The postal companies don't operate at a margin where they can just "hire extra cargo planes". Most parcels for private persons aren't carried in dedicated cargo flights, but use regular scheduled flights. My last parcel from Guangzhou took over three weeks just to leave the airport towards UK. That's just how it is at the moment, lean back and show some love to the other watches in your arsenal...
Not sure about the post in the UK, but the mandate of our crown corporations in Canada aren't to make money or be sustainable (its a huge plus if they do). The government expects Canada Post to operate at a net loss in order to help boost the economy - call it "second hand profit" per se. Same goes for our export and business development banks.
Those situation never happened before Amazon and their free 24h service, this wasn't even expected to be happening. You payed $10 or more to get your stuff shipped to your door in a 72h minimum and that was from the same country you where in.
I love that service by Amazon, but I hate what general expectation it got in the head of some people, but it is how it is unfortunately.
I look at Amazon's Prime delivery as a great example of operations management and logistics engineering. Same with DHL/FedEx/UPS. Its a shame that bureaucracy prevents national postal companies from adopting new technologies and logistics methods to enhance their service. After all, it would boost the country's economy significantly. Sure I pay $5 a month for Amazon Prime, but I also paid 5x more than that for this one package to be shipped to me within a longer period of time.
Anyways - EMS ended up returning the watch to the shipping agent on the 5th of May. It got reshipped via unconventional DHL and finally got delivered today. 2 months after it being initially shipped. I did get dinged for $22 in customs charges. The shipping agent declared a taxable value when shipping with DHL.
First impressions: Wow! The quality of this watch is sublime! Its got nice heft, the level of detail is phenomenal, and the quality of materials is outstanding. The watch just glimmers in the light and the crystals are beautifully clear, with the front one having a slight dome. I can now understand why these reps cost over $500 CAD. I can only imagine that the R&D costs must be through the roof to get this level of accuracy and quality. The bracelet and strap are also of great quality and are very accurate. Takes some time to figure them out (coming from Seikos) but once you get used to it, its actually really nice and comfortable.
Some notes / takeaways if anyone else wants to order one:
- The purple hue is there with the crystal and only shows in non-while light. If you look at the watch under a white LED, the grey is actually grey. But if you shine a natural/yellowish light on it, there is the slight purple hue, which is a subproduct of the crystal I can only imagine.
- I would skip the bracelet. The watch looks underwhelming and too steel-ey. The silicon strap looks much better and helps you really appreciate the beauty of the watch/movement itself. I would recommend only the bracelet if you are only going to wear it with a suit or traditional dress shirt at work.
- If you are planning on getting both the bracelet and strap, make sure you have extra lug springs handy. The ones that came with the watch did not fit the strap as they did with the bracelet. Specifically, the spring didnt fit the hole in the case of the watch.
- I can't figure out for the life of me how to set the date efficiently. I read online and it says to set it using the quick-hour feature. So to go forward 1 day you turn it 24 times. Took me a while to change it from the 28th to the 19th...
Overall, I'd say I'm very happy with the watch and level of service from JTime. Great service and products. Shipping sucked but quite frankly thats not the TDs fault but rather unfortunate turn of events and courier.
Where do these clowns come from ??
??? Ask your mother - she'll know.
