What I almost did out of blindness
Let’s be honest about what put me in danger: I wanted this watch for a customer meeting in Zurich three weeks later. A meeting with leaders of a Swiss family office who — and I know this is stupid — also judge watches. I was in tunnel mode. I had mentally decided that I was buying, and my brain was filtering out anything that went against that decision.
When Thibaut sent me his text message, my first honest reaction — and I’m not proud of it — was to ignore it. I almost replied “it’s okay, I checked everything” and validated the transfer straight away. It’s the adrenaline of the deal. It is the belief that we are smarter than the average person. This is exactly what scammers are counting on.
What saved me was that Thibaut called directly. Did not send a second message. Called. And in the first two seconds, I heard in his voice that he was serious.
“How long did the seller hesitate before sending you the photo of the number between the horns?”
— Thibaut, Kellenberger & Co, Geneva
Three raises. I had to ask for the photo of the serial number three times before he sent it to me, each time with a different excuse. “My wife has the watch”, “I’m looking for my device”, “this is what I did with my phone”. Thibaut told me: “If the guy hesitates for more than two seconds to send you a macro between the horns, you block contact. This is the first test of purity.” I hadn’t seen the signal because I didn’t want to see it.
The truth about Audemars Piguet after-sales service
Let me be blunt about a point that many guides studiously omit: Audemars Piguet will not help you out of love for the customer.
Manufacturers hate the gray market. Each Royal Oak sold outside an official channel is a sale that escapes them and feeds a parallel market that they do not control. Send an email to AP after-sales service politely asking if a serial number is authentic and wait for a response within 48 hours… that’s science fiction in 2026. AP after-sales service will not answer you, or will refer you to an official store.
What really works: You enter an official AP store with the photo of the watch and the serial number. You say you are about to purchase a used part and would like confirmation before proceeding. They consult their base internally. They do this — not out of service, but because a fake AP in circulation is a reputation problem for them. These are two different logics, but the result protects you.
That’s how I got my confirmation. Not by email. By showing up at the AP store on 10 Rue de la Paix in Paris on a Thursday morning, asking to speak to the after-sales service manager, explaining the situation. The response took 20 minutes — the time of an internal call. The serial number that the Lausanne seller had sent me actually corresponded to a 15500ST, but a piece sold to an American retailer in 2021. A watch that therefore existed — somewhere in the United States, in someone else’s collection.
This is the technique of premium Superclones: they do not engrave random numbers. They engrave watch numbers real but untraceable.
