Patek Philippe

It should be done politely, but at the same time the dealer needs to be honest about the situation. 

If it's not likely to happen, I would expect my dealer to inform me of that. 

I think basically everyone is technically correct, but good judgment should always apply and trump technical correctness. Good judgment in this situation would have militated the response: "Of course, we'll put you on the list to get this watch. We've only gotten two in the last year, and have quite a few more interested buyers than that, so unfortunately I probably won't be able to sell it to you as soon as you want it. I wish I could get more of these so I could get it to you sooner, but Patek doesn't make very many."
If this particular person didn't have the capability of being that tactful, maybe sales is not the best career choice for him or her. If s/he did it to taunt and leverage the buyer, that's very wrong. As various posters here have pointed out, the latter is unfortunately not that uncommon of a situation.

There is no harm putting people on a list. They may turn out to be very good customers over time. Plus, people show up in a store and nobody in the store knows their true wealth or buying capacity. Looks can be very deceiving.

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A little common sense by the salesman would go a long way.

I'd be willing to work with an AD that put it in this manner.

Regards Seconds.