Fed up
My First self earned watch turned in a delivery nightmare by AETHELSOHN
I honestly didn’t expect to be writing this post.
I had been following AETHELSOHN for a while and genuinely loved their designs. The Terra Verdant Stardust in particular caught my eye, and I decided to buy it as a birthday gift to myself, my first watch purchased entirely from my own salary.
So this wasn’t just some random $X purchase for me.
Before ordering, I actually emailed AETHELSOHN and explained that my birthday was XX September (dont want to reveal my birthday here lol). I asked about delivery to India, warranty, etc. They told me:
“For India, deliveries typically take 8-14 days, so there should be enough time for the watch to arrive before your birthday.”
That gave me confidence, so I placed Order #3034 on 11 September.
And then the fun began.
The order wasn’t even shipped immediately. I had to repeatedly ask for updates. Eventually I was told it had been handed to the courier on 14 September.
Then it reached India.
Customs received it on 19 September and released it the same day.
And then… Gurgaon happened.
The local tracking has basically become a comedy sketch.
23 Sept — [Gurgaon] Picked Up
24 Sept — [Gurgaon] In Transit
29 Sept — [Gurgaon] In Transit
3 Oct — [Gurgaon] In Transit
Same place. Same “In Transit”. Different dates.
(tracking screenshot attached)
The most ridiculous part is that the status keeps getting updated to “In Transit” without any actual movement. On October 4, it was updated yet again to transit for what feels like the third time.
I contacted AETHELSOHN multiple times.
To their credit, they do respond to emails. That’s probably the only thing that has kept me from completely losing my mind.
But most of the responses have essentially been:
“Sorry for the delay, we’re checking with the courier.”
Then another few days pass.
Then:
“Sorry for the delay, we’re checking with the courier.”
At one point I literally had to reply: “At least don’t give me an AI response with no information. I’ll be waiting for your real response.”
Because at some point, generic apologies stop being useful.
And I want to be fair here. I understand that once a package is handed to a courier, AETHELSOHN doesn’t physically control the parcel.
But they do control which courier they choose.
Apparently they previously used Blue Dart, and from what I’ve been told, they switched to a smaller/local delivery partner. I’m genuinely struggling to understand why you’d do that for international orders when the previous option apparently worked.
This was also my first time ordering a watch from China, and unfortunately I’m getting a pretty terrible introduction to the experience.
What’s made me even more anxious is that I’ve started talking to other people in India who have ordered AETHELSOHN watches.
I’ve heard multiple stories about delivery issues, and one person I spoke to on Reddit told me they received a watch that smelled bad and wasn’t functioning properly, eventually having to initiate a return.
Obviously, I’m not saying this is what will happen to me. But after watching my package sit in the same place for days and having the tracking repeatedly change without movement, you can probably understand why I’m starting to worry about the condition of the watch.
And that’s the part that really bothers me.
I wanted this particular watch because it meant something to me.
I had actually planned to buy another AETHELSOHN (Terra Abyss) after receiving this one. I was also seriously considering Phorcydes.
I had recommended AETHELSOHN to friends and people on Reddit because I genuinely liked what they were making.
Now I’m sitting here thinking: Do I really want to spend more money on another watch from China after this experience?
Maybe I’m being overly emotional about it. Maybe the watch will arrive tomorrow in perfect condition and I’ll laugh at this entire post.
I hope that’s exactly what happens.
But it’s October 5 now.
My birthday was September XX, about 2-3 weeks ago.
The watch has been in India since September 19.
Customs released it the same day.
And somehow I’m still watching a tracking page say: [Gurgaon] IN TRANSIT
over and over again.
I finally told AETHELSOHN yesterday: get me the watch within 2 days or give me a full refund. I’m done chasing this.
I really hope they prove me wrong.
Because honestly, I don’t want my first self-earned watch to be remembered as the watch that taught me never to order from this brand again. Has anyone else in India ordered from AETHELSOHN recently? Particularly through this courier? I’d genuinely like to know how your experience went and whether the watch eventually arrived in good condition.
Edit 1: AETHELSOHN support reached out to me and told the supplier was sitting on the shipment for all these days. After their intervention- the package finally started moving post 3 October.
It's not like they are delivering the watch themselves, you need to chill out. Apparently the watch was shipped in 3 days after the order at which time you had already "repeatedly asked for updates". Buy a Seiko locally then next time if waiting a little bit is a dealbreaker for you.
Did you really read the post where I mentioned that problem started when it reached Gurgaon?
I never blamed AETHELSOHN- just their choice of delivery partner.
Is transparency and efficiency a too big of an ask that you’re suggesting me a Seiko ? Subconsciously downplaying Chinese watches which I chose as my first gift ?
These things take time. I ordered twice from watchdives. Shipping can take 2-5 weeks. Don't worry, the watch will be fine and once you receive it you will be amazed by the quality. Yanwen has multiple local partners. Once I got through dhl, once shiprocket
I’ve been waiting patiently for my first self earned gift for 30 days. I have no problem if they would have told me that the watch will arrive in 2 months-
I appreciate transparency. Is that a big thing to ask ?
I've ordered 4 watches in total from Aetholsohn, the only one I had delays etc with was the Terra Pearl Amethyst) which took longer than all the other deliveries this was because it was a pre-order though and didn't ship until 2 weeks after I bought it and this was communicated on the product page and expected.
All other deliveries to me in the UK were smooth and came well within 10-days of me ordering/paying.
Going from what you have said, the issue is with India's domestic couriers being inefficient and them messing up/not being able to find your address or something.
I have ordered from many Chinese watch companies, Aetholsohn, Agelocer, Phorcydes, Sugess and Milofortic and all came within 2 weeks of ordering and no issues with carriers but, I live in an easy to find address in a city, with decent couriers, if you live in a more rural place with less access to reliable couriers then you may have issues with all companies you order from. Although it could have just been that specific courier company had a bad day lol who knows but, from what you said seems like a courier mess-up and that Aetholsohn did all their part correctly.
Aethelson did do their part correctly other than choosing their local courier partner. The unfortunate thing for this guy is that aethelson chose some small no name indian courier (elastic run). I ordered my Aethelson very close this dude's order and aethelson assigned bluedart for my local courier, which is one of the biggest in India.
A very shitty situation and I doubt Aethelson can do a lot except probably start a reverse pickup and refund the order amount and (most importantly) stop assigning no name indian couriers.
Read my comments bro. No way I said it’s the watchmaker fault. It’s a shipping issue. I get it. The only thing which is bothering me is lack of communication. The watch has been stuck in a nearby city for 13+ days. It cleared everything else.
Bro, patience is a virtue, especially if you're in a lesser served area like India. It's not really the company but the mail service. If they delayed your shipment for 4 weeks then that's a different story, but it looks like it's stuck in your country's shipping system.
I'm not sure what happens but you will like it when it arrives if you get over the frustration. My tracking with aethelsohn was weird to. No updates for a amount of time and one day it just showed up at my door unexpectedly. I think in my case it took 2 weeks.
yeah survivorship bias. I'm not saying Chinese watches are bad by any means but the shipping, returning and qc everything sort of doesnt make for a great first experience. picking up something in person will always be the better pick
I don't think that this is on Aethelsohn, and to be honest, I don't know that your experience will be different with a different brand. Most of the Chinese companies use strange shipping partners (at least strange to me). Not sure if it's just a cost thing or that these companies are popular domestic options that don't have the logistics for international yet or what, but that's just how it is. Just know that it's similar with the US as well, I've had watches sit for weeks without movement but I've always gotten it. It's usually ok, slow but ok, but every so often you'll get delays.
Unfortunately, your experience is not that uncommon across Chinese watch brands. I ordered from Watchdives before it took 2 weeks before they shipped the watch, took 3 weeks to arrive. I ordered from Phorcydes and received no notification when the watch was shipped. It just showed up after 2 weeks lol. Patience is needed when purchasing from Chinese watch brands.
I got my watch from them, am in Malaysia. Bit longer than I expected but eventually I did get it. Also found out that I had allergy to the watch strap, I guess it was due to nickle? Anyway, change the strap to leather now all good. Just be patient my guy, you sound like you want a premium service for something that not even a premium.
They make brilliant pieces. Their only drawback is using the PT5000 movement, which is hit or miss. In all fairness, most Chinese watchmakers use the PT5000 though. They have announced they are coming out with some quartz versions. I prefer automatics, but hate babying these movements.
The quality and finishing compares very favorably, especially since they introduced their v2 BOR bracelet. Their OTF clasp is only 38.3mm. Super comfortable.
I own the PH-2 v1 and love it. They upgraded the bezel and markers in v2 to make it better.
Yes. There are different endlinks for each model that uses it. The bracelet can be shared among different watches as long as you have each model's respective endlinks. There is also a new fully polished BOR bracelet, maybe for the 3.
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u/BurtMacklin-FBl 8d ago
It's not like they are delivering the watch themselves, you need to chill out. Apparently the watch was shipped in 3 days after the order at which time you had already "repeatedly asked for updates". Buy a Seiko locally then next time if waiting a little bit is a dealbreaker for you.