“It was reported that the [5711 Patek Nautilus] replacement watch will only be available at Patek Philippe’s tiny number of directly owned boutiques in London, Geneva and Paris,” watchpro.com reports (somehow avoiding using the word “we”). “A spokesperson for the brand has said that authorized dealers will get their opportunity with the new model this year.” watchpro.com based their original “boutique only” story on the new Patek 6711 on this exchange with Patek’s Prez in The New York Times . . .
Which stores will be the first to receive that replacement?
It will be our own salons located in Geneva, Paris and London. It is not the perfect solution, and it will be a nightmare for them. That is my suggestion right now, but we will listen to our store managers.
Watchpro must have missed the word “first.” Anyway, it didn’t take long for Mr. Stern to “listen to his store managers” regarding distribution of the new Patek 6711. We still don’t know how Patek Philippe’s Authorized Dealers will allocate the new Patek 6711. Or the special edition “final run” 5711.
One thing’s for sure: if Patek thought killing the 5711 would stop Nautilus mania and “normalize” customer relations they got it exactly backwards. Here’s Mr. Stern’s What Me Worry? Take on the past, present and future Nautilus bunfight.
What will become of all the people on the decade-long waiting lists?
We know, and our retailers know, that we will never be able to supply enough watches for all the people on the lists, because we don’t have them. It is as simple as that. That is why we never allow retailers to take a deposit.
Some retailers only get two Nautiluses a year, but they have 100 names on their waiting list. It is their own responsibility to explain it to the customer, but it’s not easy when you have someone who insists on getting on the list. You cannot only blame Patek Philippe for not delivering enough watches.
Sure you can! Taking a cue from our man Adams re: Rolex wait lists, if Patek had allowed its authorized dealers to markup Nautilus 5711 prices they could have balanced supply with demand in a fair and transparent way. Done. Lesson not learned, with the new Patek 6711 looming on the horological horizon.
“It’s been terrible,” a Patek dealer (not shown) told TTAW. “We’ve fielded calls from dozens of customers who’ve been waiting years for a 5711 . . . One customer told me if he doesn’t get the final edition – or at least priority access to a [new Patek] 6711 – he’ll never buy another Patek as long as he lives.”
Is there such a thing as bad publicity? Will Patek Philippe’s imperious betrayal of aspiring 5711 buyers and the inevitable acrimony surrounding its final run and replacement leave the brand in a stronger position? That hardly seems likely, but it’s not impossible.
Patek continues to trip over rakes in its handling of this. It’s a good thing they have a great product and reputation because this is a case study in how not to announce a major product line change. Even the NYT article has a whiff of “we need to get this out now” instead of being planned and then his answers, leading to all this hue and cry…
Never understood the appeal of the brand tbh, it’s not like their watches are really superior to competition and most are ugly. Really, if you look through the catalogue, can you not find an alternative from another brand? Also, how will the rest of the world buy one if they are only sold in 3 cities?
“One customer told me if he doesn’t get the final edition – or at least priority access to a [new Patek] 6711 – he’ll never buy another Patek as long as he lives.” Horseshit and we all know it.
Still incredible to me that grown adults with this much coin to spend get so twisted they cannot have *this exact watch and no other will do dammit.* Pretending this is about the watch is like pretending a Harvard degree is about the education.
I’m not saying I don’t get it. I’m just saying it’s incredible. Years from now there will be anthropologists studying this meshugas with bewilderment.
Can they please make this more of a spectacular rat race? Maybe announce which boutiques will have them a few hours ahead of time, have people lined up and camped out on the sidewalk of the dealers? Some Willy Wonka golden ticket allocation scheme would be great, not that I can have any ideas on the distribution.
Ha, maybe even charge for a ticket to only be accepted into the lottery of being able to buy one. Limit tickets to highest bidders?
Little secret here, from the guys with actual money, who like watches: WE, don’t care. Really, we don’t. I see plenty of friends with plenty of six figure watches, who like to share and chat and tell stories about their watch affinities. Nobody, and really I mean nobody, ever, has brought up a 5711. The 5711 was nothing, available at a discount at gray market, till the dummy “influencers” on Insta hyped it. Which again, Robbie Rob Rob, means nothing to us, people with actual money. We don’t do Instragram, we don’t care what those otherwise inconsequential selfie queens (male included) hype, and we don’t care about their audience of largely broke 14 year old boys. Who cares about 5711s? You. Meaning, people who can’t afford top tier watches to just play with and enjoy. And basement dwelling keyboard warriors, a few insecure losers, maybe some rappers (guessing here), really not anybody that Patek cares about. All the people freaking out about 5711 are NOT the Patek customer. Patek is clearly and with good reason fine with not having those crybabies around.
I don’t remember if I responded the last time you made a similar point, but I generally agree. This is what The Last Psychiatrist called the aspirational 14%. And all these ‘grail’ watches are so e-ubiquitous that I’m sick of looking at them.
Holy cow, the site you like more, despite returning here (thank you for that, by the way), has actually gone a week without PP news!
My personal interest in any Nautilus is about zero, but it’s a story that the (sorry, no better way to say it) enthusiast community cares about, so we’d be remiss to not cover it. And thanks again for reading and commenting.
None of us care about it really either, but it makes for good discussion on a watch blog and it is a “hot” watch. Patek is still a wildly overrated brand and your friends all overpaid for watches anyway, if they are that wealthy.
Maybe I’ll start a blog called, “The Truth About Watches for Actual Really Rich Dudes with Real Money.”
The challenge will be finding all three of them and getting them to read my new blog. 😛
As someone whose former job was to sell jewelry with an avg sale price of $50k (we sold pieces well over $1million regularly), I can tell you the men who paid for $100k watches wouldn’t be on a blog speaking about their friends. In fact, you wouldn’t even notice them in the store, but they definitely wore those watches.
Note to Patek 6711 buyers – The scrap value of titanium is around $25 – 30 per pound.
A figure you will become familiar with once the Tissot PRX Powermatic 80 silicon balance spring drops.