July 18, 2025 • 11 mins
A few years ago, Tiffany & Co. began offering a limited edition Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711 with a dial in the jeweler’s signature robin’s-egg blue. Patek crafted 170 of them, a tribute to the number of years the brands had worked together. Tiffany’s hope was that the buzzy timepiece would help attract – and retain – high-end shoppers who weren’t already regular customers.
Yet the Blue Dial — as it became known — was never for sale in the traditional sense. Demand was so high that Tiffany executives, including Americas head Christopher Kilaniotis, realized clients would be willing to spend millions of dollars on other jewelry for the chance to buy the coveted watch, which was priced at $52,635.
Bloomberg News consumer reporter Jeannette Neumann details the fallout after salespeople at the iconic jeweler were reportedly instructed to guide wealthier patrons toward spending $2 million to $3 million with no guarantee of access to the coveted timepiece. Jeannette speaks with Tim Stenovec and Norah Mulinda on Bloomberg Businessweek Daily.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You're listening to Bloomberg BusinessWeek with Carol Masser and tim
Stenoveek on Bloomberg Radio. It is the most read story
on the Bloomberg terminal today and for good reason, because
it has a little bit of everything. It's about how
the iconic jeweler Tiffany bungled the release of a coveted
Nautilus time piece, alienating some customers and fracturing its relationship
(00:30):
with Pateec Philippe. And yes, it's got so called watch monsters.
The story is the work of Jeanette Newman, Bloomberg News
consumer reporter based in New York. Genett normally, when you
want to buy something in a store, you go into
the store. It's got a price, you pay that price,
you get the item. Not so with the limited edition
(00:51):
Patech Philip Nodilist fifty seven to eleven with dial in
the jeweler's signature Robin's Egg blue.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Why that's right, and to be fair, that's that's the
case with a lot of Ptec Philipps and other very
high end, you know, luxury watches that are covered coveted
the world the world over. This watch was particularly coveted
and particularly special. So if let's say you wanted to
just go in and buy the watch, you couldn't just
(01:18):
walk in off the street and say, you know, I
love Protect Philip, I want this this very special watch.
There were only one hundred and seventy of them made.
You would express interest in the watch, and then you
would be told, okay, we'll, we'll Tiffany Tiffany salespeople would
tell you we'll, we'll get back to you. And that's
(01:38):
because this watch was very highly, very highly desired, and
so there were many people who were who were trying
to get it, and it was ultimately, as we reported,
the discretion of Tiffany executives who ended up getting the
one hundred and seventy watches.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
And that discretion is really where things got complicated for
some of the folks who were argue, at least in lawsuits,
that they were longtime customers of Tiffany and spent quite
a bit of money at Tiffany. What did you find
in your reporting?
Speaker 1 (02:09):
So in the reporting, what I found is that, and
I think it would also be helpful of you if
you find it helpful to just to kind of situate,
you know, this moment. So we have to go back
in time a little bit just to understand why this
watch was the watch at the time and why now,
even a couple of years later, we're talking about it.
(02:30):
I'm reporting on it because it's the sale of the
watch is still having repercussions today. So this, this watch
that was made by PTech Philippe, was started, was went
on sale in December twenty twenty one. And if you'll
remember that at that time, many people were feeling, you
know flush, We had, you know, extra pandemic savings. Some
(02:51):
people still had some money left over from the stimulus checks.
A lot of people were buying luxury goods. Demand for
luxury goods was going through the roof that included luxury watches.
Some said at the time there was actually a bit
of a watch bubble. People who you know, maybe hadn't
been interested in watches before, all of a sudden got
very interested in spending their pandemic savings on these luxury watches,
(03:12):
like Pateec philip So at this time, Pateech Philippe says, okay,
actually we're going to discontinue one of the most beloved
watches in the world. Their fifty seven eleven model, which
is the Nautilus fifty seven eleven model. They said, we're
going to discontinue it. At that time, the watch world
freaked out. It was it was a huge deal that
amid this kind of watch bubble, one of the biggest,
(03:35):
one of the most important watchmakers in the world says
we're no longer going to sell the watch that everybody
that everybody loves. And then they said, okay, So that
caught everybody off guard, and then they caught people off
guard again by saying, actually, there's going to be one
final swan swan song for the fifty seven eleven line.
We're going to make one hundred and seventy of these
very special edition watches to honor the one hundred and
(03:59):
seventy years that PTEC Philly and Tiffany had been working together,
so an incredibly long standing relationship in the luxury world.
So PA Tech made one hundred and seventy of these watches.
And what was different was, as you said, the dial
was in that kind of in that signature Tiffany Tiffany Blue,
which is actually a patented color. If you go to
the stores, everyone knows that the Tiffany boxes are in
(04:22):
are in that color. Now, p Tech doesn't have that
many retail stores, so it relies on Tiffany and other
jewelers to sell its watches. So in the case of
this blue dial watch, it was Tiffany that was tasked
with with selling with selling the watches. And as you said,
that's where that's where things got a little bit complicated.
(04:42):
So there was basically Tiffany. Tiffany executives realized that there
was so much demand for these watches that they could
encourage clients to spend between two to three million dollars
on jewelry in order to even get a shot buying launch.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
And this is called as you as I learned reading
your piece, this is called bundling, and it's something that
is typically done, but there are no it's they're not
real rules around it. It's kind of like understood, but
not always in writing. It's typically done in in high
end stores with with luxury items. Explain that.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Exactly, it's not, it's all. It's all very informal. I think,
you know, talk talking to some people for this story,
people would often mention, oh, right, that's kind of what
you have to do. If you want to get. Similarly,
you can't walk off the street and just buy a
burken bag. Often what customers will say is you have
to You're encouraged to buy other other goods in order
to then get access to that, to that, to that
(05:45):
Burken bag. And that's again what some people in the
industry called bundling, other people other people call it, call
it tying. I would say one one potential difference with
that is, you know, if you walk into an air
meds store and they're telling you to you know, potentially
and telling you to considered buying some other goods in
order to be considered be considered for a burken that's
(06:06):
kind of all within the confines of one store, right,
one and one brand. I think the difference here is
that you had Tiffany, which was selling protect watches, encouraging
its clients to buy Tiffany jewelry in order to get
access to the to the PTech watch.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
So explain the alienation of some customers, these wealthy customers
who expected to be able to buy this watch after
spending money at Tiffany, but according to your reporting, ultimately
weren't able to do that, right, And.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
There was definitely some frustration based on our reporting, based
on sources that we that we talked to with the sale,
with the sale of this watch, and I think I
mean one one kind of specific element that that might
be interesting to listeners is So there was a charity
auction of the watch in December twenty twenty one, and
(07:00):
the watch went for a staggering six point five million dollars,
which is about one hundred times its retail value. The
watch itself on need obviously a lot for so many
of us, but the watch itself only cost around fifty
three thousand dollars and it sold for six point five
million dollars. That initial sale fell through. The watch ultimately
exchange hands for six point two million dollars, still a
(07:22):
lot of money. People who were interested in the watch
saw that sale and said, well, this is a no
brainer investment. If I can get access to something that
costs fifty three thousand dollars and then potentially sell it
for the market is showing that there's demand of up
to six million dollars, well that seems like a no
brainer investment. So what some of our sources said is
(07:45):
that some people again saw that as a no brainer
investment and said Okay, Well, if I'm being encouraged to
spend two to three million dollars on jewelry, that might
be worth it because I think that I can resell
can resell watch. Now, the thing about that auction is,
in general charity auctions, longtime collectors will look at charity
(08:10):
auctions with a bit of a skeptical eye because sometimes,
for example, the watchmakers themselves are involved in the bidding.
So seeing that six point five million dollar price as
kind of a market price versus a price that's, you know,
maybe more marketing oriented, I think was part of the issue,
according according to our according to our sources, and according
(08:32):
to our reporting. And then what happened to answer to
answer your question is people thinking the watch was worth
this much, some of them did get the watch, and
then over time, over the over twenty twenty twenty twenty two,
and into twenty twenty three, the value of the watch
really fell. And now the watch sells in the secondary
(08:53):
market for around one point two million dollars. So obviously
a very a very big drop. Still a very expensive,
a very expensive, very valuable watch, but not what people
who were encouraged to, you know, spend spend money on jewelry.
Were expecting for this, for this investment and also to
be to be fair. And I'm sure if you have
(09:14):
you know friends who buy watches, there's there's all kinds, right,
I mean, some people buy watches, you know, it's it's
buy and hold or and there's some people who want
to buy and sell. Other people bought the watch and
never even intend didn't see it as a no brainer
investment or or otherwise because they didn't see it as
an investment, right. They saw it as I want to
buy and hold this because I love this watch and
(09:34):
I want to have it. Others, the ones who were
disappointed by the decline and the price, we're seeing it
as more of an investment that they could potentially flip
at least have the option to flip. Janette. Based on
your experience covering the luxury space, is this normal? Are mishaps,
mishandlings like this common? I think you know in this story.
(09:55):
At the end of this story, we mentioned I spoke
to an anesthesiologist who what he what he told us.
He told a story of how he was trying to
buy some ferraris. He had one ferrari that he really
wanted and he bought several Ferraris in order to try
to get that Ferrari and he never he never got
that Ferrari. To kind of decline to comment on his
(10:18):
kind of specific, specific experience and said, you know it,
it doesn't encourage that kind of behavior. This anesthesiologist said
that he's come across that game in in in the
luxury world, and honestly, he's the way he said it is,
he's kind of he's kind of sick of it. So
I think that is a potential risk in the in
(10:39):
the luxury world that some people, some people like to
engage in this game, and I think others find it tiring.
I would say speaking to some people who sell watches
on the on the secondary market, one of the things
that they say is they they find that some of
their clients come to them because they just want to
be able to like, what's tell me the price and
(11:01):
then I'll buy it or I won't. I don't want
to get involved in trying to spend money on X,
Y and Z that I might not even want in
order to get what I actually what I actually do want.
So I do think it definitely happens in the luxury world,
and you know, people can choose to continue to engage
with it or or say, you know, that's not for me.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Jeannette, A great story. I learned a ton, including maybe
I should have considered a career in anesthesiology. Sounds like
considering that this anesthesiologist has bought what five ferraris or
something inspire really really good stuff. Check out this story.
It is the most read story on the Bloomberg terminal.
The headline you really can't beat it. Tiffany angers rich
(11:43):
clients who wanted to buy a rare the tech Watch
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You're listening to Bloomberg BusinessWeek with Carol Masser and tim
Stenoveek on Bloomberg Radio. It is the most read story
on the Bloomberg terminal today and for good reason, because
it has a little bit of everything. It's about how
the iconic jeweler Tiffany bungled the release of a coveted
Nautilus time piece, alienating some customers and fracturing its relationship
(00:30):
with Pateec Philippe. And yes, it's got so called watch monsters.
The story is the work of Jeanette Newman, Bloomberg News
consumer reporter based in New York. Genett normally, when you
want to buy something in a store, you go into
the store. It's got a price, you pay that price,
you get the item. Not so with the limited edition
(00:51):
Patech Philip Nodilist fifty seven to eleven with dial in
the jeweler's signature Robin's Egg blue.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Why that's right, and to be fair, that's that's the
case with a lot of Ptec Philipps and other very
high end, you know, luxury watches that are covered coveted
the world the world over. This watch was particularly coveted
and particularly special. So if let's say you wanted to
just go in and buy the watch, you couldn't just
(01:18):
walk in off the street and say, you know, I
love Protect Philip, I want this this very special watch.
There were only one hundred and seventy of them made.
You would express interest in the watch, and then you
would be told, okay, we'll, we'll Tiffany Tiffany salespeople would
tell you we'll, we'll get back to you. And that's
(01:38):
because this watch was very highly, very highly desired, and
so there were many people who were who were trying
to get it, and it was ultimately, as we reported,
the discretion of Tiffany executives who ended up getting the
one hundred and seventy watches.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
And that discretion is really where things got complicated for
some of the folks who were argue, at least in lawsuits,
that they were longtime customers of Tiffany and spent quite
a bit of money at Tiffany. What did you find
in your reporting?
Speaker 1 (02:09):
So in the reporting, what I found is that, and
I think it would also be helpful of you if
you find it helpful to just to kind of situate,
you know, this moment. So we have to go back
in time a little bit just to understand why this
watch was the watch at the time and why now,
even a couple of years later, we're talking about it.
(02:30):
I'm reporting on it because it's the sale of the
watch is still having repercussions today. So this, this watch
that was made by PTech Philippe, was started, was went
on sale in December twenty twenty one. And if you'll
remember that at that time, many people were feeling, you
know flush, We had, you know, extra pandemic savings. Some
(02:51):
people still had some money left over from the stimulus checks.
A lot of people were buying luxury goods. Demand for
luxury goods was going through the roof that included luxury watches.
Some said at the time there was actually a bit
of a watch bubble. People who you know, maybe hadn't
been interested in watches before, all of a sudden got
very interested in spending their pandemic savings on these luxury watches,
(03:12):
like Pateec philip So at this time, Pateech Philippe says, okay,
actually we're going to discontinue one of the most beloved
watches in the world. Their fifty seven eleven model, which
is the Nautilus fifty seven eleven model. They said, we're
going to discontinue it. At that time, the watch world
freaked out. It was it was a huge deal that
amid this kind of watch bubble, one of the biggest,
(03:35):
one of the most important watchmakers in the world says
we're no longer going to sell the watch that everybody
that everybody loves. And then they said, okay, So that
caught everybody off guard, and then they caught people off
guard again by saying, actually, there's going to be one
final swan swan song for the fifty seven eleven line.
We're going to make one hundred and seventy of these
very special edition watches to honor the one hundred and
(03:59):
seventy years that PTEC Philly and Tiffany had been working together,
so an incredibly long standing relationship in the luxury world.
So PA Tech made one hundred and seventy of these watches.
And what was different was, as you said, the dial
was in that kind of in that signature Tiffany Tiffany Blue,
which is actually a patented color. If you go to
the stores, everyone knows that the Tiffany boxes are in
(04:22):
are in that color. Now, p Tech doesn't have that
many retail stores, so it relies on Tiffany and other
jewelers to sell its watches. So in the case of
this blue dial watch, it was Tiffany that was tasked
with with selling with selling the watches. And as you said,
that's where that's where things got a little bit complicated.
(04:42):
So there was basically Tiffany. Tiffany executives realized that there
was so much demand for these watches that they could
encourage clients to spend between two to three million dollars
on jewelry in order to even get a shot buying launch.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
And this is called as you as I learned reading
your piece, this is called bundling, and it's something that
is typically done, but there are no it's they're not
real rules around it. It's kind of like understood, but
not always in writing. It's typically done in in high
end stores with with luxury items. Explain that.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Exactly, it's not, it's all. It's all very informal. I think,
you know, talk talking to some people for this story,
people would often mention, oh, right, that's kind of what
you have to do. If you want to get. Similarly,
you can't walk off the street and just buy a
burken bag. Often what customers will say is you have
to You're encouraged to buy other other goods in order
to then get access to that, to that, to that
(05:45):
Burken bag. And that's again what some people in the
industry called bundling, other people other people call it, call
it tying. I would say one one potential difference with
that is, you know, if you walk into an air
meds store and they're telling you to you know, potentially
and telling you to considered buying some other goods in
order to be considered be considered for a burken that's
(06:06):
kind of all within the confines of one store, right,
one and one brand. I think the difference here is
that you had Tiffany, which was selling protect watches, encouraging
its clients to buy Tiffany jewelry in order to get
access to the to the PTech watch.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
So explain the alienation of some customers, these wealthy customers
who expected to be able to buy this watch after
spending money at Tiffany, but according to your reporting, ultimately
weren't able to do that, right, And.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
There was definitely some frustration based on our reporting, based
on sources that we that we talked to with the sale,
with the sale of this watch, and I think I
mean one one kind of specific element that that might
be interesting to listeners is So there was a charity
auction of the watch in December twenty twenty one, and
(07:00):
the watch went for a staggering six point five million dollars,
which is about one hundred times its retail value. The
watch itself on need obviously a lot for so many
of us, but the watch itself only cost around fifty
three thousand dollars and it sold for six point five
million dollars. That initial sale fell through. The watch ultimately
exchange hands for six point two million dollars, still a
(07:22):
lot of money. People who were interested in the watch
saw that sale and said, well, this is a no
brainer investment. If I can get access to something that
costs fifty three thousand dollars and then potentially sell it
for the market is showing that there's demand of up
to six million dollars, well that seems like a no
brainer investment. So what some of our sources said is
(07:45):
that some people again saw that as a no brainer
investment and said Okay, Well, if I'm being encouraged to
spend two to three million dollars on jewelry, that might
be worth it because I think that I can resell
can resell watch. Now, the thing about that auction is,
in general charity auctions, longtime collectors will look at charity
(08:10):
auctions with a bit of a skeptical eye because sometimes,
for example, the watchmakers themselves are involved in the bidding.
So seeing that six point five million dollar price as
kind of a market price versus a price that's, you know,
maybe more marketing oriented, I think was part of the issue,
according according to our according to our sources, and according
(08:32):
to our reporting. And then what happened to answer to
answer your question is people thinking the watch was worth
this much, some of them did get the watch, and
then over time, over the over twenty twenty twenty twenty two,
and into twenty twenty three, the value of the watch
really fell. And now the watch sells in the secondary
(08:53):
market for around one point two million dollars. So obviously
a very a very big drop. Still a very expensive,
a very expensive, very valuable watch, but not what people
who were encouraged to, you know, spend spend money on jewelry.
Were expecting for this, for this investment and also to
be to be fair. And I'm sure if you have
(09:14):
you know friends who buy watches, there's there's all kinds, right,
I mean, some people buy watches, you know, it's it's
buy and hold or and there's some people who want
to buy and sell. Other people bought the watch and
never even intend didn't see it as a no brainer
investment or or otherwise because they didn't see it as
an investment, right. They saw it as I want to
buy and hold this because I love this watch and
(09:34):
I want to have it. Others, the ones who were
disappointed by the decline and the price, we're seeing it
as more of an investment that they could potentially flip
at least have the option to flip. Janette. Based on
your experience covering the luxury space, is this normal? Are mishaps,
mishandlings like this common? I think you know in this story.
(09:55):
At the end of this story, we mentioned I spoke
to an anesthesiologist who what he what he told us.
He told a story of how he was trying to
buy some ferraris. He had one ferrari that he really
wanted and he bought several Ferraris in order to try
to get that Ferrari and he never he never got
that Ferrari. To kind of decline to comment on his
(10:18):
kind of specific, specific experience and said, you know it,
it doesn't encourage that kind of behavior. This anesthesiologist said
that he's come across that game in in in the
luxury world, and honestly, he's the way he said it is,
he's kind of he's kind of sick of it. So
I think that is a potential risk in the in
(10:39):
the luxury world that some people, some people like to
engage in this game, and I think others find it tiring.
I would say speaking to some people who sell watches
on the on the secondary market, one of the things
that they say is they they find that some of
their clients come to them because they just want to
be able to like, what's tell me the price and
(11:01):
then I'll buy it or I won't. I don't want
to get involved in trying to spend money on X,
Y and Z that I might not even want in
order to get what I actually what I actually do want.
So I do think it definitely happens in the luxury world,
and you know, people can choose to continue to engage
with it or or say, you know, that's not for me.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Jeannette, A great story. I learned a ton, including maybe
I should have considered a career in anesthesiology. Sounds like
considering that this anesthesiologist has bought what five ferraris or
something inspire really really good stuff. Check out this story.
It is the most read story on the Bloomberg terminal.
The headline you really can't beat it. Tiffany angers rich
(11:43):
clients who wanted to buy a rare the tech Watch
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