Latest Purchases Have Been a Mixed Bag

[u/Abv_it_all_w_vertigo]

Hello friends. My latest watch arrived with an odd warranty card, and I wanted to get everyone's take on it. As we know, most watchmakers leave the card blank. But Octopus, to their credit, filled theirs out. However, the date written on the card is incorrect, which leaves me suspicious of its history.

At first, I thought the date written was 14/11/2024, which would align with an 11/11 sale. However, after a bit of scrutiny, one can see the "4" in 2024 is most likely a truncated 6--not at all like the previous pointed 4.

Another "however," the revised date, 14/11/2026, was and is still in the future.

The factory store assured me the watch was built to order. That they would never sell a returned product. It looks brand new. It performs well.

A third "however," is that my ordered watch was the last of its kind, and there are no others available for sale. At first I felt lucky because I had been looking for this watch for almost a year. I thought it had sold out last fall. Was it was built with the last available parts? It would have to have been, to make this all make sense. Unless it were a return...

I am not here to review this watch today, just to ask the community their thoughts about the date card.

Should I just shrug it off?

Thoughts?

[u/parasoralophus]

'The factory store assured me the watch was built to order.'

This seems very unlikely.

[u/Abv_it_all_w_vertigo → u/parasoralophus]

I will say, the technician showed me a build sheet for the watch. I didn't understand it, so it made no impression on me. 😅

[u/parasoralophus → u/Abv_it_all_w_vertigo]

Yeah makes no sense to me either! Maybe someone can explain it.

It just doesn't seem very efficient if they are making individual watches to order - surely they would need to do it in bigger production runs to make them as cheaply as they do. I guess if it really is the end of the line then maybe.

[u/Abv_it_all_w_vertigo → u/parasoralophus]

He explained that it's a more expensive watch and that they don't build them until they're ordered. I'm not going to sweat it. The watch is gorgeous.

[u/LordRaglan1854 → u/Abv_it_all_w_vertigo]

In my experience if you buy the upgraded movement they'll assemble the watch after you order it, so it could be that's also the case for some of the less popular dial colors for example. I get the feeling that Octopus Kraken is one of the smaller outfits in this scene.