Cartier

The effort it took to finally secure this beauty! Let me just warn you all that if shipping any watch overseas that has a strap made of anything other than cow/calf (in this case, alligator) be sure the seller understands what paperwork is needed! This st...  

Regarding alligator straps, isn’t a viable solution that the shipper remove the strap and send it to you separately? I had researched this before and found online discussions/instructions on how to navigate this issue.

The shipper was WAY over their head. They said they could ship to the US but clearly didn’t understand protocol. I’m just a guy trying to buy a watch… I assume the professionals know proper procedure. So, yes, most likely this could’ve been done much more... 

Wear it in the best of health.

I ran into a similar problem years ago. At first the British private seller shipped the strap with the watch. When that failed he looked into getting a CITES license. (Haha) Finally he listened to me and sent the strap to me in a normal envelope.

I “worked” for this one!

Yes, Zenith shipped from the Capital of Time to the US. FEDEX cut the strap off.

That was at least 4-5 years ago but had forgotten about it until reading your comments!

Based on my experience - never ship with FedEx, as lazy and incompetent as it gets. Strap - remove and ship via regular email. Most dealers would do that for you. A lot of Japanese ones would refuse due to their respect for the rules. Apart from that, I h... 

Guess there’s no great option. Though the seller definitely is largely at fault. But if I didn’t keep hounding UPS, I have no idea how much longer this would have taken. Very poor communication from UPS when problems arose.

There is no escape ... I am sure you can find a great strap on ebay or directly from Cartier - enjoy!

this seems to be right up your alley, Nico.

as soon as I saw it, I felt this one was truly unique... certainly much different than anything else I own. I like the Platinum version, but agree with you, this is something really unique, and I prefer it (even if the platinum weren't multiples more expe... 

It’s absolutely beautiful and one of the best looking watches from Cartier in recent times.

No overlap with any of my other watches! This one is very unique.

Worth all the pain to finally put it on your wrist.

Like many here... I had, ahem, one or two other watches I could wear while I was waiting.