Do you have a bank safe box? You may need to reconsider it...

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Of course, this thread would be useless without a photo.

Here goes one of the watches in Philip Poniz's collection (the main person that lost 5 watches due to Wells Fargo mishandling of his safe box).

Looks like a Breguet judging by the hands and the guilloche in the dial face.
 
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An acquaintance of mine who was a bank manager once told me that at the branch she worked at, Uncle Sam's agents would occasionally go afterhours to peruse through the contents of SD boxes.
 
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I made a 41-year career of banking and I never once saw federal or state bank examiners inventory customers' safe deposit boxes. Safe deposit vault records documentation and procedure, yes, but never boxes.

Safe deposit box content is the least of their worries, but they do love pawing through borrowers' credit files, far beyond mere loan documentation. I always wondered if they shared with other agencies (read that IRS) and with today's technological capabilities ... well ...
 
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Even the money in your bank account is not insured passed the FDIC limit, which is set at $250,000.

You are correct, the FDIC limit is 250K, however in the 2008 banking crisis, Congress decided to reimburse all losses, even above the $250K limit. Privatize the profits, socialize the losses. No need to investigate whether you bank is investing its deposits wisely, or even split up your money between several banks...
 
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An acquaintance of mine who was a bank manager once told me that at the branch she worked at, Uncle Sam's agents would occasionally go afterhours to peruse through the contents of SD boxes.

Really? I thought that was supposed to be impossible, without drilling out the locks. The customer has the only two copies of their key and the box can not be opened without at least one of them (or drilling out the lock).
 
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Me:

Collection goes into a fresh Ziploc baggie, sealed, liberal quantity of Vaseline, straight up and into the pooper shooter after each morning bidnizz.

It's why I have to keep my watch collection to 20 or less -- and am a stickler for nothing larger than 48mm lug to lug.

While I have to occasionally take care of the manual winds the autos in my collection are always good to go as long as I stay active and attend my daily Jazzercize classes.

I don't "shart myself" so much as occasionally "swiss myself".

fυck Wolf watch winders, child's play.
 
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I would trust a bank as about as far as I could comfortably spit a rat!

I trust a bank in some ways - not to make arithmetic mistakes, not to miscount the money they hand me, basic integrity of the banking system, not to let unauthorized persons into my safe deposit box. I don't trust them not to sneak in more service fees at every opportunity. But there are some banking regulations that protect customers too - safety of the check and electronic funds transfer systems, and federal insurance.

None of those protections with a secure storage business with no reputation to protect or regulations on the customer's side.
 
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x2. Except for the watertight case. I found that a case perforated with holes sinks down much easier.

That's ok for dive watches, but I have no desire to go hosing the crap out of the insides of my pocket watches.
 
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I’ve been a customer of a telephone banking only service for the past 30+ years.

There’s no room in my telephone to store watches.
 
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I’ve been a customer of a telephone banking only service for the past 30+ years.

There’s no room in my telephone to store watches.
You tape them to the back cover...
 
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An acquaintance of mine who was a bank manager once told me that at the branch she worked at, Uncle Sam's agents would occasionally go afterhours to peruse through the contents of SD boxes.
If that were true that would mean the bank has duplicate keys for each box, or more likely a master key, I have never heard of any such thing. If the Feds want in to a box they have to produce a warrant and have the bank drill the lock to gain access, they just can't come and start perusing people's boxes after hours in the hope of finding something.
 
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I’ve been a customer of a telephone banking only service for the past 30+ years.

There’s no room in my telephone to store watches.
"Caviar" has you covered.
 
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wtf?
This is unfortunately real … only an oligarch would drop $150k on something like this.