Wie geht's from the US!!
I have a question for our German members.
My cousin who lives in Stuttgart is visiting here in California. I have asked her to bring in 2 AP ROO(heads only)to send to Domi when she gets back to Germany. I have wrapped them in bubble wrap and put in a very small box.
My question is...if she puts them in her luggage, will she get questioned or have a problem at customs?
I would appreciate some advice.
Vielen dank!
Well.....that's a hard question. I'd say, nobody can tell you for sure, either way. It depends on luck and who you run into at customs.
Let's play some scenarios thru:
Version 1: Ur cousin enters german customs zone, strolls thru "nothing to declare", and nobody takes notice -> best case, all is good.
Version 2+: She is held up and asked by german customs to open her suitcases. They find some mysterious box. They open it, and find a couple luxury watch heads. => That very, very well could look to them as if she is smuggling some luxury goods into Germany. That means serious $$$$ in taxes, which would be a nice find / catch for the guards, if you catch my drift...
At that point it might be pretty hard to convince the custom guards IN SITU that "it is only private stuff", because it is only watch heads, wrapped in bubble foil, in a separate box, hidden in a corner of her suitcase. If they are in doubt about alla that, they will most probably confiscate the watches to have them valued by a "pro" - jeweler or the like - and there either will be a tax letter in the $$$$, and your cousin eventually will have to call a court about that, OR the "pro" realizes (more realistic...?) it is all rep, and the watches are destroyed, plus nasty letters to your cousin, to never ever do stuff like that.
Please note: Importing rep watches into Germany, all the more with the intend of selling them (what might be the conclusion with 3 high end rep watch heads...), is against german law. Can your cousin prove it is not like that, because it sure looks like it...? Does your cousin wanna shoot that out in a german court of law...?
Either difficult it might be to convince them IN SITU that those are cheapish replica watches, that won't mean any serious taxes, because they are of no commercial value.
The guys at the airport hardly can judge if it is rep or gen, if it is worth money or not. So they will confiscate it, and eventually it will end in some evaluation thru Audemars. Of course they will recognize your watch heads as rep. They will destroy your reps, and if they are really pissed off they will also send some nasty letters to your german cousin.
Versions 2+ are worst cases, of course. But it is possible nevertheless. Hardly worth the risk for your cousin, if you ask me.
What I do when I travel is: I have one on the wrist, and two more, complete rep watches wrapped around the cushion of the winder, put into pair of socks, for protection, and for being hardly visible/detectable when they casually browse thru my suitcase without searching something special.
Never, ever anyone said anything, not even realised there were watches. And even if they did realize the watches, - those are my private watches, that I travel with because I like to change watches over the course of 2 weeks travel/business trips blahblah, depending on the event I'm attending to etc. blah.
Usually, I also look like I can afford a couple steel Rolex, so I GUESS that should all be fine. But even with that routine there IS a slight risk of ending up with my reps in a grinder and receiving nasty letters from Rolex (had one of those already from my early days, when I had TDs send watches to my place directly from China, and not via UK)
Closing, my advise for you: If you want Domi attend to your watches, find someone in UK to receive your watches via postal services, who will forward it to Domi. Same way our dealers do it. Should be the most secure way, and even more important: Your cousin is off the hook! Don't get me wrong, but I may guess she does not 100% know what she might be getting into in granting you that favour...
Good luck,
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