Patek Philippe - Considering NOS 5170G

Considering NOS 5170G — advice/help requested

Miraculously, I found an unsold 5170G-010 at an authorized dealer. However, it is 2015 production and has been on display the entire time. The case shows a lot of hairline scratches from shop wear. So, two questions:

1. How much of a headache is it for the dealer to send the watch to Patek in Geneva to “return to stock condition”? I was told by Henri Stern in NYC that this would be at the dealer’s cost/option and would generally require full case replacement. Dealer has already acknowledged they need to at least have Patek service and polish the watch, but I told them I didn’t want a new watch that’s already been through a full polish.

2. Any reason to prefer 2015, 2016, or 2017 production? Did anything improve or get worse, such as finishing?

Photos of the watch below:

💰1729 Marketplace Listings for Patek Philippe›

That is a very lucky find. If you are getting at retail your indeed lucky.

By: Bill : January 22nd, 2021-17:33

Enjoy the watch as is or if the dealer is ready to send it to Henri Stern and simply charge you his cost you are still super lucky consider the market on this beauty. Keep us posted.

The watch would have to go to Geneva for assessment.

By: mafoofan : January 22nd, 2021-17:41

The scratches wouldn’t bother you on a new watch? Grey market prices on these watches are 25-30% below retail, as far as I can tell.

My head was in the sand.

By: Bill : January 22nd, 2021-22:12

I flipped my info discount vs premium. At a discount the watch should be like new.

It’s basically a used watch at this point and should be viewed as such.

By: Jay (Eire) : January 22nd, 2021-17:46

I thought there was some leeway for dealers to sell at a discount, under the terms of their agreement with Patek, if the watch had been sitting for a certain number of years.

Congrats, you are making an excellent choice with this model!

By: FabR : January 22nd, 2021-17:54

My best suggestion is to agree to purchase it provided the AD has it serviced for you before you pick it up. You can also explicitly request that *no* case polishing be included in the service (I haven't seen the watch, but barring major scratches, that w...

I would have them bring back to stock, not polish

By: mafoofan : January 22nd, 2021-18:03

Evidently, Geneva does case replacements on shop-worn watches to bring them back to new. However, this is at dealer cost so the dealer is likely to want to avoid.

Patek correctly offers to do a case replacement so they'll really sell a new watch as "new", but not requiring it (of course assuming you are fully satisfied with the condition of the watch) might definitely be part of your agreement with the AD👍

By: FabR : January 22nd, 2021-18:27

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I love this specific version, my favorite one together with the P, so I would definitely go for it

By: 1WatchMan : January 23rd, 2021-00:40

Assuming that the scratches are hairlines, no major damage on the case, and the watch will come with full warranty from Patek: - To me, the condition shouldn't be a big deal. White gold is soft and you'll have the same hairlines after wearing it a couple ...

I would get it without polishing.

By: Chris_Nor : January 23rd, 2021-01:52

As previously noted WG is soft and you will quickly get hairlines. Here is mine ...

Firstly congratulation on choice of reference

By: mr.br : January 27th, 2021-04:00

The 5170G black dial is ALL THAT. Manual wind movement, deep black dial with Breguet numerals, white metal. It does not get much better than this. Only produced in 2015, so assuming that quite a limited number of these exist. However, I would view this as...

Henri Stern said all internal records would be updated to reflect the new case

By: mafoofan : January 27th, 2021-05:23

Is there something else I should be worried about? Will the case number itself imply later production, which will reduce value or raise questions in the future?