WOS Group "Bio" Models

[TheWatchmen]

Originally Posted by andresrrcf

Hi there!

Recently acquired the GMT Meteorite (Dec 22’) and the Omega 50th Anniversary Silver Snoopy (July 22’) from Mayors (part of WOS). I’ve been working with the same SA, and the same store, for longer than 10 years. Stellar experience! I have had to wait, but I have gotten the pieces that are on my registry. Never been asked to buy jewelry that I don’t want, or bundle anything; much less doing interviews…patience and established business relationship have paid off in my case.

That’s pretty cool, those two look great at least in photos (never seen either in person). I guess you gotta start somewhere, but a major point to consider is that the market and demand was totally different 10 years ago, and I would argue that starting and maintaining a relationship with a dealer is much harder as there are a lot more people trying/hoping to do the same thing now.

[Oystersteel92]

I'm fine referring to these as "biography" models. It makes some sense even, but using "bio" could be a number of things, including "biology" which doesn't make contextual sense.

As for the allocation of these pieces, they mostly go to whales, presumably, and whales are known to some extent to take a brand new watch in the box and shove it in a safe. I'd imagine a good number of them aren't immediately flipped but rather live as safe queens for a year or two then the owner decides to raise cash for their newest conquest or that they just don't like it as much as they though they did.

I'd like to believe that the allocation process doesn't just reward hard spend numbers. If I were an AD and I had a whale that had spent $500k over the last 10 years but was a jerk and difficult to deal with, and another customer with a more modest spend history but was a pleasure to deal with and a real brand enthusiast who was keeping and WEARING the watches I was selling him, I know who I'd advocate for.

Full disclosure, I'm the 2nd kind of customer so a little bit of wishful thinking on my part perhaps.

[andresrrcf]

Originally Posted by TheWatchmen

That’s pretty cool, those two look great at least in photos (never seen either in person). I guess you gotta start somewhere, but a major point to consider is that the market and demand was totally different 10 years ago, and I would argue that starting and maintaining a relationship with a dealer is much harder as there are a lot more people trying/hoping to do the same thing now.

I couldn’t agree more! Back then, it was a whole different scene. Nowadays, I’ve heard from good friends, it has become a tedious task to establish a relationship with an AD.

[SpecialK888]

Originally Posted by SpecialK888

In answer to the OP, I've had a bio piece from WoS. The piece took around 8 months after my bio went in, and even my SA was surprised at how quick I got it. In addition, I'm not a whale, and my spend INCLUDING the bio piece is less than £100k over a period of c.8yrs. I think the fact that my first purchase from WoS was many years ago may have helped as it presumably indicates a long term passion for watches rather than someone who may just be attracted by the recent hype / investment phenomena.

Additionally, I've never purchased watches I don't want, and I've even turned some opportunities down (which again may help as my SA knows I'm not a flipper otherwise I would've just bought everything offered).

There also seems to be a lot of anger around being 'interviewed' to purchase a watch. It's not an interview and it's not an interrogation. It's simply arranging a time to go into a boutique, chat about watches over a cup of coffee, try on some pieces and generally engage in what I assume is our collective passion for watches. Quite frankly I'm more than happy to chat about watches, brands, luxury market, etc., until the cows come home but it seems some people are offended by the notion. Post the chat your SA has more information about you to present in your bio which only helps when there are likely several bios going in for each piece. I'd also add that I think the whole process gives the SA comfort that they are putting forward a client that they have tried to learn more about in order to ensure they are not a flipper, as despite what people on here may think, my understanding is that it is a SA's worst nightmare if a bio piece gets allocated to a client who turns out to be a flipper.

Lastly I would add that since I got my bio piece around 2yrs ago I've not been offered anything else, not even an OP41 which has been on my list for some time. Perhaps that is coincidence, I don't know, but I'm incredibly happy with my bio piece so I'm not going to complain.

Good luck to the OP.

I'm new to this forum. Giving this a bump in case OP didn't see it as it got back-posted after the moderator took 12hrs to release it!