Quote:
Originally Posted by tng11
It's Libertas (the Hong Kong Patek Philippe distributor, i.e. Rhone's equivalent in Hong Kong) policy. The Nautilus/Aquanauts are de facto application pieces in Hong Kong. You must be local and give them a business card. It is Libertas' decision who gets allocated a piece. What your profession is apparently is key in their decision. Professors, doctors, influential business people get top priority in the allocation system, even if you're a first time buyer. No business card, or from an obscure company, no chance of allocation.
One of my relatives is a medical doctor at one of the prestigious private hospitals in Hong Kong - got 5711/1A blue in 3 months with zero purchase history. One other relative who used to be a high ranking medical doctor but decided to retire early got shooed out of all the ADs in Hong Kong when they found out he was retired and did not have a current business card to give.
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Correct - in Hong Kong, professors, doctors, prominent businessmen jump the queue for Nautilus, even without any previous purchase history.
I've had 3 doctor friends (one who heads a department at the top private hospital, another one is a university professor) - all of them got 5711/5712 within a few months (this is all in 2018/2019). I got mine with several months' wait as well (but that was in 2017).
At a recent Libertas private dinner to showcase their perpetual calendars (including a dinner lecture from one of their repair specialists) I was specifically told that doctors are given preferential treatment in Nautilus queues - but they do background checks to make sure that doctor actually exists (registration data is searchable online) and they make calls to the clinic/hospital on the name card to make sure.