Carat£105 million in, £7.8 million out: Audemars Piguet's British paradox
AP's UK sales jumped 29% in 2025 — nearly double their 2022 level — while operating profit slipped 3% to £7.8 million. The new Manchester AP House alone sold £7.4 million and still lost £738,000.
§1Sales doubled; profit stood still.
Audemars Piguet sold £105 million of watches in the United Kingdom in 2025, a 29% jump on the prior year and close to double what the brand turned over in 2022, according to accounts reported by WatchPro. The bottom line went the other way: operating profit came in at £7.8 million, down 3%. Britain's appetite for Royal Oaks has never been stronger, and the business of feeding it has rarely been more expensive.
Britain's appetite for Royal Oaks has never been stronger, and the business of feeding it has rarely been more expensive.
§2Six times the fixtures in one year.
The gap between those two numbers is a property strategy. The Manchester AP House, opened in May 2025, booked £7.4 million in sales in its first partial year and still ran an operating loss of £738,000 — the company allowing that the location "requires additional time to establish its presence in a new market." A second AP House on London's Clifton Street followed in February 2026, while the Sloane Street boutique closed in June 2025. Property, plant and equipment on the UK balance sheet swelled from £2.8 million to £17.6 million in a single year — a sixfold bet on carpeted lounges, appointment books and in-house hospitality.
The AP House model is the sharp end of a broader shift: the hottest independents and the great maisons alike are pulling distribution inward, trading wholesale margin paid to retailers for the full retail margin — and the full retail cost base. The same week these accounts surfaced, the desk noted Watches of Switzerland rebuffing a takeover approach and Richemont's jewelry-led surge; the profit pools of British watch retail are being redrawn in favor of whoever owns the client relationship.
§3Allocation is demand's best alibi.
The question the 2025 accounts cannot yet answer is whether £17.6 million of fixtures earns its keep across a full cycle. Demand at AP's level looks structural — the brand sells allocation, not inventory. But a 7.4% operating margin on a booming year is thin cover if the luxury tide goes out while the leases run on.
Growth is real, and so is the bill for it. AP is buying the British customer directly, at the exact moment the value of owning that customer has never been higher — a rational trade that still has to survive its own cost base.
Watch the Manchester line in next year's accounts; that is where the model proves itself or doesn't.
The trade, filed to your inbox before the New York open.
Prices, tenders and the one story that moved the industry overnight — read in ninety seconds.
Subscribe free →