I don't really understand the waits though.
The shop who sold me mine has kind of explained how their inventory trickles in (this goes for Rolex and Patek too) - it’s a slow trickle of 1 or 0 watches, per model ordered, and the period is like 2/3/4 months depending.
The local shop where I did not buy and have been waiting at forever (Bucherer, in a major Swiss city) told me (in June) that they have received very few this year (can count on 1 hand they said) - and have a waitlist only as long as they can project to satisfy for the year based on how many they have received and the time it took to receive (provided past supply rate and future supply rate is constant) - they said also that these cases are difficult to machine, and so production is expected to be slow/limited…whilst titanium is notoriously difficult to machine, I’m not buying that as they have been making titanium dive watches (the original Pelagos) for about a decade and they have just launched a new line. Maybe limited production is a choice versus a constraint.
Another guy I know who lives in the middle of nowhere (in Austria) says that his local shop told him that they will only get 1, and the only way they can decide which customer will get it is to raffle the watch when it arrives
🤦
Based on that limited info it looks like the usual dilemma of ‘demand vs supply’.
So If you can get them for a 400 mark up (which I don't personally feel is too bad if you really want the watch)
I don’t advocate grey market/flippers as they sap the life out of this hobby for folks like me, but I find that also acceptable and if I really wanted one, and there was no chance of being able to get one from a retailer, I’d seriously consider it. I can imagine there are some people who just don’t bond, and couldn’t be arsed to scalp…EDIT: also, that +400 could be to compensate eBay fees (they, plus paypal and their skewed conversion rates, are a bunch of greedy shytes ... I am certain if one of those sellers was local to you, and you could meet, he would happily waiver the fees and do a RRP cash deal).