Spotted in the wild..

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STANDY

·Apr 14, 2016

Work in a job where I have to chat to Captains of vessels of all types and sizes from large cruise boats and bulk carriers all the way down to small yacht owners. Find it always good ice breaker to chat about watches if I can.

Get a few comments from captains that I see a bit who notice a different watch each time. I have also met a few that are keen watch fans that may have several watches on board .

Funny as when clearing oil rigs with a fair few crew I can usually keep a tally on Omega v Rolex v Seiko

 

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jimik42

·Apr 14, 2016

adrienbelanger

Great story!

I saw a guy at Heathrow recently who was wearing a watch on each wrist - some kind of gold Patek and a vintage Pepsi bezel GMT, .............

I'm headed to the US in a few months and if I happen to find and get a decent watch or two decent during that trip, my goal is to wear them back.
Basically, I have no interest in paying ridiculously expensive duties to get them into the country.

 

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jimik42

·Apr 14, 2016

Had a meeting a few weeks ago with a prospective client and a couple of his contractors (IT related).
During the meeting I noticed he was wearing a red-sub Rolex and when I looked up from his watch I noticed him looking at my 69 Speedy.
We both just nodded to each other and continued the meeting.

At the end he started asking me questions and I did the same with him. It was a good 10-minute post-meeting build-rapport type of chat.
It turns out that his dad bought it for him brand-new and he wore it on most days.

One of his contractors kept trying to butt into the conversation by talking about his new smart-watch, but only appeared to succeed in pissing off my prospective client.

Couldn't help laughing after they left.

 

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CanberraOmega

·Apr 14, 2016

jimik42

I'm headed to the US in a few months and if I happen to find and get a decent watch or two decent during that trip, my goal is to wear them back.
Basically, I have no interest in paying ridiculously expensive duties to get them into the country.

So, you will be less than truthful on your incoming customs declaration card?

 

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Kwijibo

·Apr 15, 2016

The story is pleasant but this is not a really special watch, is it? It's in a rather poor condition...

 

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gostang9

·Apr 15, 2016

Kwijibo

The story is pleasant but this is not a really special watch, is it? It's in a rather poor condition...

"Special watch" is open to interpretation. It is a circa-1973, all original Speedmaster Pro that has been worn daily since then. Not only has it been worn to tell time, but the owner explained how he had also frequently (even secretly) used the stopwatch function to time different manufacturing processes.

The crystal definitely could use a polish, and the case/bezel/bracelet are far from mint, but for me the watch and story were quite "special" indeed.

 

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Kwijibo

·Apr 15, 2016

Hi gostang; I didn't mean to be unpleasant. Let's say i was just asking if there was something special that I had not seen 😉
I love this watch, Actually I almost have the same one but with a step dial.

 

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Davidt

·Apr 15, 2016

Ive never noticed another vintage watch 'in the wild'. Plenty of modern Subs, but nothing interesting.

I wear vintage everyday and have only been noticed once, in a restaurant where the young waiter tilted his head, saw my Ed White and commented 'wow, great Speedy'.

 

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gostang9

·Apr 15, 2016

Kwijibo

Hi gostang; I didn't mean to be unpleasant. Let's say i was just asking if there was something special that I had not seen 😉
I love this watch, Actually I almost have the same one but with a step dial.

No worries and no offense taken.

 

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styggpyggeno1

·Apr 15, 2016

Remember now - I have actually been spotted once. It was at my former workplace. For a while there was a lot of travelling by car and the co-worker sitting in the passenger seat one day just out of the blue asked - "how many watches do you own? I have noticed you are wearing a different one every day."

She had talked about it with her husband as he was a little interested in watches.

I answered about half of the true number as I did not want to look too much of a nerd....

Later I understood that half was enough to make me a nerd in her eyes anyway. We had some fun with it.

 

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jimik42

·Apr 15, 2016

CanberraOmega

So, you will be less than truthful on your incoming customs declaration card?

I would never lie in an official document.
Just curious, with a name like CanberraOmega......not a pollie are you?

 

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CanberraOmega

·Apr 15, 2016

jimik42

I would never lie in an official document.
Just curious, with a name like CanberraOmega......not a pollie are you?

Lol.
Former public servant. Wasn't very imaginative with my name! Comes with brig a public servant.
We do have one border official on here though......

 

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immustard

·Apr 15, 2016

I saw a bloke down the pub who had a submariner on & have now struck up quite a friendship with him,we discuss how most the people we know are impressed with a quartz Hugo boss or Armani,he has shared his watch service guy with me & he's borrowing my moonwatch only book and is now contemplating buying one.

 

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gostang9

·Apr 15, 2016

CanberraOmega

Lol.
Former public servant. Wasn't very imaginative with my name! Comes with brig a public servant.
We do have one border official on here though......

I'm taking my family to Australia this coming December. We're visiting friends in Canberra, then heading with them to the sea for a few days (Batemans Bay?) and then finish with a few days in Sydney.

If USD/AUD rate stays where it is, I'm thinking an acquisition might be in order... 😉

 

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bazamu

·Apr 15, 2016

I wear vintage every day (and quite interesting pieces, IMHO) and have never once been asked about them except in the Omega boutique one day while I was wearing an Ed White. I don't really count that though. I also haven't had the pleasure of seeing a cool vintage piece on the wrist of a stranger. Would love to strike up a convo one day though.

 

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Jones in LA

·Apr 15, 2016·Not in LA anymore.

I was in the check-out line at the grocery store last week and noticed that the guy in front of me was wearing a Breitling Super Ocean with a sun-damaged rubber strap. He was about my age -- mid-to-late 50s and had kind of a grumpy scowl on his face so I decided not to strike up a conversation about his watch. He caught me staring at his watch so I made sure my hesalite Speedy was prominently displayed, but he looked away fairly quickly. He probably just saw some kind of Invicta crap on my wrist.

My wife and I occasionally attend religious services in nearby Calabasas, as we have a number of friends who live there. Calabasas has become somewhat infamous in recent years because it is/was the home of the Kardashians, Justin Bieber, and a bunch of NBA basketball players. Whenever I'm with this congregation, I do a thorough visual inventory of the watches worn by the men. It's Rolex..Rolex...Rolex...ad infinitum. One guy, though, wears a gigantic Panerai. I tried to strike up a conversation with the Panerai guy about his watch but he was not into talking about watches at all. Our family doctor is a member of this congregation (he often wears a platinum-bezel Rolex Yachtmaster at work, which is one of the prettiest Rolexes I've seen) and I have to give him credit for complementing me on my Planet Ocean one day during a routine medical exam.

Edited: Apr 15, 2016

 

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Civilguy007

·Apr 15, 2016

I spotted my uncle across the room and he was also wearing a SM300MC, but it was the Sedna Gold version. It seemed that he also noticed mine and I was looking forward to a fun discussion of our shared love of watches. This would be my first "Spotted in the Wild Encounter". As we greeted each other, he glanced briefly at my watch and then proudly showed his--which was not an Omega but a cheap department store quartz...and then, this morning, I woke up! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!?!

Now it has gotten to a point where I am actually dreaming of watches? Someone help me! I need an intervention! Perhaps I should stop reading this thread.

 

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gostang9

·Apr 15, 2016

I saw a sub on my flight from DTW to SEA this morning quite a few in the Skyteam lounge, but I almost never mention a spotting when traveling as,
a) not accepted practice
b) they're late model standard AD available pieces

The frequent traveller seems very prone to wearing of nice watches, while simultaneously preferring not to be openly acknowledged.

 

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Tom Dick

·Apr 15, 2016

A chance encounter in Sainburys was what sparked my now passion for Vintage Omega. The Omega Speedsonic was the watch that got me in to Vintage Omegas, I saw one once in Cash Converters in Grimsby (my home town many moons ago) and fell in love with it (a staggering £400 at the time).

Some years later when me and my now wife had moved to Essex I was in Sainsburys in Southend on Sea and saw a chap in front of me, instantly recognising his watch. It was a very nice Speedsonic cushion, we had a brief conversation in which he explained to me (which I already knew of course but didn't want to be rude) that it was the first electronic chronometer chronograph. We parted ways and as I left the supermarket he drove by me and waved in a gorgeous black Ferrari 550

Since then I have spotted a couple of 5513's, a MKII racing (the guy had owned it from new) and a few other vintage, I do not hesitate to comment on someones watch if I like it!

 

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ConElPueblo

·Apr 15, 2016

At a wedding two years back, one of the other guests had a Panerai chronograph, which I spotted fairly quickly... I intended to strike up a conversation, but when my "nice Panerai, what caliber is it?" (or something to that effect) was met by a blank stare and a "it doesn't run on batteries!", I left it at that 🙁

The best encounters I've had was discovering that one of my older cousins had inherited his fathers Omega Seamaster bumper from the fifties and seeing how he enjoyed it, and striking up a conversation in my rowing club with a man in his early sixties about his lovely patinated Submariner. We became pretty good friends, and as he's a retired architect (was behind some of the first IKEA kitchens in the 1970s) and a magnificiently competent handyman, he was the crucial factor in my house renovation last year 😀