I can understand their intent to discourage "flippers" from getting certain pieces, but I just find a similar practice unacceptable. In Italy the distribution begins with Patek Italia in Milano, so in a sense it's also "centralized", since Milano then essentially decides who gets certain watches and who doesn't (of those that are allocated to Italy, of course). That's why I was suggesting to our friend to change AD, or to at least work with more than one, since then I was expecting Rhone to select his name regardless of the AD in the UK where he'd pick up the watches... Again, I have trouble understanding this practice by Rhone, which seems quite peculiar to the UK.
As for allocations to Italy, unfortunately the situation may not be as good as it seems, at least comparatively to other markets. For instance, this year *zero* rare handcraft pieces are most likely going to be allocated to Italy (we got quite a few last year, including my 'Boccadasse'), which means I may not be able to get one ;-) Cheers.