas If you are not comfortable with the stock situation at CW, just go for Rolex instead. The ADs are cutting prices like there’s no tomorrow, the stock is piled up in the aisles, they are practically giving them away.

I can't tell if this is sarcasm, wishful thinking or irony. And yes, I know you are declaring "ironie". Writing it in Latin would only have made your intentions clearer for once.

I was once told that the difference between irony and sarcasm is…an education. Steve’s being ‘ironic’ then…

I would guess that manufacture of the Bel canto colour variants has had a knock on effect on production across the range. When one model is very successful, it's hard to suddenly increase capacity to match demand.

albionphoto wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 10:10 pm

Amor Vincit Omnia wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 7:30 pm @Charlie Big Bananas If you are not comfortable with the stock situation at CW, just go for Rolex instead. The ADs are cutting prices like there’s no tomorrow, the stock is piled up in the aisles, they are practically giving them away.

I can't tell if this is sarcasm, wishful thinking or irony. And yes, I know you are declaring "ironie". Writing it in Latin would only have made your intentions clearer for once.

It's not ironie. Most watches are stainless steelie.
Acier in French. Something strange in German.

Edelstahl