How often do you see ANY nice watch in the wild?

It is a Constellation with plain dial and medallion in good condition She had three watches from her father, one was "large and flashy" so she sold it, the third has a gold case but make un-named. Then she went back to gardening still wearing the Connie 😎

Yesterday I stopped by a local 7/11 convenience store to pick up a 2L of Coke and the guy behind the counter was wearing jeans, a faded t-shirt, and a AP Royal Oak.

Saw a guy on my recent Norwegian cruise with a planet ocean.

Haha you’ve found a friend for life there

Just dropped off Mrs. Greek to the airport 🙁 I saw a ton of nice watches there. I feel like you are guaranteed to see people wearing very nice watches to the airport. I'm not quite sure why to be honest. I feel like most people wouldn't want to attract more attention to themselves when traveling or in a new country.

I think this has to be my favorite thread. I mean, this is what we live for, right?

One thing I find fascinating is how in many of the posts the authors are surprised by the "type of person" whom they find wearing a nice watch. Left leaning, apple store, tesla owner, the list goes on. I guess it is human nature to categorize people. Lets see how many of these categories I can break...

I drove my EV from my progressive state of Oregon to Vegas. I didn't see any watches on the road because the charging stops went so fast I barely had time to pee, let alone get fast food before my app told me my car was ready. I was joining several thousand other players of a scifi video game, and had dinner with the leader of an enemy alliance. He was wearing a vintage Longines and I was wearing a modern Omega. I also saw a Rolex or two on the wrists of other gamers while I was there. I have no idea what model of Longines it was, but the crystal was interesting as it had flat faces cut in a starburst.

One of my favorite things about our hobby is that I can wear my watches, and nobody gives them a second glance (except for the rolex, which I pretty much never wear). If it was any other way, I would be mortified.

Oh, one last story, except it was about someone noticing my watch (a rare event). I was wearing my Seamaster Black Black at a picnic and somebody asked about it. It turned out they were not a watch enthusiast because when I mentioned it was mechanical and took it off to show them, they peered through the caseback and asked, "how do you know they didn't hide a quartz somewhere inside there?"

12 years after buying my first nice watch, (Tag Heuer Pro 925.213G) I still look at pretty well every persons wrist I see and meet, and in my profession as a master nut roaster, surprisingly I see and meet a lot of people. Even if I do see an interesting watch, I rarely mention it to the wearer as from experience, most people know nothing and could care even less about the watch they have on. On the odd occasion when I have seen a watch worthy of mentioning something, I have pleasantly surprised myself with my eye. Having said that, now that a decade or more has passed, I do have a handfull of customers who "talk watches" when they come to my retail outlets. Mainly we keep it simple, with just show and tells, but that is just another concept of this hobby that I love and which enthralls me more and more as time goes on. I feel myself fortunate for I can admire and respect the person wearing a $50 Casio equally as one wearing an infinitely expensive mechanical. It's all about personal choices.

I just had a revelation. I have browsed this thread a few times and just kinda thought I never see a nice watch in the wild. But then it hit me. I see them all the time. What I DON'T see is VINTAGE watches in the wild. And that's what I count as nice!

Some "nice" watches I have seen recently, now that I think about it:

- lawyer I met had a Tudor GMT
- another lawyer had a Rolex sub
- my bro has a Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, Rolex explorer, Tudor Pelagos, some others
- commercial diver had a Seiko SKX pepsi

Not to often because in our days you look to the phone to see the exact time..😀

I don't. I look at my phone to discover that the battery is about dead and it's dimmed the screen to too dim to use.

I put this post on WuS recently so I'll just edit it a bit.

Earlier this year in a pub my missus said someone was looking at my BB58 and sure enough after a few minutes he asked me what it was, thinking it was a Rolex.
We got talking and he told me he had 2 Rolex Submariners but wasn't wearing one, his son had a Hublot on and one of his 2 companions had a Seamaster.
Hearing "Seamaster" another bloke came over waving his around.
A few minutes later another fella came in with a Seamaster on, it was unreal.

Then a week later in another pub a bloke said he liked my wife's Belstaff jacket and then saw my Alt1-p2 Lancaster and showed me his 50 year anniversary Speedie.


The first episode was bizarre as in 15 years or so of being into watches the only other time anything like that has happened was in the lake district when I spotted someone's Hydroconquest.
And all 3 times we've all taken our watches off for the other people to try.
The bloke who owns 2 subs came in a few weeks ago and had his Kermit on.
He said he bought it off a bloke 2 or 3 years ago who was in debt for £3.5k🥱

I sold a camera to a someone who was wearing a Globemaster yesterday.
First time seeing it in person and it was a gorgeous watch.

Hello if you're on OF as well!

At work on site yesterday at a commercial pilot training centre.this is a place with more than its fair share of desirable watches, but the guy I was working with showed me his latest purchase.OMG .a blue speedmaster snoopy! Never thought I would see one of these in the wild.truly beautiful.made my day.

I was at the CN Tower 360 restaurant recently & the fellow at the next table had a Rolex Sub with a polished center link bracelet

I was on a flight to LaGuardia & one passenger in first class had a Rolex Milgauss blue dial with orange zap seconds.

my sis-in-law wears a Cartier Tank as her daily watch…

I was at an event at the local theatre, the young man holding the door had a James Cameron sea dweller on…

i complemented him on his SD, he told me it was a wedding gift….

I guess they were out of their china pattern?


PS it was an event for the local medical school residents…

🤪🤪

It's very rare to see a truly great one (i.e. AP, Patek, etc.), but I do see a lot of people wearing Rolex Submariners. Funnily enough, there's a guy that visits the same coffee shop that I'm a regular and he wears a Tiffany-dial Nautilus. I can't believe I've seen one of those in the wild. He's a very unassuming guy in every other sense.

Yesterday at a local food court there were several Rolex, Breitling, Cartier, a vintage Zodiac, a MoonSwatch, a Planet Ocean, and a couple Panerai. Elsewhere around the city this week I’ve seen a few Speedmasters, a couple Speedy Reduceds, and a yellow gold Rolex Day-Date. Had a brief convo with a guy wearing a Speedy Reduced — not a watch collector but he did a lot of research for it and bought it as a wedding watch. It’s now his only watch.