The Amazon Dilemma

To Amazon or Not to Amazon, that is the question facing virtually every on-line retailer today.  Amazon is such a retailing powerhouse that it's estimated they control nearly 40% of all on-line sales.  Even for companies like Gem of the Day, that are actually older on-line entities than Amazon, the reality of Amazon's credibility and traffic delivering power makes it virtually impossible to ignore.

Many people don't realize that a huge amount of Amazon's website offerings are actually offered, warehoused and shipped by other, independent, retailers.  The retailer must be pre-approved by Amazon to then list products on the Amazon website.  The advantages to the retailer are obvious: visibility, traffic, credibility, customer confidence, advertising and infrastructure, including credit card processing,  are all provided by Amazon.

But here's the dilemma: Amazon charges substantially for the privilege of listing product on their website.  For jewelry and watches the charge can be as high as 15% to 20% of the offering price.  If the retailer sells the same item on his or her own website, the costs are significantly less.  But so are the sales!!

Retailers we've talked with tell us Amazon will deliver ten times the sales on any given item when compared to the company's own website.  Other retailers tell us it can be 100 times the sales.

Can the retailer find room in their margin to overcome the Amazon commission?  Are the additional sales worth the reduced  margins?

It should be noted that some watch brands, especially some better Swiss brands absolutely PROHIBIT Authorized Dealers from selling their watches on Amazon.  If and when you find those brands on Amazon they will be "gray market" or transhipped watches and the manufacturer will not honor the warranty.  

The Test of Time

Ten years ago TODAY, October 31, 2007, we added the Citizen Eco-Drive TITANIUM RACING CHRONOGRAPH, model BL5250-02L to our on-line catalog on Gem of the Day.  In the world of watches, especially from the large (gigantic!!!!) Japanese Watch Companies, it is rare for a model to continue to be produced for so many years.  Slow sellers are discontinued almost immediately,  In fact Citizen Watch Company discontinues nearly a third of their line every year!

Yet the Eco-Drive Racing Chronograph has endured for all these years and shows no sign of slowing down.  It has always been one of our top best sellers, and I'm betting it's been a consistent best seller for Citizen, too.

The real question is "Why?" Citizen has produced several hundred (you read that right) models with the identical features of alarm, chronograph, perpetual calendar and dual time zones.  These models have come an gone.  Far fewer have had a TITANIUM CASE and that may well be part of the secret.  Titanium is lightweight and stronger than steel. 

The Eco-Drive Racing Chronograph is water resistant to 200 meters or 660 feet below sea level.  It is suitable for deep diving (although not with the racing leather strap).  The key here is the BL5250-02L is incredibly tough and no one is afraid to wear it under any conditions or circumstances. 

Beyond that you quickly get into subjective features of looks, styling and comfort.  I always felt it was (and still is) one of Citizen's best looking watches,  The gray dial and easy-to-read hands and numbers and subdials create an understated elegance.  

I certainly don't want to underestimate the importance of the battery-free Eco-Drive movement.  Combined with the nearly indestructible Titanium Case, the watch never needs maintenance.  It simply runs and keeps perfect time forever!  The Citizen Eco-Drive Quartz Movement, Caliber E820, is one of the most tested and proven watch movements Citizen has ever made. The power reserve is nearly 6 months and recharges in two hours of sunlight.

How long with the BL5250-02L Citizen Racing Chronograph be available.  Obviously we don't know, but if you buy one today you'll have yours forever!

Available from both Gem of the Day and Top Flight Watches just by clicking the links.

The P68 Pathfinder Has Arrived!

Traser is a very Swiss and very European oriented watch designer and manufacturer.  They promoted the grand unveiling of their new top-of-the-line flagship watch, the Swiss P68 Pathfinder Automatic aggressively in Europe.  Our previous blog post has the teaser video that never really showed the watch but gave hints to its functions and appearance.  The "Grand Reveal" date was yesterday, September 29, 2017.

Traser elected not to pre-distribute the watches to dealers here in America for fear one of them might post pictures or, even worse, sell a watch before the reveal date.  Traser is great company, but they lack the iron clad control over their dealers that Apple has.  The watches have now been shipped to the U.S. and will be available here for sale in the next few days.

With each new release Traser has shown both its ability and its willingness to take on the premier Swiss manufacturers like Ball Watch and Luminox.  Their watch equal and, in our opinion, often exceed the more well known prestige brands.  Traser does have an advantage. They are the world's only manufacturer of Tritium Gas Tube Illumination.  Others must buy the tubes from Traser.  And Traser keeps the newest technology for themselves for a year or more.

The P68 Pathfinder is a Swiss Automatic and is entirely Swiss Made.  The movement has a date function with the date window at the 3 o'clock position on the dial.

Traser has added an "under the sapphire glass" compass bezel controlled by an external crown at the 8 o'clock position.  A watch compass bezel allows the wearer to use the relative position of the sun compared to the hour hand to determine direction.  The technology here is, quite literally, as old as time.  While other watches have had compass bezels, Traser has embraced the technology here and provides detailed and illustrated instructions on its use with the watch.

As always with Traser the key is the use of multiple illumination technologies to create a watch that at dusk and through the night makes the watch a joy to see and to own. Tritium tubes are used on all three hands and on all 12 hour indices for permanent illumination.  They then add Super Luminova paint to the numbers and the compass bezel to create a wonderland of illumination.  You can see the result at the top of this page.

The Traser P68 Pathfinder Automatic is available for order now on the Time 4 Tritium Website which also has a wealth of additional pictures in information about the watch, including fiull specifications.  Be sure to check out the slideshow on the Time 4 Tritium home page.  It takes a few seconds to load but is well worth the await!

  

Sneak Preview! Coming Attraction!

Prepare to be amazed.  This fall Traser introduces the P68 Pathfinder Swiss Automatic Watch with internal compass bezel and dual illumination.  More info to follow.....

Introducing the All New Time 4 Tritium Website

We are very pleased to introduce our entirely redesigned Time 4 Tritium Website.  This represents a gigantic step forward in both website design and in content presentation.  We believe this is the premier site for both buying and learning about watches.

First, and most importantly the website is now completely mobile friendly and will resize automatically for your tablet or your mobile phone without ANY LOSS OF CONTENT.  Too many website penalize users when they convert to a mobile phone size, reducing or actually eliminating content available on the browser size site.  Not on piece of information is lost.

Content is king on the new Time 4 Tritium Website.  Because we are actual dealers and we stock and ship every item shown on our website we actually have seen, handled, explored and tested every watch.  Many of our competitors have never seen a watch, they are conduits for outside manufacturers to ship.  They don't know dimensions, features or even how the watch works.  We are actual watchmakers and know the product inside and out.

All that information makes its way onto the website.  The information is detailed and complete.  Plus we back it all up with our TOLL FREE NUMBER 1 (888) 243-6329 so you can ask even more questions without any pressure to buy.

Click on this link to see a great example of the really indepth information we provide:  Traser P66 Red Alert Tactical Military Watch.  Now try this experiment: Do a Google Search and locate any other dealer and look at their website.  Most don't even realize the watch uses rare RED TRITIUM. They don't know the specs, they have no idea what tritium is our how it works.

The new Time 4 Tritium Website has a much larger selection of watches than ever before.  Yet it's easy to navigate and fun to explore.  And there is much more to come. 

Finally, we would welcome your feedback, ideas and suggestions.  Please add a comment to this blog. We look forward to hearing from you.

Tritium Lights No bigger than the Size of a Hair

The world leader in the technology of Tritium illumination, H3 mb-microtec, the Swiss parent of Traser watches, has now emerged as a leading Swiss technology designer with ground breaking, innovative, highly functional designs. Because H3 mb-microtec is the world's only designer and manufacturer of tritium gas tubes, their watch division, Traser, gets the new technology first.

This new technology has been named Trigalight® HairLight Tritium because it is so incredibly thin. The outer glass tubes are about the thickness of five human hairs, and the actual inner glowing gas is only about the thickness of a single hair!

So far Traser has introduced two models that use the HairLight Tritium tubes and both are pictured at the top of the page. First is the Traser T5 Aurora Chronograph that uses the super thin Hairlight to illuminate the chronograph subdials.  A custom sapphire crystal provides perfect visibility of the detail possible with the new tubes.  There has never been a watch this stunning after dark!

The second watch to employ this technology is the Traser Aurora GMT Pilot's Watch. The P59 Aurora GMT is a true dual time zone, 24 hour timepiece with a fourth hand to easily indicate 24 hour time for any time zone you desire. The dial is crisp and easy to read in daylight and is great looking, too. Once again the key to this design is the super thin HairLight Tritium that allows illumination of not only the 24 hour hand, but also all 24 hour markers. There is Tritium Illumination on all 12 hour markers and on ALL HANDS.

Learn more and shop for these watch on all three of our websites:

Gem of the Day Aurora Chronograph Watches

Top Flight Watches, Traser Watch Catalog

Time 4 Tritium, Your Tritium Watch Superstore

Traser Creates a True GMT Pilot's Watch... and It's Beautiful

Finally, H3 mb-microtec, the Swiss parent of Traser Watches, who are, by the way, the world leader in Tritium Technology, has added true GMT Pilot's Watches with independent fourth hands and a 24 hour subdials. Most importantly they've continued their leadership in watch illumination technology to create an amazingly functional and tremendously beautiful Pilot's Watch.

Top Flight Watches is pleased to introduce the all new P59 Aurora GMT Pilot's Watch Collection to our pilot's and travelers here in the U.S.A. As mentioned above the P59 Aurora is a true dual time zone watch, a 12 hour and a 24 hour timepiece with a fourth hand to easily indicate 24 hour time for any time zone you desire. The gradient color dial adds a touch of Swiss sophistication to the overall design and is great looking, too.

The watch also uses a combination of Lumi-Bright Luminous paint and Tritium Illumination to light the dial insuring maximum visibility day or night. There is Tritium Illumination on all hour markers and on ALL HANDS, including the 24 hour hand.  The 24 Hour subdial is also  fully illuminated with Tritium.

H3 mb-microtec has chosen to use their new super thin tritium gas tubes for illumination which allows more tubes to be placed closer together as you can see from the close-up above,  This means you get an illuminated marker for each of the 24 hour time indicators.  

Traser P59 Aurora GMT collection includes four model choices, all with stainless steel cases, anti-glare coated, scratchproof sapphire glass crystals and with depth tested water resistance down to 100 meters or 330 feet below sea level.  There are two dial colors and two strap or bracelet choices.  They can all be seen on either website linked below:

Top Flight Watches

Time 4 Tritium 

New Traser Color Tritium Watch Exclusive for the U.S.A.

Virtually all of our regular readers (and most watch collectors) know that H3 mb-microtec is the only manufacturer of Tritium Powered light tubes in the world.  Every single watch manufacturer who chooses to illuminate their watch with Tritium must buy the gas light tubes from H3 mb-microtec. This includes Luminox, Ball Watches, Smith & Wesson and others.

But H3 mb-microtec also offers their own brand of fine SWISS MADE Watches under the trade name TRASER. As you might guess, Traser gets the newest light innovations, first.

For us here at Gemday, the most in demand color of Tritium Lights has been the Red. The red lights are dramatic and unique even though they are not quite as bright as the original green of the blue or white. Still, Red is HOT, if you'll pardon the pun.

Working with their new United States Distributor, Traser developed a LIMITED EDITION Red, White and Blue Tritium Illuminated Watch with the glowing tube colors that resemble the color layout of the United States Flag, Blue and White are in the upper left quadrant (like the stars on the American Flag), with Red and White on the other three quarters of the dial (resembling the red and white stripes).

Quantities are extremely limited and are only available for a very few dealers.  You can learn more about these watches, see more pictures (and you can buy one, too) at any of our three websites:

Traser Shade Red, White and Blue Tritium Special Edition, models 107370, 107371 from Gem of the Day

Top Flight Watches

Time 4 Tritium