There is nothing more desirable in the luxury watch world as a product you cannot buy.
The much-maligned “For Exhibition Only” badges appearing alongside watches in every Rolex and Patek Philippe window have proved to be the brands’ most powerful marketing tool in the past two years.
More people have been flocking to showrooms to put their names on so-called “expression of interest” lists than was ever the case when watches were available to buy straight out of cabinets.
Audemars Piguet has been benefiting from the same market forces as speculators have piled in to buy its watches, waiting lists have lengthened and secondary market prices have soared.
But now, according to experts speaking to WatchPro in the past couple of weeks, demand has dropped for even Audemars Piguet’s most desirable reference, the 41mm Royal Oak in steel, and waiting lists are now down to just a few weeks, even for new customers.
New, and bought direct from AP, the watch costs £23,900. The last one to sell on Watchcollecting.com, an online auction site, sold in mint condition with box and papers for £28,250 in February.
I always check sold prices Watchcollecting.com because advertised prices on sites like Chrono24 are ridiculously over-stated.
The fact you can buy such a hot watch for less than a £5,000 premium over retail is a sure sign that demand has cooled and waiting lists have come down.
Whether those waiting lists are a few weeks, as WatchPro has been told, or a few months, it is a completely different story to 18 months ago when these watches were trading for more than three-times retail and AP would scoff at anybody with the temerity to walk in off the street to try and buy one.
It may be the scoffing at potential customers is the reason for the drop in demand. Doesn’t take long for word of mouth to put a company out of business in America…