Retailers are having to hire therapists to support staff facing a barrage of abuse from flippers and loyal customers desperate to get their hands on the latest unicorn timepieces. The agony might not stop there, Robin Swithinbank suggests. Even owners of these prized waiting list watches are facing emotional trauma as they live with the knowledge that a potential five-figure profit is whirring away in their winder.
As sob stories go, you’ll hear better. Talking with an old friend the other day, I learned of a deepening conflict in her husband, the poor, troubled fellow.
It’s not what you think. Having successfully saved to buy the watch of his dreams, she told me, he was now in a quandary as to whether he should sell the thing, only a few months of puff-chested ownership later.
Why? He’s not broke. He’s not fallen out of love with it. And he’s not even terrified of having his arm interfered with by a few watch-savvy chaps on mopeds outside Annabel’s.
No, the reason he’s thinking of selling is because the Patek Philippe Aquanaut he bought not one summer ago, is now worth three times what he paid for it. Through absolutely no fault of his own, he’s turned whimsy into a thirty-grand profit.
So now what? Cash in? Hold and twist later? Or pretend like nothing’s happened and go on wearing his grail watch? You see. Poor, troubled fellow.
Of course, he can’t pretend nothing’s happened. Aside from his house, he’s never made that kind of money on anything he’s bought before. And even taking his house into account, never that fast. If only making money was always this easy, he thinks to himself.
Why, in return for a few months of feeling like cock-of-the-walk, he’s raked in a year’s school fees for the kids! With that, he could buy a new motorbike – sorry, family car. Or 20 years of Pret lunches, including Choc Bar. Even though he cut the rubber strap to size. I mean, why wouldn’t you? And anyway. Couldn’t he just buy another one and do the same thing again?
The subject of our postprandial tittle-tattle was hardly unique. Up and down the land and around the globe, buyers, brands and retailers are running the same tape. Walking out of a showroom with a tidy profit is the new watch retail dynamic. You barely even need to know what you’re doing. There’s never been a moment like it.
Which means it needs a little examination. Because while making a bob or two from a nice watch is hardly the stuff of nightmares, it does raise a few questions.
For the buyer, a new paradigm. Approaching a purchase, he’s faced with a roster of waiting-list watches that post acquisition will make very-good-day-at-the-races returns, a roster that’s growing all the time. Rolex, Patek and Audemars Piguet still lead the line, as no one will need reminding, but others are joining the conga.
It’s not just the indies. Passing the time at baggage reclaim with one leading retailer the other day, I learned Zenith’s callow Chronomaster is consistently oversubscribed. A quick look at a CPO website, and sure enough, the model is holding its value and, in some cases, returning a measurable profit.
Fast-fingered buyers can even make money on smartwatches. Last time I spoke with him, Frederic Arnault was beaming. Not only had his limited-edition TAG Heuer Nintendo Connected Watch sold out in a jiffy, it was now trading on Chrono24 for above retail. He even pulled out his phone to show me.
The idea either watch could accrue value on the secondary market would have been absurd only a year or so ago. We don’t need to explore why – as we know, Covid was the magic ingredient in the luxury retail soup. But if you’ve got a few quid lying around, pulling in 0.01% in a savings account, it’s made pulling the trigger on a watch purchase easier than ever.
The brands? As per the examples, most are delighted about it. It’s a sign of what they call ‘desirability’. People want my stuff so badly, they’ll pay double for it once it’s sold out is a state few brands would reject.
But is it that simple? Because isn’t this also a sign you underpriced your product in the first place? You could have made more! And wouldn’t the shareholders have been happy, then. George Bamford admitted to me that he felt he’d left money on the table when his latest G-Shock collab (currently trading at four times retail) sold out so fast he missed out on scoring one for his kids.
Stuck in the middle of all this, as is their function, the retailer. While I’m not prone to feeling lachrymose on behalf of an industry that’s making hay in winter, it must be a curious feeling to wave a customer out of the door knowing the minute he steps onto the pavement, he’s made a bundle of cash.
Then again, in extreme cases, such as that of Patek’s ‘final’ steel Nautilus 5711 with the green dial, there’s been cause for legitimate concern. Retailers must become diplomats rather than negotiators, tasked with letting loyal customers down without losing them – and chancers without punches being thrown.
When Rolex planted a collection of try-but-no-buy Professional models in Harrods – for customers to experience before ordering – staff had to be retrained (and perhaps re-incentivised, I wouldn’t know) in the art of convincing their clients to feel glad to leave the boutique without a watch, but with their name on a waiting list. It can’t be easy saying no to a customer waving a cheque book in your face shouting ‘just tell me how much!’
Far from every brand or every watch qualifies, but then given Rolex, Patek and AP have 35 per cent of the luxury market and rising between them, this is fast becoming the new watch retail dynamic.
But back to our poor fellow. I think he should stick. Patek is about to announce price rises, and pre-owned values are still going up, too. Another Covid mutation, and who knows what his watch might be worth in six months’ time.
Told you you’d hear better sob stories.
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