Tiffany SF store will NOT sell Patek anymore

[anhu]

Is it Kern, who is the owner of the soon-to-open Patek Boutique in San Francisco?

[maecenas]

Originally Posted by anhu

Is it Kern, who is the owner of the soon-to-open Patek Boutique in San Francisco?

Good question, I’m curious as well. I was told that these closures are the result of HSWA deciding some time ago to consolidate markets to a single (preferably mono location) dealer who would then invest more in their boutiques. So in SF, we have Shreve and Tiffany’s closing, yet a new boutique being built. In BH, Geary’s (which has always been the main PP dealer there, just a few doors away from Tiffany’s) is apparently expanding their space.

It’s more fun to imagine this as a battle of wits between industry titans, but I find this explanation to be plausible. Some years ago I was told that Tiffany’s has always been regarded as a “single door” as it relates to allocations, albeit a very big and important one. All of the watches certainly flowed through NYC and were allocated there. For years it was well known that NYC got the pick, and everyone else was lucky. As Patek aims to implement “minimum display standards”, which means having a certain number on display to avoid empty cases, there’s just not enough to go around, I’d say. So all this makes sense to me.

Finally, certain voices are saying “no more patek at all”, which I just don’t believe. First, because I’ve been told the opposite. Second, they said this was a decision years in the making, and meanwhile they just spent a ton of money building a whole patek floor in the Tiffany building remodel.

[codecow]

The last time I was at Geary’s in BH I felt their Patek area had really good branding for them, it definitely felt more boutique-y than Shreve or Tiffany SF by miles.

[jon_jon]

Quite a few Tiffany locations have dropped Patek over the past 10 years. I remember Houston Tiffany had a huge Patek section in terms of square footage before they lost Patek. In comparison, SF Tiffany had quite a smaller Patek area. Someone mentioned LVMH acquiring Tiffany and that certainly must have some influence.