The watches don't have to be expensive or even a name brand, but, what watches have you seen in the wild that grabbed your attention? Name the watch, if you can, and where you saw the watch. I'll start... in Los Angeles there is no shortage of luxury watches walking the streets, however, three stand out for me. 1. Black dialed Audemars Piguet T3 in the lobby of the AMC Century City Movie Theaters 2. A Panerai 341, the gigantic homage watch to the Egyptian Navy Panerai, on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills 3. A Jacob & Co, massive and highly unusual complicated looking watch, in a Persian restaurant in Westwood. I always feel a little uncomfortable approaching people and asking them about their watch, but, since we were sitting near one another, I just explained that I was a watch collector and found his watch fascinating. He told me the manufacture, one I'm not familiar with, but, it looked very expensive. ( similar to the image )
The doctor who removed some skin cancer from the corner of my eye was wearing a modern no-date sub. I mentioned it and he told me all about his success flipping Rolex.
Gotta say the little shop where I buy my coffee 3x a day near my job the cashier is a real friendly guy. Big invicta collector. A while back he had one on that looked like a dish plate I asked him about it he happily showed me the very big shiny watch. So now it’s a regular thing he had a couple that actually looked nice but last week he had one that had the chain protruding from the crown. He obviously really likes them so what the hec. I don’t think he knows a lot about watches though he will ask me what I’m wearing I usually say “oh I got this old seiko” or something like that. I just don’t want it to get competitive as tbh it’s cool to see anyone happy about their watch. His female coworker even started showing me functions of her smart watch. That’s really my biggest “watch in the wild” story. One thing about invictas, they sure do stand out, I think the one he was wearing that started all this had to be close to 60mm it was quite a site. Definitely cool he was all smiles when I asked about it that’s how we should be about our watches, as long as we don’t think we are about to get robbed.
Enjoy! A bit of bedtime reading. https://omegaforums.net/threads/how-often-do-you-see-any-nice-watch-in-the-wild.63763/
I was walking down Michigan Avenue in Chicago once and I noticed a guy wearing a solid gold AP Royal Oak. It was one of those watches that you see on Instagram or on the internet all the time, but you never see out in the wild, so it was pretty cool to see it....although there's absolutely no way I would purchase a watch like that myself.
Saw a young guy in a restaurant (pre-pandemic), sitting alone, wearing what appeared to be a Tudor Black Bay with red bezel. I blurted out “Wow, is that a Black Bay? Nice!” Thirty seconds later we both realized we had met each other before. He had worked as a sales person at the local Omega Botique for a short period of time. After leaving the botique he sold all his watches except for the Tudor, explaining that this was “The One” and he was in need of no other watches.
There is also many luxuary watches in Copenhagen, where I live, but most seem to be Rolex watches. About a year ago I was on the playground with my kids and there was another father there who wore a vintage AP Royal Oak. Another time on a ferry going to a small Island in Denmark I was sitting next to an elderly man with a worn but very nice vintage condition Submariner. I was just getting interested in watches at that time and a vintage 5513 was the grail for me at that time, so I was star struck.
I was invited to visit an art gallery recently — yeah that was strange, first time in a year— and two of the guys browsing the art (and buying pieces) were wearing vintage Rolex GMT subs, with appropriately faded pepsi bezels and i could see even from afar that the lume was nicely patinated. since I had kind of crashed the viewing I kept my mouth shut - as I didn’t think they would necessarily appreciate a public discussion about their 15k watches, especially when the spotter is a woman. The irony is that it appears some men believe nice watches will make them more attractive, just like women do with jewelery, but I have a hunch that a pointed compliment would have made them feel odd.
I was at work a couple of weekends ago and supervising one of the trainees when I noticed his watch. Did a double take and discovered this on his wrist. 1990 AP Hutime in tantalum and RG. Quite the surprise for a Saturday at work!
From @Marsimaxam post that started the thread, I'll just paraphrase David Sedaris, "This watch announces to the world you can no longer get an erection."
So over the top but they are a marvelous piece. I think Conan McGregor was wearing one in one of those celebrity watch things that show up in my news feed. I mean can you actually wear that thing out? Not just the money part but it’s so big I’d be afraid of catching a door or something which happens to me probably more than it should
My coworker wears a gold-filled eternamatic every day. It was his father's. It is a well loved cherished piece. Makes me happy to see him wear it. The doctor who gave me my second Pfizer vaccine dose was wearing what looked like a vintage tank watch under his shirt sleeve. I thought it might be an old gold plate Hamilton or something like that, and I said "I see you wearing a vintage watch." I was wearing -69 Speedmaster, so I thought we could bond. He got very uncomfortable, mumbled something like "it's actually a new cheap watch that is made to look like a nice one," and then showed it to me for a millisecond. Then he sucked that puppy ad far as he could under his shirt sleeve and never brought it out again. I suspect it may have been a Patek Gondolo or something like that. The whole situation was so awkward I never showed him that I was wearing a nice vintage watch. The watch looked a bit like this:
The young clerk/shop-worker in my local bookstore wearing an Oris like mine. It used to be his grandfather’s.
Older chap on the London Overground from Kensal Rise wearing a nice Ref. 2002 skin diver, which he inherited from his father. Made his day by telling him, "your father had good taste in watches!"
A waiter at the restaurant we had lunch this weekend was wearing an interesting watch. I asked him about, and it was a David Rutten meteorite watch.
Real cool thing happened to my buddy at the coffee shop, the invicta guy He hasn’t been around lately so he gave me a big wave when I walked in he could instantly tell he had a very nice watch on. He motioned for me to get in his check out lane. So I asked him if he has been ok since I hadn’t seen him in weeks. Very happily he said “I got a new job the same day I got five years sober.” Of course I congratulated him on both, two really cool things but he is going to keep his job at the coffee shop cause he likes the customers and his coworkers. Anyway the kicker, Mr Invicta picked himself up a Rolex to celebrate five years sober and his new job. Actually looked really nice I’ve only seen this model in pictures. I was very curious where he got it but as always had to keep the exchange brief as people trying to get their coffee before work don’t want two watch geeks holding up the line. I know it’s not proper these days but I shook his hand, felt it was worthy of that old human greeting we did precovid. So this was the model I’m pretty sure. He did ask me what I was wearing and I had my alpanist on today so he did have to throw in “looks like I got you beat” but that was just in jest it really was a pleasure to see someone so happy with a watch. Damn makes me want a Rolex. Sorry thought the pic would show up. https://content.rolex.com/dam/2021/showcase/m126000-0006.jpg?impolicy=v6-upright&imwidth=840
It looked very nice in person have you seen them? Do they come in different sizes cause I looked on the Rolex website it said 36mm but his looked bigger I’m just having a busy week didn’t poke around much yet
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