Rolex theft

I hate these stories of stolen watches. Watches mean much more to us than the value some idiot gets passing them off to a fence or what have you.

I had a situation in the crappy northeast city I work in. I was on my way to grab a couple of empanadas at this Spanish restaurant not far from work. Some dude approached me all big and bad (strung out) saying he was taking my watch and my wallet. I said no you are not as I’m gonna knock you out. He stepped up and said “Say one more word.” I could tell he was all talk by then so I looked at him and said “word?” He kept repeating the one more word thing so I just kept saying “word?” Louder each time. After about two minutes of this he got frustrated and walked off. I had a coffee in one hand and paper work I was going to read at the restaurant in the other, so I was actually a wide open shot had he really wanted to rob me he coulda sucker punched me and maybe have got my wallet.

I gotta be honest I’m not a fighter anymore. Even if you win something is gonna hurt and some surgeries last year took a lot out of me. But I could tell he was strung out hoping he’d run into someone who would just hand stuff over which tbh is the smart move sometimes. Someone that strung out would have sold or pawned any gun if they ever had enough money to get one.

I’m not recommending my actions. Tbh I let my situational awareness down as I cross that area so frequently without issue but you just never know when something weird will take place. I took a calculated risk but I think I was more reacting out of anger at the intrusion than really thinking. I remember trying to figure out if I was covered by workers comp since I’m paid for lunch.

I did have my favorite mundane speedy stolen when I was doing Covid tests on people. Dummy me took it off to wash my hands and change gloves I put the watch down for a minute, got asked some dumb questions that distracted me and that’s all it took. I purchased another one here as I missed it too much. It was like a year though and I remember feeling stupid and missing the watch all that time.

I did insure a couple watches, 80% of my collection is sub 1k I think but many have stories attached to them that you can’t put a number on. Anyway wanted to relate that story, I knew right where we were standing there is a police surveillance camera so if my calculations were wrong and I caught some flying lead to the head I hoped justice would be served and life insurance would pay out to my family without a fight.

Peace to all those who have lost a watch or had it stolen, I know it’s not a fun feeling and probably magnified if it’s a vintage Rolex or another high value watch.

We could easily walk around wearing whatever whenever if we all started treating each other decently but I don’t foresee that happening anytime soon.

Holy cow sorry another book, sorry, I didn’t know I wrote a damn essay.

Rule no. 1......Never, ever, take your watch off in public, ever. Wash your hands with the watch on, it's not going to hurt it. Going through airport security I leave the watch on, that's always been ok, but last year I set the alarm off at the Zurich Flughafen and the agent made me take my Speedmaster off and put it in a plastic tray he held out. I told him, 'be careful', and he immediately lost control of the bin and the watch fell face first onto the terrazzo floor. Miraculously, no damage, but from then I just take it off and put it in a zippered pouch on my carryon. But at least we don't have to take our shoes off anymore in the US.

I have proven to myself at least that I have a much greater chance of losing a watch removing it to (connect a wire during an auto breakdown, cleaning it as someone sneezed on it during a pandemic etc.) than I do having it robbed directly from my person. However life not over yet, all data not yet collected.

Bingo

Agreed. In May, I caught a guy with his hand in my pocket on a crowded subway in Athens. I gave him a hard shove and some choice words before the doors opened, and he bolted.

I always travel in Europe/UK with a 114270 explorer but no one cares about those.

Where I live, the thieves are not so sophisticated as to notice a nice watch and want to steal it. But, one of the highest murder rates in the United States though, and it seems more likely you could just get murdered. But I've never heard of a watch theft here. Silver lining in everything!

When traveling, I'm new to the watch world, but I'm taking 2 watches, and one is always a cheapo. Spotting watches on planes has become fun. But then I think of the stories of watches being stolen on the plane, from carry-ons. The world is just crazy. You'd think up in the air inside a small metal tube, people wouldn't want to fight or steal, but you'd be wrong wouldn't you.

Maybe AI can help us with that, the scanners could record every nice watch that goes through, serial number and all, and match them up with stolen watches.