Strange happenings in Hong Kong - grey market dealers

[psm11]

Originally Posted by GS93108

I don't have much to add to this thread, but I don't like the fighting :)

That said, I've lost money on pretty much every watch I've ever sold, yet my wife still lets me buy them because they are NOT investments, they are for my pleasure.

One more thing, a couple of years ago AP was somewhat anonymous to non-watch interested people, I liked that - a lot. Just recently though I had to wire money to AP which I couldn't do online so I went to the bank. The young lady who processed my transfer saw the payee and the amount and immediately asked me if I was buying a watch! Maybe that's not unusual if you live in Beverly Hills or Mayfair, but I live in a quiet seaside town where I can walk around wearing any watch I care to with very little trepidation. I now also get asked about AP if I wear any AP logo golf shirts etc. Times have definitely changed - not necessarily for the better.

One final anecdote. There's a lovely lady at AP London, she's young and of course wears an AP. A few years ago she told me a story about being out with one of her girl friends who was wearing her father's Daytona - everyone was gushing over it. The AP lady was wearing her gold RO and it didn't get a second glance. There's no way that's happening today.

We can't predict the future but 6 months ago you had people asserting (as dogma) that prices would only continue to rise and look where we are now. Of course there are a ton of folks touting that the market is going to turn but guess what? Most of them are grey dealers who are scared shitless right now and want to pump the market back up. MODA, Chrono24, etc do not lie. Tons and tons of "exclusive" pieces are sitting despite price drop after price drop.

I agree that AP is more recognized by a lay person today than 5 years ago but I think, as one of the other posters discussed, that if you went to Pittsburgh (my hometown), Cincinnati, etc. more folks wouldn't know what a RO was than those who would. I am an attorney and have plenty of wealthy colleagues and maybe 1 or 2 are into watches and would know what a RO was. my fiancé comes from an extremely wealthy family and none of them knew what an RO was until we started dating lol.