It is easy to think that it just powerless customers who are thwarted at every turn in their pursuit of the hottest watches from Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and their ilk, but the battle for allocations runs a great deal higher up the food chain than that.
Most brands do not publicise the number of watches they make, but there are widely accepted estimates or even quoted figures from CEOs suggesting that Patek Philippe makes around 65,000 to 70,000 watches per year, Rolex does 1.2 million, AP 50,000 and Richard Mille a mere 5,300.
So where do these watches go, and how are they allocated?
I often talk about how retailers influence the brands’ supply to them. Among the most open voices on the subject is Watches of Switzerland Group CEO Brian Duffy, who tells me that there is only one sure way to get more hot watches: build bigger and better stores.
Simple, right?
Not really, because the goalposts keep shifting and are not entirely the same for each brand.
Patek Philippe, which is in the process of reducing its network of authorised dealers by around 30%, also wants retailers to invest in larger, on-brand spaces, but also insists on the very best locations and even thinks about succession plans from one generation to the next in the case of family-run jewellers.
Audemars Piguet will only allow its watches to be sold through branded boutiques, and Richard Mille has no retail partners at all; selling every watch direct to consumer.
However, even Richard Mille has fights about allocations, because every country manager wants as many of the best watches as they can get their hands on.
It is interesting to analyse where watches go around the world.
We know the Swiss export figures that show the United States, China, Hong Kong, Japan and the UK are the top five markets in the world, we also get regional breakdowns (Europe, Asia, Americas, etc) in reports from publicly listed groups like Richemont, LVMH and Swatch Group.
Another place to look is at the lists of authorised dealers for the biggest brands, and here we find some surprising results.
Did you know, for example, that Patek Philippe currently lists 345 points of sale worldwide on its website (likely to drop to around 250 in the coming months), and 37 of those, more than 10%, are in the UK?
In France, there is only one, and that is run directly by the brand on Place Vendome in Paris. The whole of mainland China has only two Patek Philippe points of sale, while Hong Kong has 11.
Japan has 30 Patek Philippe dealers while the United States, the biggest market for luxury Swiss watches in the world, has 46.
It is a strange pattern, which is hard to explain using macro economic data like population, wealth or wealth per capita, particularly when you think that France and the UK are similar on these types of measures.
The answer has to lie in some country managers persuading higher powers that they should get some sort of special treatment, or other countries doing a particularly terrible job.
It will be interesting to see, as Patek Philippe reshapes and reduces its network, whether any of these peculiarities are addressed.