yo
I personally struggle to accept the idea that a watch that was tried on tens or hundreds of times to be new even if there are no scratches or whatever.
I would also expect to get a discount on it. what is your opinion/experience? am I being unreasonable?
It depends on the shop.
As a general rule I would say that yes, the watch still counts as new - it is behind glass as standard, only taken out and handled in the presence of the staff, so it is not as if it is getting battered around by every sticky fingered child that walks past. You are also afforded time to fully inspect a piece you are interested in and check for any blemishes or issues that may have occurred due to handling - if there was even the slightest mark that would then be cause to discuss a discount due to it being a display model.
And realistically, when you are talking about higher end pieces most physical stores are not going to be keeping multiples of every piece to hand when they may only sell them occasionally. If you could expect a discount for every piece that has been taken out of its box then that means the shop would be selling their entire stock at a discount…
Yes, there are odd cases like Rolex who have started sending out dummy pieces for display purposes, but that is definitely not the normal situation, and is really just Rolex scrabbling to try and stop their shelves being left completely bare, not an attempt to preserve stock as untouched and unopened for prospective customers.
The location I do expect to be seeing discounts for display items is with higher volume goods that are on display for the general public to handle. If I am buying a TV I expect the store to have stock, and if the last one is the floor model that has been sitting out in the open being handled by customer’s, then a discount seems fair as that item is now noticeably used compared to the piece the previous customer received.