Stingray update: June 29th
In short we should have all of our components by the second week of July and should resume shipping watches at that point. I will be working over the weekend to re-schedule customers and notify them of the revised ship dates. Thanks for everyone’s patience.
June 25th: Stingray Update
The crystals have been inspected by the factory fortunately the problem was limited to only a small percentage of the crystals made. Some of the pieces will need to re-worked. All of the crystals will be returned at one time and I am supposed to hear by tomorow or Wednesday how long the re-work will take. At that time I will post another update and begin revising ship dates.
Stingray Production Update
We have identified some crystals with cosmetic issues from our production batch. To ensure that we ship the best and most consistent possible product I am sending the crystals that we have on hand back to the factory for review. The issues are cosmetic and will not affect important issues such as water resistance. Checking crystals is best left up to the factory as it is time consuming and quite difficult work (i.e. one is inspecting something that is for all intents and purposes supposed to be clear). I should know by the end of next week if there will be an appreciable delay (since the inserts that I need won’t arrive until next week) and if so how long.
I have a handful of crystals that checked out okay before I decided to send the batch back for review so a trickle of watches will begin shipping this month. In the interim I am pushing up the delivery dates of all other watch orders in order to minimize shipping delays for the Stingray once the issue with the crystals has been resolved.
We are getting down to our last few handfuls of ETA movements. We have enough to keep us going at this point through the middle of July. Our latest order is due to ship any day now from Switzerland baring any unforseen production delays on their end. I mention this because given how busy the factory is (and I mean crazy busy) there is a remote chance we may be twiddling our thumbs for a week or so if there are any delays in shipping our order.
Thanks in advance for everyone’s patience. I will continue to stay on top of these issues and report back when I have more info.
Status
Stingray:
* The general ordering pages are now active.
* Pre-order customers: Shipments will actually begin this week (one week late). The reason will be outlined below. There are two current issues that may delay individual orders 1) AR coated crystals will arrive this week. This may mean that shipments due for June 9th may be pushed back if the parts are not received early enough in the week 2) The Stingray 50 and 60 Time-elapse (diamond) insert are still enroute from the factory. Orders requiring these parts will be assembled as far as possible without the parts in order to ship these orders as quickly as possible after the components arrive.
General: I am trying something new and that in the past has been largely impossible to do in order to improve communication. I am aiming to reply to e-mails pretty much every day rather than in the past where I did them in a batch once every week or so. Getting into this rhythm has actually cost me productivity this first full week back, which is why no Stingrays went out this past Saturday as originally scheduled. However I am hoping with all the improvements that we have made in scheduling and communication, as well as the change in the mix of services that we offer, that we will be able to function in a more disciplined manner. My hope is that this change will be sustainable.
E-mail problem
I am currently unable to send messages via Outlook. I am not sure why but this does happen to my e-mail system sometimes when I travel. My mail server for some reason when I travel sometimes does not recognize my login to send messages via Outlook. Unfortunately this means that e-mails to the “info” account and the “orderstatus” account will not receive replies until after I return to the US. The auto-reply will also not be sent until I get back to the US. I am able to receive your messages and download them. The problem seems to be with the outgoing messages only.
Hopefully I will be able to clear up the problem before I return to the US but if not I do appreciate your understanding and please accept my apologies for this inconvenience.
Stingray: Pre-order Shipment E-mails
E-mails with your sales order’s attached were sent out on the 10th. The PDF copies of your sales order has the estimated ship date listed. The order status portal has been updated with most of the orders received but does not include accurate ship dates or payment status information.
I will check e-mail again around the 20th of this month. If you didn’t get your sales order please e-mail me at the “orderstatus” address and I will provide the sales order number and estimated shipment date via e-mail.
Status
The last of the watch orders due before my trip will ship tomorrow. I will begin answering e-mails and taking care of overdue paperwork tomrrow, including the scheduling of Stingray orders.
Pre-order Customers: Links up for Swiss Made Stingray
The ordering pages for the Swiss Made Stingrays are finally up and an e-mail notice has been sent to all pre-order customers. In case you do not receive this e-mail please note that there is not a new page for you to go to. The hidden pre-order page that I e-mailed about earlier this month has been updated with new links so please go to the that page to be re-directed to the Swiss Made Stingray ordering pages.
Stingray: Swiss Made option update
The ordering pages for the pre-order customers to reserve a Swiss Made Stingray have been completed and will be launched tomorrow after some final testing.
Stingray Update
For the pre-order customers the Swiss Made options will be posted in the next day or so. Sorry for the delay in getting these taken care of but I have been busy trying to finish the watch orders I need to ship before I leave. I want to get them done this week so that I can turn my attention to scheduling the Stingray pre-orders the first week of April.
Those customers that have already submitted the final configuration of their watch those sales orders have not been entered into the order status portal yet. I will e-mail you a copy of that sales order once I have a better idea of the scheduling. So please look for that e-mail with your PDF copy of the sales order the first week of April.
Please note that if you do not wish to pay the balance due on your pre-order at the time you submit the final configuration for your watch please select the “Invoice Me Later” option at checkout. Do not use the credit card option if you do not want to pay now. If you do use the credit card payment option your card will be billed immediately since the processing of card transactions is fully automated. If you want to pay with a credit card later on we will e-mail you a form that you can fax or mail in.