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What causes people to notice your watch?

Bill Sohne
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happend a few times .....

Once while at a mattress store.... sales guy said " oh you must like high quality ... like your Sub..... guess that is why your here shopping for a bed here" ... My reply " oh this watch ? its a fake I just picked up on a visit to NYC"... salesman walked away and left me alone...

Second time....
At a Costco in Fla ..... wearing my Sub again.... TV manager i was talking to said ..." hey thats a great red sub .." once again I said " oh its a fake " He replied no its not. He was a watch guy and always said hi when i went there to get stuff for my parents ....

third time
In Thiland ... wearing my 66 Speedy Pro.... walked by a seller of watches on the street ... asked if i wanted to buy one , I said I already have a fake on my wrist that i got from another seller .... He quickly looked down and said ... " that is a real one !: I smiled and walked away....

BUT THE BEST time ....

I just got a new job. Flew out to Portland for a team meeting... My boss took everyone out to lunch .... We all sat down. I was sitting next to him... He started to talk about watches... and looked down at my wrist and said .... Hey Bill " that is a great fake rolex ...." ( in front of the entire team ). I said " Oh , I had this for years and never know it was fake ". He said " HUH?" I wanted to see it up close and then handed it back to me and was very quite.

Good Hunting

BIll
 
Dor_42
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Bill Sohne Bill Sohne
I just got a new job. Flew out to Portland for a team meeting... My boss took everyone out to lunch .... We all sat down. I was sitting next to him... He started to talk about watches... and looked down at my wrist and said .... Hey Bill " that is a great fake rolex ...." ( in front of the entire team ). I said " Oh , I had this for years and never know it was fake ". He said " HUH?" I wanted to see it up close and then handed it back to me and was very quite.
What a dick!
 
STANDY
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Had a doctor/surgeon years ago who noticed I had a different vintage watch than a few days before In hospital ( that Mrs Standy had dropped into hospital as I was there for a few weeks with fluid on the lungs). He had a nice modern IWC. Spoke about watches a few times.
Had to see him a few days after discharge and took a watch roll with me, as he mentioned he Tinkered with $100 watches off eBay to de stress after a busy day. Drooled over a few watches and we chatted for a bit. Told the receptionist not to charge me the few hundred dollar fee when I left.

Clear large vessels a bit at work and the occasional Captain will have a nice watch and notice my Speedmaster.
Cleared a large gas vessel the other week and the Japanese Captain had his fathers C-case Constellation on.
 
vintage hab
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I started teaching at a university a couple of years ago. In the past two years, I've had about 3 students comment on my GMT Master II. Private university, needless to say, so I assume they learned about watches at home. One of them wore a moonwatch, and told me he spent his entire summer earnings on it.
 
Professor
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Vintage Tonneau watches draw attention, something not seen often but may stir memories of watches their parents or grand parents wore when they were kids.
 
lillatroll
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A woman sitting opposite me on a train to the airport noticed my Omega ‘Banana’ apart from that, never. If I see someone were an interesting watch I might mention it depending on the situation and if the person does not look to concerned about the fact that some hairy guy with big earrings is looking at his wrist for way too much time.
 
gbesq
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Actually, one of the best things about Omegas is that they are generally NOT noticed except by those of us who know something about watches. I bought my Omegas because I like them, not to show them off.
 
STANDY
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Had two young 20s guys Locally mention my Speedmaster in the last 12 months. One at a cafe and the other at a clothing store. Both mentioned they want one someday. So plenty of young WIS around nowadays.
 
Dan S
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Bill Sohne Bill Sohne
happend a few times .....

Once while at a mattress store.... sales guy said " oh you must like high quality ... like your Sub..... guess that is why your here shopping for a bed here" ... My reply " oh this watch ? its a fake I just picked up on a visit to NYC"... salesman walked away and left me alone...

Second time....
At a Costco in Fla ..... wearing my Sub again.... TV manager i was talking to said ..." hey thats a great red sub .." once again I said " oh its a fake " He replied no its not. He was a watch guy and always said hi when i went there to get stuff for my parents ....

third time
In Thiland ... wearing my 66 Speedy Pro.... walked by a seller of watches on the street ... asked if i wanted to buy one , I said I already have a fake on my wrist that i got from another seller .... He quickly looked down and said ... " that is a real one !: I smiled and walked away....
l

I am curious why you are inclined to tell people that your authentic watch is fake, when they admire it. If I were the person giving you the compliment, I would feel a bit insulted and put off.

It has never happened to me, but if someone ever admires my watch, I will certainly thank them for noticing.
 
madjestikmoose
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Dan S Dan S
I am curious why you are inclined to tell people that your authentic watch is fake, when they admire it.

With sales people, I can completely understand why. If they think you’ve got enough disposable income for a luxury watch, they assume you’ll therefore spend likewise in their shop. No discounts for this guy! I deliberately left my Speedmaster off my wrist when I bought my car for this reason.
 
gbesq
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Dan S Dan S
I am curious why you are inclined to tell people that your authentic watch is fake, when they admire it. If I were the person giving you the compliment, I would feel a bit insulted and put off.

It has never happened to me, but if someone ever admires my watch, I will certainly thank them for noticing.
Perhaps because he values his privacy and doesn’t want the attention? I see nothing unreasonable about that nor why anyone would take offense. He certainly wasn’t being rude in his response.
 
Dan S
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madjestikmoose madjestikmoose
With sales people, I can completely understand why. If they think you’ve got enough disposable income for a luxury watch, they assume you’ll therefore spend likewise in their shop. No discounts for this guy! I deliberately left my Speedmaster off my wrist when I bought my car for this reason.

gbesq gbesq
Perhaps because he values his privacy and doesn’t want the attention? I see nothing unreasonable about that nor why anyone would take offense. He certainly wasn’t being rude in his response.

I guess I can understand the response to a salesperson, since you might consider that they are being manipulative in admiring your watch, so turnabout is fair play. But I think I would be mildly offended if I sincerely admired someone's watch and they shut me down by falsely claiming it was fake. But yes, it makes sense if you are trying to avoid attention/interactions.
Edited:
 
JwRosenthal
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I worked in sales for 8 years while getting my education (food service or retail seemed to be the rite of passage for college students back in those days). I had a customer come in, ratty engineer boots. old band t-shirt, jeans and scraggly beard and pony tail. He was soft spoken and incredibly articulate- and was wearing an older matte dialed Tritium sub (yes, I did notice it although I would never comment on it nor would it have affected the quality of service I provided). We spoke for a while and turns out he was a music producer. He actually thanked me for being so helpful as most people aren’t helpful in retail anymore. He spend $3.5k in my store that day where a normal sale would have been $1-200. We notice things like that in sales, but only a tacky used car salesman would actually say anything about it or use it as a qualifier.
Edited:
 
Tet
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Can't remember anyone ever commenting on a watch I've been wearing, apart from family when they know I've recently bought one so they're looking out for it.

The question is am I doing something wrong, or something right?
 
MikiJ
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Back in the day I was in the restaurant business. It took a couple of years for me to "crack the nut". When I had a profitable business I decided to treat my wife and I to new Patek matching "Ladies and Gents" Nautilus.
Often one of our customers would ask about the I was wearing and I would take it off for them to look at. Most of them said they would have thought I would have bought Rolex. I often said that yes we're doing well but not that well 😁
 
gbesq
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MikiJ MikiJ
Back in the day I was in the restaurant business. It took a couple of years for me to "crack the nut". When I had a profitable business I decided to treat my wife and I to new Patek Ladies and Gents Nautilus. Often one of our customers would ask about the I was wearing and I would take it off for them to look at. Most of them said they would have thought I would have bought Rolex. I often said that yes we're doing well but not that well 😁
You have to hand it to Rolex. I don't much care for their watches, but they are second to none when it comes to marketing and brand awareness.
 
alfanator
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I was at a car club drive 15+ years ago, and noticed one of the members with a cream dial Exp 2, he is not a watch guy. A couple of years ago, he reached out and offered to trade it with a camera i had on sale on a different forum, remembering our interaction. We did the trade 😀
 
Donn Chambers
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Only comments I get are from my wife, and it’s always: “Did you just buy ANOTHER watch?!”
 
BlackTalon
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Twice strangers have started conversations with me when I was wearing a Speedmaster -- one collected '60s Omega watches and the other had just bought a Reduced.

I have not started conversations with strangers, but I have with a handful of people I barely know -- mainly contractors. Both times I asked about Planet Oceans the owners were not really into watches as much as they bought them because they periodically like to buy new expensive watches. The people wearing Seamasters have been a mixed bag, with several owning vintage or other new Omegas and preferring Seamasters for daily wear.
 
gbesq
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Donn Chambers Donn Chambers
Only comments I get are from my wife, and it’s always: “Did you just buy ANOTHER watch?!”
Most of my watches are stainless steel with bracelets. For whatever reason, my other half seems to think that they're all the same watch and doesn't notice when I add to the collection. Who am I to argue? I suspect that she's doing the same thing to me with shoes.
 
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