Best guidance: The lead time is clearly stated on the order page. If you cannot afford to wait the 3-4 week lead time, please don’t purchase the product.
Again, we have started to see emails about why there is such a long wait for the 1900W series. Here’s the reason for the long wait. Batches must be built, which happens once per month. By the time that happens, all the units are sold. That takes about 1 week. Then, it takes about 2 weeks to calibrate and verify the accuracy (just plain run time). Sometimes they need to be re-calibrated for a myriad of reasons, and the test run repeated. Now we are up to potentially 5 weeks, but if a customer is desperate we can cut that to 4 and hope for the best.
This is not a commodity product. It is a precision instrument and requires precision calibration, to sub-ppm (part per million) levels (I am happy to provide the mathematics derivation if you are interested). That’s what makes it the best that money can buy.
Can I increase the batch size? No; there simply isn’t the time or resources available on a product which barely breaks even.
If we mark them out of stock, then we get deluged with angry emails about “when will they be back in stock again.” For now, I would rather do my best to serve the horological community, as long as I can tolerate the abuse, however long that lasts.
BOTTOM LINE: Sometimes units are delayed because calibration fails and there is a need to be re-calibrate, then the test run repeated. This is the reality we deal with. We would rather have customers unhappy about having to wait an extra week than have to live with a poor quality product forever thereafter.
Oh, and in case you haven’t already seen it, we DO have a policy of common courtesy.