Tiffany quality inconsistency between countries

[killertrader]

Hi everyone!

I am Tiffany collector from Mexico, however I have purchased most of my pieces in Europe and in the United States. I'm really concerned about something that I just noticed.

On April I purchased the Hardwear Microlink Bracelet in Yellow Gold in size Medium at the Serrano Boutique in Madrid, it is a gorgeous piece so i wanted to stack it with another exact piece, so last week I went to La Jolla Boutique in California an I tried the same exact bracelet in size medium and they were exactly the same lenght, the same number of links, I did not purchased it because they only had it in rose gold.

So this weekend i went to the Tiffany Boutique in Mexico, and purchased the bracelet, but something was odd. The new bracelet was considerably shorter, the links were thinner and weighted less. I ended up counting the links, the one that I got on Spain has 23 links, and the one that I got in Mexico has 21 links and is shorter. Both bracelets had the same Italy engraving on the closure.

I am starting to wonder if the pieces that are sent to LatinAmerica/Mexico are kind of different, with less gold.

Has this happened to anyone here?

Thanks


***
Top Bracelet is the one I got in Mexico
Bottom one is the one I got in Spain

 

[purselovah91]

Jesus

 

[A1aGypsy]

It might be that the one you purchased in Spain is older stock. I don’t think there is any difference by country as you can international order. I’ve had a ring brought in from Japan and cufflinks from somewhere else.

It might also be that one is a small and got mixed in with the mediums. That happened with one of my rings.

 

[killertrader]

It was definitely not mislabeled as a medium.

My boyfriend has the large one, and it measures 7.75 inches
I have the medium, and it measures 7.25 inches
My sister has the small and it measures 6.75 inches

The SA and we measured them and compared to the official information at Tiffany.

The new one I got measures 7.1 inches, visually it seems as if only one link was missing, but when you count them, there are 2 missing links which is really odd.

The SA ordered 2 more mediums (from different Mexican boutiques) to compare them, apparently they will be arriving on wednesday.

In case I got two medium bracelets from different stocks I think it is really disappointing of Tiffany increasing prices while they cut the amount of gold in the same pieces.

 

[A1aGypsy]

In case I got two medium bracelets from different stocks I think it is really disappointing of Tiffany increasing prices while they cut the amount of gold in the same pieces.

I have a ring that I bought, it was stolen, I replaced it and then got the original one back. Before I surrendered the replacement, I was able to compare them. Despite being nearly double the price in ten years, the new one was thinner.

I think this is the way of the world unfortunately. Shrinkflation.

 

[nicole0612]

I have the same thought process as some others have mentioned here. I recently had a similar experience with another brand (VCA). The newer pieces have slightly thinner links and slightly less gold weight. I would not have noticed it, but I sent in a bracelet that I had purchased previously to add links back so that it would return to the original length, as I had had it shortened in the past. They quoted me a very high price, and when I asked why they explained it was because the newer chains are thinner and my older bracelet of the same model would not match up with the size of the new links. Now that I know this, I can see the difference between my older bracelets and newer bracelets visually, though it is almost impossible to capture in a photo. I am guessing this may be the case here, and your heftier item was older stock that they still had in the boutique. It looks like some brands are reducing gold weight (under the radar) to help balance the need for more price increases considering the skyrocketing cost of gold.

 

[isabelle93]

Hello, this problem also happened to a friend of mine from Brazil who now lives in the UK. Strange...

 

[Wittygirl]

This thread is eye opening and very sad to read considering the eye watering prices that only keep going up! (no idea why the writing is in ‘bold’ despite not selecting it)