My AP Las Vegas “Journey” - A Cautionary Tale

[APJourneyFail]

My AP Las Vegas “Journey” - A Cautionary Tale

I have been collecting watches since 1987. I became interested in getting a nice AP so I reached out to some members on the forum here back in 2017/2018. I started communicating with a sales agent in Las Vegas on a referral from a fellow TRF patron. I expressed my long term goal of getting an openwork or ceramic piece. Of course I knew this was a process, or a “journey” as AP likes to call it.

The sales agent (SA) and I communicated back and forth for quite a while until ultimately I was offered a piece in April of 2021. At that time I was interested in a 38mm ROC 26315st with silver dial and blue subdials. I flew out to try one on that had come in for a client and was already sold. I liked it and agreed to proceed by placing a deposit for the next one. Not long after this visit a 26315st was offered to me , but it was the grey dial version. My sales agent
advised me not to be “picky” about dial color and that this would get my foot in the door with AP. I flew out and purchased that watch in April 2021.

Things moved rather quickly after that and I was always reminded by my SA that I “can’t be picky”, not to ask for certain pieces and to “trust” her (my sales agent). Whenever I would bring up a piece I would like to obtain, she would say things like “my Raider client learned the first time I had a 1-hour face to face.. (he) put his trust in me ...never questions me...doesn’t
tell me ‘I want this, I want that”. She told me that she had great success in the past for her clients and to trust her. So I eventually did place my trust in her hands.

Over the course of just under 2 years, my wife and I purchased 8 more AP timepieces:

1)April 2021- 38mm ROC 26315st purchased (grey dial) - (asked for silver/blue subdials)

2) Jul 2021- Code 11:59 ladies purchase - told by SA we needed ladies piece/ diversity in collection.

3) Dec 2021- Code 11:59 RG/ Ceramic Chrono purchased - asked for WG/ ceramic version (cool piece imo).

4) Mar 2022- Ladies gold ROO purchased - didn’t ask for - told us buying a ladies piece from each AP collection category is helpful to achieve my AP grail.

About this time we again discussed the grail - I gave her a list of dream watches (Royal oak PC, ceramic anything , gold jumbo) and we agreed that in April of 2023 we would try to get it as that would coincide with my 25th wedding anniversary.

5) Mar 2022 AP Diver purchased (grey dial) - (asked for blue dial)

6) Jun 2022- Code PC purchased (103k) - this was a call we received out of the blue. Hooray she said, we had been “approved” for this wonderful timepiece. My SA told us we had been approved by not only the boutique manager , but the North America CEO and Francois Bennahmias! This was a shock to us as we had already purchased 2 Codes and never asked for a 3rd one. She explained this was a HUGE step in the process as being approved by these people would make it easier to be approved when we asked for my grail. Also we needed to fly in and pick up the watch asap. After some debate with the wife we flew in and purchased it.

Again confirming with the SA that we would ask for my grail for 1st quarter or by April 2023.

7) Jul 2022 - 41mm RO 15500 purchased - I liked this piece. Yay- maybe we are getting somewhere?

8) Oct 2022 - 37mm RO purchased for wife.

9) Oct 2022- 37mm Music Ti purchased - I did ask for a men’s (43mm) ceramic or titanium music piece. This was the ladies size and she was offering it to me and advising me to buy it.

She told me how important it was to purchase a watch each quarter and we could try for my grail next. The 37mm arrived (they were ok shipping this one despite making us travel for the others). It comes with smaller colored straps in a mosaic style I consider feminine - needless to say I was disappointed. My wife didn’t care for it either. We later sold this piece after one year in Dec ’23 (only watch we sold).

Jan 31, 2023 - My sales associate texts me that “tomorrow is my last day at AP”. She was moving just across from the AP boutique to the RM boutique in the same mall.

Feb1 2023- Feb 2024 - ZERO watches offered to me after my sales agent left

So in summary, we purchased 3 Code 11:59’s , 3 ROO , a ROC and 2 Royal Oaks with a spend of approx $400,000. This isn’t counting last minute travel as well or things like straps or cufflinks she added to a Royal Oak purchase. At least 4 of the 9 pieces we purchased were lady pieces.

We flew out in February 2023 and my wife met with our new Sales Agent. She discussed our purchases and our goal to get the grail for me for our wedding anniversary. The SA seemed disinterested and told her we already had a lot of nice pieces and what we were asking for was hard. Overall, it was not a good meeting. We reached out to the boutique manager - he was of little help also. He was relatively new to AP but had been there for 6 of the 9 purchases. His
knowledge of horology wasn’t vast. He once told me a timepiece was stainless steel when I commented on the lightness of a Titanium ROO I was viewing. I believe he was in clothing sales prior.

My understanding is that when a sought after timepiece arrives, each sales agent vouches for their client and the manager decides who gets the allocation. With these two working for us, I was naturally hesitant but decided to trust them to follow through on our prior SA’s recommendation for our next piece (she told me she left our choices with the manager).

We waited patiently throughout the year hoping that the number of pieces purchased , the diversity of the collection as well as our overall spend would allow for a nice allocation. Well, 2023 came and went.
We were offered ZERO pieces in 2023 after buying nearly every quarter for 2 years!
After getting nowhere with the boutique manager I decided to email the North
America CEO. She didn’t reply to several emails nor did she return a phone call from my wife. Only after sending an email to her and the new AP CEO in Jan 2024 did she finally reply. I figured we would have one last chance at making things right.
The North America CEO cc’d the Las Vegas boutique manager and the “Client Care Manager” in Florida to address the matter. I felt like maybe we were getting some resolution. They scheduled a time for a conference call. It was myself, the Vegas manager and AP client care manager. Ultimately after explaining my case to them they called a week later and offered me a
choice between 2 pieces: a 15510OR (gold royal oak, black dial on strap) or a 26240st (a 41mm royal oak Chrono green dial). I was shocked. I told them I would decide and let them know. These are mid-tier at best in my opinion and not anything I was expecting. Also, I have a steel ROC and RO already.

I later emailed them that I would decline both of the pieces because neither one was very appealing to me and I was through buying pieces that I didn’t ask for. The client care manager again asked to set up a call. This time, she was very rude on the phone with continual interruptions and speaking over me. She told me my “journey” didn’t qualify for the pieces I wanted (any jumbo
-ss or gold, any ceramic even the chrono). I explained that I follow watch forums and IG, etc and I personally know people who have gotten these pieces with less spend. She didn’t care. They offered no other pieces besides the 2 initial offerings. I again declined. The hubris in this company is unreal.

I know some of you will say I’m an idiot for buying pieces I didn’t really want. My SA assured me she had been very successful for her clients over the years and I trusted her. Hindsight is 20/20 and I won’t ever do this again. My hope is that I have provided some direct insight to prevent this from happening to more clients in the future. At the very least, I would encourage anyone pursuing AP to try shopping at any boutique other than AP Las Vegas @ Crystals.

I realize the past few years the watch demand has been crazy and AP was able to cater to celebrities, athletes and Instagram “influencers”. Hopefully, they will realize that the common client may be the valued customer of the future once this crazy market returns to normal. If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I wish you all success on your future watch endeavors!