45 US Patek dealers headed to 32 by end of the year

[Gebbeth]

They are all headed to very limited numbers of boutique stores that are owned or co-owned by the watchmakers.

Rolex is headed this way after their Bucherer purchase, and Patek would have done something similar had Rolex not moved first.

The days of the independent AD selling high end popular models are dead.

HOWEVER, the history of brands thinking they can do this on their own and rub their noses at their retail partners are littered with failures.

Nike lost a ton of market value and sales when they tried to do the same, and now they are going back, hat in hand, when market sentiment changed toward other brands like Hoka, New Balance, Brooks, ASICs, etc. The consumer also got sick of $300 to $God Knows What priced limited edition kicks that strangely the same secondary players were snatching up and reselling for many times their retail prices.

Sound familiar?

These watch brands really need to watch out what they are doing to their customer and distribution base.