Comments:
Greubel Forsey
Does anyone have experience with the brand recently? How is it to service their watches? To interact with their personnel? I know they had a few leadership changes in the recent past.
I'm itching for a Greubel. Have never owned one and life is short.
This one pic is very cool and elegant. I haven’t had any experience, but I wonder how it compares to the RM experience given their price points.
They have so many insane pieces. They have certainly peaked my interest as well. Especially on the secondary market :) You looking at a particular reference?
Have spent time with a lot of them
Once in Mexico City, then Sydel in Chicago, and in May at Rostovsky.
I think Rostovsky probably has the biggest inventory of anyone, and certainly knows the brand very well given they used to be the distributor. It's probably worth the short flight to LA.
I REALLY love the newer double balancier. I don't like the single balance that much though.
Would want to go used because they do take a bath on resale. Like you, the leadership changes make me a little concerned.
I love them
I think that GF makes some of the finest, wonderfully finished, and technically and visually interesting watches. And while I do not have a large wrist (under 7 inches), many of them fit me well and are very comfortable. While it’s hard to suggest that these pieces fly under the radar, I think they do not attract the same attention as Richard Mille, which is a good thing from my perspective.
I have been a fan and following the brand for many years now.
Lost the connection a bit because of the leadership change and their focus on sports models . Its not that i dislike them but for me GF is like the one on your pic 👌🏻 would live to own one of the older models , a GMT would be my fav but even with their preowned price still out of reach.
I haven't had much contact with the brand but whenever I've emailed them they've been responsive and they shipped me a deployant quite quickly which was a surprise given how few stainless watches they've made.
I have heard service times can be quite long and costs commiserate with the original MSRP so there's value in getting a piece that's warrantied, recently serviced, or at auction with a free service included. I checked on the service cost for my watch before I bought it and it was pretty punchy for a time only piece. On the other hand, what little I could find seemed to imply reliability is quite good on the GF watches so service intervals might quite long.
If buying pre-owned, I'm not sure how much experience with the brand you'll have. GF just started putting together an owner's club but for new buyers only unlike other indies like MB&F and De Bethune which have welcomed owners irrespective of new or pre-owned and while I totally understand that GF's intent, I'm not sure that kind of thinking is going to help the brand much. Frankly, if I was a new buyer and then Calce came in and tripled production, I would have been pissed. I think you buy GF for the watches not the brand since that seems to be in a state of change and no one knows where that will land.
Weird it’s new buyers only
Pretty dumb imo given luxury brands have a need to maintain their secondary prices, which I know greuebel does a lot for…
This is them trying 🙄
I inquired, they put me on the mailing list but no free book lol. Just got the email for a "priority" allocation for the new even more limited than the last one GMT so I got that going for me. TBH, at this level it could totally make sense for them to just focus on the $500k new GF customer which might be the same as the Rolls Royce / super yacht customer, depreciation is not a concern and exclusivity of community is a key engagement driver so you can hang out with other people that are also outraged by the docking fees in Monaco. I like the MB&F approach better and I thinks it's more aligned with where society is going but I can see a rational for GF going a different way.... for now...
I own a Signature 1
I like the watch, the people have been good to me. Over the last two months they launched their Owner's Community. I am not sure what that will become. It is only open to first owners, not people who have bought in the secondary market.
I met Stephen Forsey while at Watches and Wonders (together with Steve Rostovsky and Grönefeld Brothers, all in their Booth 🥹) and they were all clearly concerned about who owns the watches, that they're happy with their commitment, and feel looked-after. These smaller organisations are never going to get it perfect, which at that price point is a bit of problem of course. No dig intended, but especially Americans are surprised when they write an email, but it's the beginning of one of those endless early summer long holidays in Europe and it takes a company a solid six days to get back to them.
Gratuitous midtown shot: