In a world where it is no longer safe to walk around cities with your beloved watches on your wrist, Audemars Piguet, for the first time in history, is coming to the rescue by insuring its customers’ watches against theft.
This is a service that the fashion house will activate from 2024 and will cover watches purchased in 2022/2023.
Audemars Piguet’s insurance against watch theft.
After this announcement by the maison in Le Brassus, owners of Audemars Piguet watches will be able to sleep easy dreams and use their timepieces with peace of mind without having to fear being victims of theft on the street anymore.
In fact, Audemars Piguet will offer insurance coverage against the theft of its customers’ watches through a service starting in 2024 for all those who purchased an Audemars Piguet in 2022 and 2023.
This initiative on the part of the maison came about because of the incessant perpetration of thefts that unfortunately, all of us hand lovers are now familiar with and hear about on a daily basis.
The service will go on to offer two years of insurance from the date of purchase of a model from the manufacture and will also cover the much-coveted Royal Oak produced to mark the model’s 50th anniversary.
In order to join this initiative, customers who already own a model purchased in 2022 or during 2023 will need to prove that they purchased and still own the watch by providing a photo of the watch along with the serial number.
In case the watch was in the meantime sold, the new owner will no longer be able to benefit from the service offered by the maison.
How will it work?
Should the customer’s watch that has joined this initiative be stolen within the two-year insurance coverage period, the customer must provide the maison with a valid report made to the police authorities. At this point, Audemars Piguet will offer the customer either a new watch of the same model as the stolen one or a refund.
In the event that a new watch is chosen and it is discontinued in the meantime, the customer will be offered a similar model from the current collection. Also, in case there is a theft that was unsuccessful but may have caused damage to the watch, insurance will go to cover the repair.
Audemars Piguet CEO on the matter.
François-Henry Bennahmias, CEO of Audemars Piguet, spoke about this initiative in the following words:
“We listen to our customers and we also have to look at what is happening in the world right now. There are major cities in Europe and the United States that are no longer so safe.”
In addition to being a completely innovative service, this initiative has never before been offered by a watchmaker. Bennahmias, to date, expects about 75 percent of eligible customers to enroll in the program and has estimated that there could be up to 100 customer complaints in two years. This third-party insurer-free service, for the time being, will be a trial that could be extended over time depending on which customers choose to avail themselves of it.
What we think about it
Audemars Piguet has certainly launched an innovative and totally unexpected service even though, in our opinion, it represents the perfect mirror of a sad reality that we have to live daily. Indeed, there are countless reports of watch thefts that we are forced to hear every day and that can sometimes even cause serious physical harm to the poor victims.
With the hope that few people will have to avail themselves of this service, we are confident that other maisons may also take this path in the future by offering their customers more “carefree” wearing of watches, without being forced to lock them in the safe deposit box in the bank and forget them there for fear of using them.
On the other hand, such an initiative could lead some “clever” people to use it inappropriately to “rob” the maison. We need to wait to see what the maison will put in place to prevent such things to happen.
Visit our Youtube channel to live the world of watchmaking firsthand.
Follow us on Instagram not to miss any real-time updates from the world of watchmaking.
For more information about this initiative by Audemars Piguet visit their website.
Fonte: Bloomberg
