Climbing up the rarity ladder

[ItsNotReallyMe]

Happy Friday Gents;

I'm visiting my local boutique next week (local being a relative term here as it's 3 hrs flight away).

This is going to be the second watch I buy from them, and the 4th AP in my collection, so I'm starting to think about climbing the rarity ladder. As I don't have the luxury of swinging by anytime I like, I want to make the visit productive, whilst not inadvertently making any silly request that writes me off as a dreamer in my SA's eyes.

Is there a general rule of thumb as to when it's reasonable to request allocations for blue faced ROs, perp cals, open-worked or tourbillon refs?

I have a gold ROC which I would love to upgrade to a perp-cal (will have to sell my current one though), a Diver I'd like to rotate for one of the newer offshores etc..

Ideally I'd be able to be open and honest with my SA, and lay out my roadmap including the future sale of any of my current collection in order to fund upgrades. However the responses to my previous thread are giving me second thoughts about that approach, and I don't want to risk damaging the relationship unless I have a realistic chance of getting the watch I want.

[GS93108]

The key part of your post was the 'open and honest'. Having sold previous watches is irrelevant IMO, so don't worry about that.

Tourbillon aren't that tough to get (relatively). Blue faces are something I don't understand anymore. They used to be 'boutique only' and thus had some magical allure, but that's long in the past. Asking for a blue ROC is no different to asking for the new green ROC IMO. Open worked models are overly subscribed but that doesn't mean you shouldn't ask for one if that's what you truly want.

Honestly I don't think that an existing AP customer should be concerned about asking for anything - dreaming is half the fun - sometimes dreams come true.

Good luck.

[macrowatch]

Well everything seems rare to be, and to be statistically accurate in my observations in the wild, I've seen way more 15407 than I have Codes....Lol.

But might as well ask, but it feels like all a crapshoot at this point with so much demand.

[SoylentGreenChi]

Originally Posted by GS93108

The key part of your post was the 'open and honest'. Having sold previous watches is irrelevant IMO, so don't worry about that.

Honestly I don't think that an existing AP customer should be concerned about asking for anything - dreaming is half the fun - sometimes dreams come true.

Good luck.

I love this sentiment, and agree with it wholeheartedly!

[VogelPhoenix]

Offloading the diver wouldn't seem to be making much of a dent in a budget that includes the RO Tourbillon? I would first discuss with the boutique what is possible and sell any of the other watches only once one of your desired unicorns is in hand. I would avoid putting this in terms of a property ladder where the rare pieces (and their exorbitant market values) are acquired using the profits from recent allocations. All a matter of presentation.

I don't think asking for a special piece will be held against you; having an indiscriminate shopping list of anything hot (blue dials, QP, openworked) might not be the best approach though. The Tourbillon is a bit of a curveball - the 50th anniversary is as insane as the other 50th models, but some of the older ones have among the lowest premiums of all ROs (relatively speaking, of course).