Just got back from the UK and was impressed with the number of Rolex and Omegas watches I saw in the streets, metro, airport, hotel, etc. Pretty much everywhere.

 

I've got a friend that works in a job centre. He says apart from when he's going past a replica watch shop in Turkey, he’s never seen so many fake Rollies in one place.

 

Everose Yachtmaster on the train this morning.

 

Saw a Cartier Tank worn by a lady today in a NZ ski park coffee shop

 

I think I take it for granted how many watches I see in any given week. When I asked to take photos of peoples' wrists in the auction houses tea room, they probably thought I was mad. This is what was seated around my table:

 

In a day long meeting last week sitting between 2 coworkers. Me - FOIS; them - each had a Rolex sub of some sort. Don’t know them real well so didn’t press for details.

 

I thought this might be the place for this story.

I stumbled into a Tourneau in NYC a couple of days ago. At first, I walked past a guy buying a Rolex BLNR, apparently he waited a long time to get it and got the call when in came in.

The funny part is I walked by their service department. There was a younger woman there who dropped off a 3-year-old Rolex of some sort. I asked her what happened, she said, "I don't know, it has a lot of water in it." I asked how that happened and she said she wasn't sure but the water has been in there for a couple of months. She figured they'd just get the water out, not realizing she's probably destroyed her watch.

The service person told her she'd call her with a quote on price to fix but that it would be expensive. She said she couldn't be bothered to pay later and why don't they just take her card now and she left what appeared to be an Amex black card on the table and then walked away from the service desk to buy a new watch in the meantime. The service person was taken a bit back by just how causally she had treated the matter, and looked at me with a grin as to what went down.

I guess Tourneau isn't quite the wild but still...

 

I saw and original blue smp wave dial at IKEA yesterday...

 

I didn't know Ikea carried watches.

 

I just came back from W.47 Street (watch central in NYC). What nice watch DIDN'T I see?

 

Lol-- you took a spy cam pic of this guy?

 

Yeah, unfortunately they are significantly more difficult to assemble than the wardrobes...

 

I hear it takes a good year for a Rolex...

 

And that's only if they have all the parts in stock!

 

Just started a new job and the guy I’m working with is wearing a GMT BLNR which I noticed straight away. Haven’t had chance to ask him about it yet

 

Also a new Rolex rule is that you have to wait a year to ask someone about their stainless steel sports Rolex.

 

Almost never. Have not seen any nice vintage piece on a wrist in the wild. I did see a manager at a client of mine wearing a nice reverso, but that’s about it.

 

They call it the Kevin.

 

Reminds me of the time I was in a large dealer in Toronto. As I was looking at some watches a man walked in and told the person behind the counter that he was looking for a watch with a black dial. The salesman asked if he had a specific brand in mind, and the answer was no, and that he really didn't know many of the brands that were in this store (all the bigger brands were there). After going from one counter to another for a while, he tried on a black dialed Blancpain, said that looked nice, and asked the price. Bought it on the spot having no clue what the brand even was. I don't think the whole thing took more than about 15 minutes from the time he walked in until he walked out with it on his wrist...

We all obsess about these watches, but to some people it's just a nice watch they decide to pick up on impulse...

 

In London you meny modern Rolex (Subs, GMT,Date Just) I have spotted meny vintage Oyster Perpetuals and Date Just. From, Omega the Seamaster 300M from the 90's I have seem multiple times and a few of the newer 300M. To my surprise a few Constellations worn mainly by women. Of course Apples and Tissot's, Seiko's are very common.

The 90s Bond era watch has been a godsend to Omega