Audemars Piguet
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Audemars Piguet, the Swiss luxury watch brand best known for the Royal Oak, will allow customers to exchange their stolen watches as part of a new service program created in response to the rising rate of watch-related crime.
The Le Brassus brand, which has an average price of around 50,000 Swiss francs ($55,000), will guarantee the replacement, refund or repair of any stolen or damaged watch purchased in 2022 or 2023 for a period of two years, CEO François-Henri Benhamias said in an interview. With “Bloomberg”, reviewed by “Al Arabiya.net”.
“We listen to our customers and we also have to look at what’s happening in the world right now,” Benhamias said. “We have important cities in Europe and the United States that are not safe anymore.”
crime rise
Watch thefts, many of them violent, are an increasingly troubling issue for the industry, threatening sales if consumers fear wearing luxury watches. Audemars Piguet’s initiative marks the first time that a luxury watch brand has offered a warranty and guarantee service to replace or refund the cost of a watch in the event of its theft.
Benhamias confirmed that any Audemars Piguet customer who purchased a watch in 2022 or this year will be eligible to enroll in the programme. They will only have to prove that they bought the watch and still own it, and provide a photo of the watch and the serial number. Watches that have been resold will not be eligible.
If a registered customer’s watch is stolen and there is a valid police report, they will be offered the option to refund or exchange the watch. If the watch is no longer produced, the company will offer a similar model in the current range.
The service will continue through the end of 2024 for anyone who purchased a watch in 2022, including the 50th anniversary “Royal Oak” model. Watches purchased in 2023 will be eligible for the program for two years from the date of purchase.
Demand for Royal Oak watches
Audemars Piguet watches, particularly the “Royal Oak”, generally trade well above their retail price on the secondary market. For example, the Royal Oak 15500 in steel with a blue dial retails for around CHF24,800, but on the secondary market it goes up to around CHF50,770, according to WatchCharts.
Audemars Piguet makes about 50,000 watches a year, mostly Royal Oak and Royal Oak Offshore models, according to Benhamias. Sales were around CHF 2 billion in 2022, an increase of 26% over 2021 and 78% over 2020 when the pandemic halted production and sales for a brief period.
Benhamias predicted that about 75 percent of eligible customers would participate in the program. He estimated there could be as many as 100 customer claims over two years, but predicted that only a few might try to defraud the company by recording a watch they did not own or filing a fake police report.
Fight theft
Other major Swiss brands are also taking steps to address the increase in watch crime, but none have yet offered to replace stolen watches.
“Watch-related crime has skyrocketed, with 81,000 watch-related crimes taking place in the UK since 2018,” says Watchfinder & Co CEO Arjen van de Waal.