Audemars Piguet Boutique New York City — Local services in New York

Edited 4/2/24

I visited this boutique in September 2023 as a new client with my family to "establish a relationship." The sales associate, SJ, was polite, sincere, and knowledgeable. The pieces were beautiful, and I indicated interest in several pieces. Subsequent follow up conversations to inquire were cordial, but ultimately fruitless, uninformative, and often delayed. Each one resulting in "its going to be very tough,” with implications of entitlement by inquiring about a Royal Oak as a first piece (over 50% of APs total offerings) with no serious discussion as to timing or allocation on anything I asked about. The relationship I have entered into is completely dictated by the brand. AP doesn't have the pieces to meet the current demand, and it is uncertain if or when that situation may change. SJ is just a sales associate with no knowledge of the boutique’s inventory or the allocation process. He is completely powerless to sell me any of the pieces in which I have expressed interest. He is unable to provide any sort of estimate on when he might actually have something to offer me. His job is to “advocate for me,” amongst the thousands of other prospective clients all interested in the same pieces. I am being asked to wait for an unspecified and potentially infinite duration on the outside chance that his manager, someone with whom I've never spoken, will one day deign me worthy to purchase something.

Fast forward to mid March 2024. I had an opportunity to speak with the manager, Natalie. She informed me that she literally has no control or insight into the inventory of the flagship AP boutique in North America. The pieces just show up and she allocates them. She has no idea what is coming or when. Pieces can’t be ordered direct from Le Brassus. On top of this, new clients cannot be allocated a Royal Oak in blue or green, you’re limited to gray, and one in precious metal is unlikely. Those pieces are reserved for existing clients depending on prior spend. If you’re a new client, a Royal Oak is tied to the purchase of a combination of Offshores, Code 11:59s, or other pieces that their regular clientele won’t buy. I was repeatedly steered toward these other lines by multiple reps at other boutiques. Even after the purchase of one or a combination of these pieces, there is no guarantee of timing or allocation of the Royal Oak you’re interested in. It could be literally years, or never. There is a testimonial on the Rolex Forums of a client who played this game to the tune of $400k and was never allocated what he wanted.

This was all information shared after spending 4-1/2 years inquiring at various points of sale. I was led on repeatedly into thinking purchase of a blue Royal Oak was a possibility when in fact it was not.

Even more troubling is that the brand collects and retains all sorts of personal information on you under the guise of “establishing a relationship.” Name, occupation, family present at visits, email address, phone number, interests, hobbies, home address, record of visits to the boutiques, etc. What could the brand possibly require all this information for when it refuses to do business with prospective clients?

The harsh reality is that new clients have little to no chance of purchasing 90% of the AP collection at this time due limited production capacity, high demand, and a tiered allocation strategy favoring return clients and big spenders. In the meantime I'm being dissuaded from simply going to the secondary market and buying what I want, when I want. This arrangement just isn't reasonable. If you have no product to sell, and nothing to allocate to new clients, there really is no point in having further discussion.

If you're new to the brand my recommendation would be to bypass the boutique. The city has so much to offer you're going to be wasting your time stopping in to chat over no availability and no visibility. If you have your heart set on an AP, save up a bit longer and pay the secondary market premium. At least you'll have something to...

Update: I had contacted the CEO of AP North America about this situation, and we spoke on the phone the next day. Mr. Nolot was charming, emphathetic and clearly a fellow watch enthusiast, and he offered to replace the movement on my timepiece with all due haste, as well as extend my warranty. I am incredibly impressed at the response and the pride in which AP stands behind their product, and despite my troubles that I detailed below they have again earned me as a customer and admirer for life.

----- Original Review -----

I have aspired to own an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak since I was young, for its simple aesthetic beauty and its significant place in horological history. The reality of actually owning one has made me never consider purchasing from AP again.

In the last 2 years, I have had to have this $15,000 timepiece repaired three times. (I have owned the watch for 3 years in total.) Two of those times, the watch had completely stopped, and the third time the clasp had malfunctioned (only two months after the previous service, where you would think they would check for this sort of thing), making it prone to snap off the wrist and likely to fall. Fortunately this eventuality didn't occur before I brought it in. Each service required mailing the watch to AP's repair center in Florida and a wait of up to six weeks. I received no explanation of the failures besides "the timepiece encountered a shock" nor any attempt to make the situation right.

I am a mostly sedentary person and do take off the Royal Oak when going golfing, shooting, etc. and it has never come into contact with water or been submerged. Hence my confusion at what happened repeatedly which I can only surmise is due to poor product quality.

Compare this to other watches I have owned from Rolex and IWC, which have gone a literal decade of daily wear without servicing and are still fully functional. I once considered AP to be in a class above these other brands, but I can no longer attest to what I thought was the superior quality and workmanship of an AP. In the future I will never purchase another AP again, despite spending my whole adult life coveting one.

I will say that the staff at this boutique were cordial, pleasant and professional, despite their limited power to do anything and the lack of a watchmaker on site.

I suppose I can take solace in the fact that these repairs were covered under warranty, and at the very least I had no major problems in my first year of ownership. I also thank my lucky stars that I purchased the timepiece from the AP boutique, which came with a five year warranty. If I purchased it at an authorized dealer, the three year warranty would have been up and I would be paying for these repairs.

I urge my fellow watch afficiandos to consider another brand - a purchase and investment that I thought would last a lifetime will only last me three to five...

This review is specifically for my SA, Leonor. I think she ruined me for life.

I impulsively walked into the store in December 2023. I was well aware of the wait times for AP, and I was always under the impression that it was an impossibility for me, but I was curious. I was told that I needed to sit down with an associate, that I needed to set up an account, and therefore needed an appointment. With that, I confirmed my suspicions and was ready to leave when they offered to set me up with an associate as a walk in. They introduced me to Leonor, and we sat down together, immediately hitting it off. She was warm, friendly, and genuine. She was curious and honest, asked me which watches I was interested in, and they had a few on exhibition. I tried on the one I had my eye on for a few years (34mm SS Silver dial), and I asked her to put me on the list. I honestly left feeling great, but confused and excited because the timeline I had in my head was way longer than the reality. She told me that she will advocate for me should the watch I wanted became available, and it could be a few weeks or a few months, but she will contact me.

A few days later, after looking at the photos I took, I was really curious about a couple other options (because this watch was to mark a very special milestone), namely, the 34mm ss blue dial with diamonds. I texted her and asked her about it, and we made an appointment for me to come back and try on other options. She and I sat for another 30+ minutes together, looking at the 37mm ss blue Dial with diamonds, and the 34mm ss ice blue dial with diamonds, and we ultimately agreed that the ice blue one was the clear winner. She was very transparent with the process, and told me to think it over, and she would tell me if she saw one on the horizon so I could be sure with my choice. There was no pressure to make any decisions then and there (which I appreciated so much!).

Fast forward to February, she texted me that she received it, and a few days later, I'm sitting with her for 1+ hour, catching up, drinking champagne, and celebrating together. Yes, CELEBRATING TOGETHER. This experience with Leonor really spoiled me, and I have tried "playing the game" with other brands, Hermes or famly owned stores like Wempe, and the experience just isn't the same. This wasn't a game at all. It was straight forward, and I have Leonor to thank for that. She made it so clear that just want to ensure that the person who buys their watches LOVE their watches. I haven't met too many SAs out there who really want to get to know you and connect with you, and that makes Leonor is such a gem.

To conclude, Leonor at AP on 57th: Highly recommend, 20/10. Thank you for making my AP experience so memorable, Leonor! I hope to see you again for...