Shipment to Switzerland

[Uroboros]

Hi everyone,

I'm quite new here=)

I've got a big problem and I'm not sure what I should do now...
Maybe some of you can give me some advice...

I'd like to buy 2 Ulysse Nardin reps.
The only problem is that I'm located in Switzerland.
And I suppose the most of you will know that Switzerland is known as "bulletproof". (Is that really so?o0)
I just mean the customs in connection with reps of course;-)

Does anyone has already some experience with sending reps to Switzerland?
Or some advice how to sand it that it passes the customs without any trouble..?

I'm almost ready to take the risk but I'm not sure if its really worth it...=/

Thank you for you help/advices

Regards

 

[pandersson]

What if you ask the seller/sender to write "watch parts" on the package, to Swiss that shouldn't be a problem..?!

 

[Time4Direct]

Don't take the risk! 99% of fake items coming into Switzerland from outside Europe get stopped and they have strict rules often fining people for repeat offences.
The only way that has any chance of success is Via the UK or another EU state from the far East direct forget it

 

[korneevy]

I lived in CH for a few years recently and while there, had bought 5 or 6 watches -albeit mostly homages. One parcel got confiscated by Customs and a few parcels had been opened and checked so they do pay attention as to what gets shipped here and I'd say they regularly check 50-70% of all small parcels coming in.

The opened ones were all PAM homages with no branding so they let them in no probs. The confiscated one was H factory 112 super-rep PAM which they readily ID-ed as fake (so much for 1-1 replica, swiss quality components blah blah blah claims you hear from TDs often, LOL) and offered via a letter to either to destroy it (you have to pay for this 60CHF and this is just for the first time, any repeats are in order of 500CHF+) or let it go with a caveat of informing Richemont of the fact and your personal whereabouts and allowing them to sue if they feel like it. Funnily enough that PAM was sent via UK and it didn't really matter - they still checked it all right, while the rest were sent directly from China or Hong-Kong and some got though without any issues or checking so go figure.

I obviously duly paid and have never bought a true fake watch ever since.

For the rest of my Swiss time I got away by sourcing parts from TDs or here and other boards and learnt to build watches myself which is in fact a lot more fun and almost no risk at all. As I am a PAM guy, I only use gen UNITAS Swiss movements that I buy from Tourby Germany and for cases, I ask to ship case and case-backs with branding in separate parcels hence minimasing a risk or seizure. Dials and hands are no probs either as you can ship them in regular letter-size envelopes that don't get checked at all.

Based on my experience, I would stay away from buying reps as the chances are not so good and the odds are you lose the watch and get into trouble with the local watch heavies...so either pay up or take your chances but they are no fun to deal with in terms of defending oneself in a court of law here so I wont risk it.

 

[trailboss99]

What T4D says, believe me he knows!
You need to get them from an EU country and even then it's a crap shoot.

 

[Uroboros]

Thank you all!


Just by the way…
I also collect knives. And some months ago I ordered some assisted opening knives in the USA. And these are here under the category “forbidden weaponsâ€â€¦
It was a package with 4 or 5 knives. It passed through customs without any problems. It was just declared as camping tools.
So I thought if it’s possible with knives, then it should be also possible with 2 watches…=/

Does anyone knows a dealer in UK who has a great collection of UN watches?

A shipment from UK to Germany shouldn’t be a great problem right?
There’s a possibility that I make local pickup and bring them in by car.
I suppose this shouldn’t be a high risk?!

 

[rooster133]

Shipping from the UK can help a little but probably not much, since Switzerland is not part of the EU and customs entry has to be prepared for every dutiable shipment entering the country. I don't believe there are any bilateral agreements in place that allow people to circumvent that, right? Best option is to get a friend across the border, for example in France or Germany, to receive the package on your behalf from the UK and then you go pick it up. Now, that's a lot safer, as long as you're not trying to cross the border with a pallet of reps.

 

[korneevy]

Re: shipping via UK - as I said in my post, they seized my PAM shipped from the UK and they do check most parcels crossing the boarder regardless of their origin. I had 2 Tourby parcels with ETA movements shipped from Germany opened and checked by the Swiss Customs so neither UK or EU are a guarantee of safe receipt. I guess you can take your chances and just for the experience of it....just budget in a loss of watch+60CHF in disposal fees for customs and prepare for the worst. If you get it - well congrats and be happy, if not - you already knew it would get taken regardless so pay the fine and move one.

 

[Uroboros]

But why is it possible to bring the reps "without any problems" into UK?

Thanks for all the help. I think i won't do it on the post way! ;-)

If it should be possible whitout problems, I'll send them to Germany (from a UK) to a friend.
And as already said I'll bring them to Switzerland in the car=)
I suppose they won't check your wrist and look what for a watch your wearing?!

Someone who knows a UK dealer with these watches in the program?

Regards

 

[korneevy]

But why is it possible to bring the reps "without any problems" into UK?

.....

I suppose they won't check your wrist and look what for a watch your wearing?!

Ha. I guess the answer to the first Q is pretty obvious - UK does not make many "Swiss Made" watches so has no stakes in the game. Bringing counterfeits into the country where watchmaking is a key export industry with a disproportionate % of population dependent on it for their livelihood is a totally different cattle of fish, I s'pose.

Q2 - no, they seem like they could not care less, unless you are traveling with 60 Rolexes or you push your wrist into a customs officer's face and demand to authenticate your 85$ 1-1 super rep of a CHF 60K platinum-platted Harry Winston, while looking like you just disembarked an Easy Jet flight from Kosovo and have been clothing-shopping @ ALDI all your life..well that may lead to some interesting repercussions.

 

[Uroboros]

A1 - ok that makes sense;-)

A2 - hah nice one!=)

 

[levelmanroger]

...you push your wrist into a customs officer's face and demand to authenticate your 85$ 1-1 super rep of a CHF 60K platinum-platted Harry Winston, while looking like you just disembarked an Easy Jet flight from Kosovo and have been clothing-shopping @ ALDI all your life..well that may lead to some interesting repercussions.

I've have done exactly this. Here in America, however, the vast majority of Customs and airport security officers are from various regions throughout the African continent and can't really understand English very well. So he looked confused and maybe a bit threatened, looked at his watch and told me the time, then ushered me along on my way.



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[Ferris]

I recently ordered a watch and the seller told me that UK shipment was advised, so I booked this option, unfortunately I hadn't been on this forum yet and little did I know about all the customs problems. Is the chance of a replica being seized at least less high, if it's shipped through the UK? Do you know how sellers handle the shipment from there on, are the items marked as a private shipment? Does my position in Switzerland mean, that I can completely forget ordering replicas from now on and my newly found hobby has found a rather abrupt end? My package is in Zurich since the 12th of April and the status is still "being processed in Switzerland".

 

[rooster133]

I recently ordered a watch and the seller told me that UK shipment was advised, so I booked this option, unfortunately I hadn't been on this forum yet and little did I know about all the customs problems. Is the chance of a replica being seized at least less high, if it's shipped through the UK? Do you know how sellers handle the shipment from there on, are the items marked as a private shipment? Does my position in Switzerland mean, that I can completely forget ordering replicas from now on and my newly found hobby has found a rather abrupt end? My package is in Zurich since the 12th of April and the status is still "being processed in Switzerland".

Ferris, like I said in my earlier post, the best option is to get the watch sent from the UK to an address for example in Germany (so EU-EU). No custom declaration is necessary. Do you have any friends or relatives across the border? Then you go pick it up in person and cross the border by car wearing the watch. Unfortunately UK-CH packages can still be checked, especially when the description of the item is unclear or suspicious.

It's not unusual for packages to be stuck in Kloten for a while... Five days is still no source of concern. All you can do now is wait and see.

 

[Ferris]

EDIT : I've received my watch today, so Switzerland doesn't seem to be as "bulletproof" as said by other forum members, or I just got lucky. Thank you all for your help!