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Scenario is I purchased one watch online and I received the delivery today. I want to tell to my friend that the watch is not the same which I ordered online.

Should I use Past perfect tense?

This is not the watch which I had ordered online.

Or Should I Simply use simple past tense?

This is not the watch which I ordered online.

I think we can use past perfect tense here because it indicate past of past or long past. When I tell this to my friend for me its past of past i.e.

Past of Past is I had ordered it one week back.

Second past is I received the order I checked the order and found that watch is not the same as I ordered.

"I ordered one watch online but it is not the same which I had ordered"

Correct me if I am wrong.

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As V.V said, "Past Simple is enough to express your idea."

Past Perfect is used when we are stating that one event happened before another. Only use it in that case or when the listener/reader knows that you are referring to the past event before something else happened in the past.

Example:

  • I wish we had taken more food before we left.

Use Simple Past to state an action started and finished at a specific time in the past

Example:

  • I washed my car.

  • This is not the watch that I ordered online.

From EnglishTenses:

People (especially native speakers) do not use the Past Perfect very often. For example, they will say:

  • After I washed my car, I went to fill up.

Rather than:

  • After I had washed my car, I went to fill up.

This is because "after" and "before" tell the listener which action happened first. Still, keep in mind that it is better to use the Past Perfect, especially in written English or when writing exams.

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    I realise it's a quote, but I disagree with the People (especially native speakers) do not use the Past Perfect very often.. It's probably not the most common tense I use, but I certainly use it regularly.
    – James Webster
    Nov 5, 2015 at 8:32
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    It seems that although past simple is more common than most, past perfect, future simple, present perfect continuous, past perfect continuous are all used approximately equally.
    – James Webster
    Nov 5, 2015 at 8:44
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A good rule of thumb is to only use perfect past when:

  • there is some verb already in the past tense
  • the aforementioned verb took place more recently

Thus

This is not the watch which I had ordered online.

is awkward, because there is second verb in the past tense. It should be

This is not the watch which I ordered online.

The other sentence

I ordered one watch online but it is not the same which I had ordered

is problematic for a few reasons. Firstly, the "which I had ordered" part is redundant.

I ordered one watch online but it is not the same model

Secondly "it" is referring to two different objects (the ordered watch and the watch that arrived). Your sentence would be understood, but there should be something there to show that "it" changed somewhere along the way.

I ordered one watch online, but when it arrived, it was not the same model.

As a side note, I think you should either drop "which" or replace it with "that"

This is not the watch (that) I ordered online.

"a" is always preferred over "one" unless you wish to really emphasize number for some reason ("I want one shirt for Xmas" sounds like you don't want two.)

"correct" sounds better than "same" because the watch they sent you wasn't the one you wanted.

I ordered a watch online, but when it arrived, it was not the correct model.

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You should use past tense as it describe an event happened in a specific time point in the past.

Whereas using past perfect tense describes an event happened elasped a period of time in the past.

For example.

My parcel arrived yesterday after 10 days. I had ordered it online.

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  • You can use the simple past I ordered it online in your example.
    – user20792
    Nov 5, 2015 at 16:36
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I would just say, "The watch I received today is not the watch I ordered online." When you use which, it sounds a bit formal since its obvious the sentence refers to only one watch.

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