I think that most know that after four and a half years of living and working away from home, that within the next couple of months I will be going home to live a normal life again which is great but it does present a couple of problems. One being how to repatriate over 50 watches ( one of the reasons for the spate of FS that you would have noticed, hopefully) and the other taking my Norwegian Forest Cat and African Grey Parrot to Vietnam.

First step was to organise vet checks and paperwork for the cat and bird and second start to list watches for sale. Paperwork and certificates were sorted for me to travel with the cat this time but not the bird but should be good for next time as I will follow up while I am home this week.

Thursday 4pm journey starts with a pickup to the airport for Ziggy, myself and watches. Check in was fine and the airline even let Ziggy stay with me up to boarding. Fortunately the airline organized special security screening for me so that went smoothly until they x-rayed my carry on bag which had a case with 18 watches in it. The guys eyes bulged and questions were asked about gold content and weight, answer was only one is solid gold, the others are gold plated. Few minutes of discussion and all is good.

Ziggy at airport and very nervous. I worried about him all the way after he left me.


Watches at airport


When I got to Doha for transit I needed to come up with a strategy to deal with watch entry to Vietnam. It was now obvious that yellow gold was certainly going to draw a lot of attention and suggest a higher value. So I needed to make yelow gold disappear with the solution being wear the gold Speedy and "double dog" the gold Constellation and put the others in my pockets as I knew I would not be x-rayed again.

The case now looked like below with no yellow gold.


And "double dogging" it. Not a habit I will be continuing.



Arrived into Vietnam and Ziggy was the first to come off the carousel, yes carousel which I could not believe. But he was just fine. The first bag of mine to arrive set the tone for the rest of my airport exit as it was covered in bright yellow customs tape stating not to be opened and for inspection (it had a number of empty watch boxes in it). The second bag was all clear as it only had colthes and cat food.

Proceed to x-ray and the fun begins. They were obviously interested in the checked bag but when they saw my carry on bag the guy couldn't get to it quick enough. First I had to convince them that the watches were old and not new which was difficult as one was new old stock with it's protective coatings still on it. I went to great lengths to try and stress that it is my personal collectection, would not be sold ant that I was moving back to live. First suggestion was that they would have to declare a value and then I pay up to 30% in duties and taxes. When I came round they were still there and it obviously wasn't a bad dream.

I told them that I had absolutely no idea of value as I had been collecting for years and I never purchased new, always used. My options were now to pay the duties or re-export which meant that the watches would be left at customs and I retrieved when I left. To determine the duty value they would have to send the watches to a special department for them to research to determine dutiable value. This now had me really worried because at this point in time they hat no idea that some of the watches were white gold and platinum.

After a lengthy conversation/ discussion and me nearly crying they said I could take one watch with me without the need for duty payment. This watch without a doubt would have been my platinum 25th anniversay.

More discussions and very close to tears I enquired as to the re-export process as I said I had no money for the duties. I think at this point in time he then realised that much paperwork was going to be involved and afer a long discusiion with his colleague he came back with a decleration form where I had to state number, type of watches and that they would not sold. I couldn't fill the form out quick enough and after one hour I was on my way again with my watches and cat.

I can't recall any event in recent times that I have been so shit scared and I will now have to review what and how many I can repatriate.

Time to have a drink and enjoy a happy ending now

Conents of checked bag.


Watches safely at home



Ziggy slowly settling in.

 

Can I just call dibs on the whole collection? That way I get first crack at any you decide to sell first. A fine collection!

 

Congratulations on getting home without any loses

I'm fearful of when I have to do the same and bring my watches back into Europe

 

How can these people understand the value we place on our watch collections.They think we deal in them for the financial gain when in reality we deal in them for their beauty.
Glad it all worked out for you Pete.

 

Thanks for sharing this with us, I could feel your stress just reading your ordeals! I'm very glad it all worked out okay in the end. Wishing you many relaxing days with Ziggy and your fantastic watch collection.

 

All's well that ends well.

You should have gone back to Australia. I had the last 30 or so with me in my carry on when I moved out (plus a double up on the wrists) I was almost upset that no questions were asked at Heathrow, Singapore or Brisbane.

 

Glad to see you and the kids (furry and otherwise) finally got home Pete, it must have been a great releif when you finally walked through your front door.

I'm in and out of Australia every now and again, usually with eight to ten watches, most of them in my checked bag. Never had any questions.
I always declare something though to make me look as if I'm not sure and when they see the coffee can or the chocolate they wave me through, probably thinking "silly old fart, doesn't he know he doesn't have to declare XXXX".

 

Poor kitty.

In all seriousness, I'm glad you got it sorted out. A serious question; at any time did you think a bribe might have cleared the way? I've never been in that situation but I've been told by people who I trust that a bribe is often sought when the bureaucracy won't stop. I've only heard about bribes being "normal" in some of the African countries.

 

Did they ever ask about the watches on your wrist?

 

Interesting story, thanks for sharing! Glad for you it worked out well.

I'm wondering about Ziggy, since I once owned a Norwegian Forest cat. He doesn't look like a typical specimen;

Is there maybe another race involved in him too?

Today I have a half breed NFC

 

My palms were sweating just reading your account!

Now, as they say, all's well that ends well.

I'll toast your safe arrival later today with my favourite Scotch

 

Great cat (s)
And now you can see why they think Maine Coons came from 'Norwegians'
By chance this is Siegfried - or Ziggy for short

 

As for your travels @Barking mad - pleased you got home safely - cat and watches intact
In the Middle East it was always a worry carrying multiple gold watches as gold is the 'currency' of choice for more eastern 'ex-pats'. Especially our Indian brethren.
There are even separate customs lanes in airports dedicated to gold.
I only travel with SS and gold capped ones now.
Saves the potential hassle.

 

Hi Pete

Poor you! And congrats for you (and the fam) surviving that ordeal. Sounds like it could have turned nasty! Wishing you more relaxed time, and wearing all your gorgeous pieces in good relaxed health.

Best regards,
Eugene

 

was a tense read. glad you and the watches/cat made it through ok. Only having one omega the stress of travelling is far lesser!

 

Glad every thing worked out. I was wondering did you have these watches when you left home to go overseas to work if so can you keep a record from that inspection then show that on the return so they don't hassle you ? I just got a issued deck watch from Italy delivered by FedEx US customs wanted proof it was not gold before it got delivered was a big pain then FedEx sent me a $30.00 buck tax bill. What is this thing about gold customs in any country go crazy over it. Never have a problem with getting any thing from overseas using local mail just FedEx.

 

Absolutely thought about a bribe but the moment never arose and I think it may have even made it worse. The environment was quite public and I could see no discrete method for transaction. Bribes normally work well here though.

Not a word, however by the time I got to customs I had taken the constellation from my wrist and put in my pocket. I was petrified that they would find the watches in my pockets and if so the outcome could have been totally different as I think that would have pissed them off.

no he is a full breed but still only young. He is 18 months old and has nearly two more years of growing to do yet. Best cat and mate ever.
Here he is getting a little braver, slowly slowly. He has also been reunited with his brother

Just Ziggy, he was born around the time that David Bowie died so I thought Ziggy was appropriate although hardly the thin white duke

fundamentally all that I have now have been puschased whilst I have been away. I dont think anything would work for here though.
Pondering after the event what I should have done if I had the balls was to put them under the rug in Ziggy's carrier as it was not x-rayed as I had previously experienced when I brought his brother in.

 

[QUOTE="Barking mad, post: 705555,
Just Ziggy, he was born around the time that David Bowie died so I thought Ziggy was appropriate although hardly the thin white duke
.[/QUOTE]

I meant my 'gentle giant' is called Siegfried (named after Siegfried Sassoon the war poet) but his nick name is also for David Bowie as I'm a huge fan.
He also has a brother

 

Getting to know each other. The last time they were together they were 8 weeks old.

 

Excellent

Anyone with a pair of Tom cats (brothers or not) will know
"There may be trouble ahead...."