AP's stance on reselling watches

[dauster]

Originally Posted by Henrimontgomery

You’ve been flagged for THOUGHTCRIME. Report to the nearest AP boutique to relinquish your models and enroll in special rehabilitation training (cost is 2 CODE purchase).

[Reign]

Originally Posted by dauster

you gotta love it, here we are concerned about allocation and being blacklisted and over there they just do whatever they want.

Government given monopoly on distribution in one the top 10 watch markets in the world, they do whatever they want and watch brands can’t do sht because you either deal with them to sell your stuff or you’re shut out.

Wonder where the newly sealed and stickered grey pieces come from?

I know instances of them bullying some local grey dealers too by getting customs involved

[dauster]

Originally Posted by Reign

Government given monopoly on distribution in one the top 10 watch markets in the world, they do whatever they want and watch brands can’t do sht because you either deal with them to sell your stuff or you’re shut out.

Wonder where the newly sealed and stickered grey pieces come from?

I know instances of them bullying some local grey dealers too by getting customs involved

crazy but then again not surprising at all. I think watches should be the least of our concern given all the atrocities these people have done. but let's keep it watch related.

[Sandpit]

Originally Posted by David001

I'm not sure this is all true.

I also heard AP allocation is done offsite, they will look at your purchase history but they will also actively check out who you are, they want to know who they are selling to before you are given an allocation. I believe AP do this more than any other brand.

As far as I know Seddiqi are still involved with AP, I was there recently and the staff had access to my prior purchase history across the whole portfolio of brands, not just AP.

The staff in the AP shop haven't changed in the last couple of years at least and they are the nicest people you could wish to meet, I've never had any bad attitudes in there. Patek maybe, I've seen them be dismissive of people without big spend history, but not AP, they have always been very nice from my first meeting years ago.

I don't believe the story about Rolex letting people flip watches in the shop, I collected a hot piece very recently and even though they know me well enough to address me by name as soon as I walked in, they still took my ID and the manager authorised the sale.

Watches are getting flipped, that's a fact, but I think it's sneaky buyers rather than complicit ADs. They're being a lot stricter than they used to be, you used to be able to walk in and ask if any allocations hadn't been picked up within a couple of weeks (people got 14 days to collect) and if there were then they'd sell them if they knew you and you asked nicely, but these days that has stopped, if a buyer doesn't collect, then the watch goes back to head office and it is allocated to the next person on the list, that seems very strict now.

You’re welcome to believe what you want obviously.

Go on the Seddiqi website, you will note that they no longer have any AP stores even though they list AP as a brand. AP told me that watches are now allocated by the brand. I asked about Seddiqi profile and they weren’t interested, they asked about my AP history at other boutiques.

They asked me to fill in some paperwork and said that my profile is now a global AP profile and that any visits to any other boutique would be recorded as such. This is nothing to do with Seddiqi.

To be fair, I also visited the Dubai Mall store last week. The guy I spoke said he didn’t work for the brand and didn’t have access to my AP profile but that another chap in store did have all the access. I suspect the first guy is Seddiqi staff but he couldn’t help and the other chap was busy with a customer.

As for the Rolex story, again, believe what you want - I know somebody that just bought using this method. The flipper took him to the store, the buyer paid the store directly and then he gave him the flipper extra cash (I don’t know where but almost certainly not in the store). They probably just said they were friends during the transaction

[Lindhuirst]

How can a collector even know if a buyer re-register a watch?

[2loaded]

Ferrari has had this locked down for years.

[VogelPhoenix]

Originally Posted by timepieceSavant

Hi everyone. What if you are gifting your AP? How will AP find out that it was not gifted? They can not automatically assume a transfer is a sale.

Well, fact is, right now they can assume whatever they damn well please.

[VogelPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Lindhuirst

How can a collector even know if a buyer re-register a watch?

It disappears from your own profile? Re-registering would be the first thing I did, should I buy a pre-owned AP.

[wb55]

Originally Posted by Lindhuirst

How can a collector even know if a buyer re-register a watch?

Easy, AP tell you. They also let you know you’re banned at the same time.

[David001]

Originally Posted by Sandpit

You’re welcome to believe what you want obviously.

Go on the Seddiqi website, you will note that they no longer have any AP stores even though they list AP as a brand. AP told me that watches are now allocated by the brand. I asked about Seddiqi profile and they weren’t interested, they asked about my AP history at other boutiques.

They asked me to fill in some paperwork and said that my profile is now a global AP profile and that any visits to any other boutique would be recorded as such. This is nothing to do with Seddiqi.

To be fair, I also visited the Dubai Mall store last week. The guy I spoke said he didn’t work for the brand and didn’t have access to my AP profile but that another chap in store did have all the access. I suspect the first guy is Seddiqi staff but he couldn’t help and the other chap was busy with a customer.

As for the Rolex story, again, believe what you want - I know somebody that just bought using this method. The flipper took him to the store, the buyer paid the store directly and then he gave him the flipper extra cash (I don’t know where but almost certainly not in the store). They probably just said they were friends during the transaction

I agree that AP watches are allocated by AP. Well, sort of, what happens is your SA will put forward a case for you to be allocated a watch (if they like you and you seem legit), they include who you are, where you work, why you want the watch, etc, this is reviewed by store management, then AP will say yes or no depending on what information they hold about you.

The only other mass produced watch brand I've found that do this are Patek, they didn't ask me for as much information but they did build up a profile about me, Patek in London knew what I'd bought elsewhere in the world.

I always assumed both AP and Patek have Seddiqi staff and AP/Patek staff working there, because I've also seen the same as you, i.e. some staff have access to things others don't. Whereas all Rolex staff seem to have access to everything.

Watches get flipped all the time, there are grey dealers with watches on the shelf that are only days old, people are doing it in every country in the world and it's not a UAE specific problem, it's a global problem. Everywhere you go in the world you'll find frustrated and unhappy people that can't get what they want and they always blame it on corrupt SAs or ADs because that satisfies their anger.

I was in Rolex MOE when a British guy came in asking about a Daytona, he said he was willing to buy a bundle, I felt like throwing him out myself, it's taken me years to build up a collection, sometimes I've been on waiting lists for two or three years and he thinks it takes five minutes. He was shown the door and the SA said it happens several times a day, every day.

AP seem to be trying very hard to combat this - evidenced by the lack of 50th anniversary models for sale. I think if you walk in there today and start talking about bundles then you'll be blacklisted on the spot.