Reply With QuoteWore my BLNR the whole time we were there, but, yes, there are bits of Naples that, at certain times of the day/night,it’s safer in a pocket than on your wrist.Originally Posted by figureeight
Two waiters coming running over, point at my Sub and show me something they’ve written in a language translator app on their phone.
It translated into English: “if your watch is good, you will not show it”, wagging their fingers at me. I shuffled the watch into my bag. Had no problems, but was naturally unsettling.
I’m assuming they meant if I walked around with a nice watch, I’d be relieved of it by someone. I spent a week in Amalfi surrounded by strangers with gold Sky-Dwellers and Daytonas, feeling somewhat like the ugly duckling, so this episode took me by surprise. Didn’t know Naples was particularly prone to this sort of thing, but perhaps a warning to anyone planning on going there to be careful.
Pizza place was a well-known pizzeria in the historical district of the city.
—
This has been a long post, so as compensation: there’s a D-Blue 126660 and PM CHNR in an AD window there if anyone is on the hunt
Wore my BLNR the whole time we were there, but, yes, there are bits of Naples that, at certain times of the day/night,it’s safer in a pocket than on your wrist.
Funnily enough, I'm currently travelling with a security consultant and Naples came up on the list of dodgiest places when we were talking earlier; somewhere between Erbil and Mosul.
Oh holy mother of God, no.
Been there with a local and agree with the idea of putting your watch/wallet/wife/loved one/etc away and putting a Casio on your wrist and look destitute.
Crime there is dreadful.
Luckily most the time I've been driving about there I've been in a 15 year old Italian Fiat so don't look like a tourist.
The pizza is awesome though. Worth risking your watch/wallet/wife for.
Naples is the wild-west of Italy, this is true.
My colleague was attacked in Naples for his watch and wallet last summer, but he managed to get away.
I think Naples is a nice city, but it’s one of the few cities in the western world where I’d not wear an expensive watch.
Has anyone got any experience of wearing an expensive watch in London?
Was wearing my GS today, and my Speedmaster and other GS last week.
Didn't die, but was careful (non-watch hand hanging on on the tube, watch under cuff on the other)
You didn’t know Naples is bad for street crime? Do you live under a rock, OP?!
Barcelona isn’t much better.
I once wore my Sub on a campsite in the Dordogne, while gangs of spotty, shirtless youths, carrying table tennis bats, roamed free. But then I'm f***ing mad, me
Fair point, well made.
I suppose I could have guessed it was bad for street crime, but I don’t study the stats, nope! Wasn’t the first thing on my mind after a week in Amalfi
I ate foreign food once, disgusting it was, never again, I’ll stick with a good curry from the Raj Palace!
Perhaps they were just distracting you while they cloned your credit card?
Watch Gomorrah
This, from experience.
Yeah I have. But there’s London and there’s London. The London that people not from London tend to visit when they visit London is safe as houses. No one will steal your Rolex there because they’ll trip over another Rolex when they try to run away.
On a night out in South East, I drew a watch on my wrist in biro and that still got stolen.
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
Tee Hee!😁😁I once wore my Sub on a campsite in the Dordogne, while gangs of spotty, shirtless youths, carrying table tennis bats, roamed free. But then I'm f***ing mad, me
Went to Naples last August. Was kindly advised by a good friend from over there that the locals might take it personally if I show up with an expensive watch. Their philosophy is that, as lots of them are poor, it's offensive to implicitely brag about your income so they will 'redistribute' it in a very socialist manner. It turned out that my Nomos Campus was a good choice, never had the feeling that anyone spared a second glance.
Btw - the very same friend told me that, while advising some other visitors about watches and wallets, he got his own wallet stolen... But because he's a local, he found it the next day with all the documents (ID, etc), less the money. Decent fellows.
One more thing - here's a picture of an altar dedicated to Maradona. In a bar. The paper below the altar says that, should you take a pic and not buy a coffee, your camera might fall from your hand and that would be a pity... I enjoyed my coffee, was a really good one for not much money.
Last edited by Wooster; 25th June 2018 at 22:28.
Errr, yes. I live in London...
Simon
I went to Sorrento the year before last, primarily to climb up Vesuvius, and spend time in Pompeii, Herculenium and the Naples roman museum. The only time i suddenly became aware i had my Exp II on and it may not be a good idea was down in the bowels of the Naples subway, i became aware there were a LOT of very dodgy looking guys down there. Probably my 6ft4in 20st shaven headed and scarred frame stopped me being a target but my eyeballs were everywhere down there. Had a great day there other than that though.
ktmog6uk
marchingontogether!
Company I worked for had an office in Naples, some of the guys had some very nice watches
and cars, they all came to work on Vespas and wearing G shocks and was warned not to
wear anything decent when I visited. One of our clients had her gold Hublot ripped off her
wrist as well, she should have known better being a local.
Driving in Naples is an experience as well.
We went to Naples for a week and it was utter madness. We both wore vintage rolexes the whole time and nothing happened, but it's honestly bonkers. I found it the closest experience to Calcutta that I've had in Europe. Calcutta was cleaner though.
Sent from my VTR-L09 using TZ-UK mobile app
Naples has been an area of relatively high deprivation for a very very long time. It's had an accompanying reputation for that same time as a crime hotspot.
Never does any harm to provide a heads up but this is one of the least surprising warnings we're likely to get.
Call no man happy till he's dead.
That part of Italy is deprived and there is much more of a take going on than other parts. Personally prefer Tuscany and the north of Italy. Would not rush back to Naples or Sorrento (even though stunnung). Absolutely planning to go back elsewhere though as we love the food, culture and people.
No such worries in Weston super mare tonight with my Holliday watch,I was openly photographing it after finishing my fish and chips by the grand pier.
The only sign of any menace was Batman
[url=https://postimg.cc/image/vajqdq3xp/][img]https://s22.postimg.cc
Last edited by bwest76; 26th June 2018 at 00:17.
Batman? How the hell did you get one of them? Did you pay over list?The only sign of any menace was Batman
Robbed it a knifepoint from a geezer holidaying in Naples
The story has been previously told, but Rolex and everything else stolen in Como. We wondered if we were targeted in a restaurant and followed home because I was wearing it.
Casio make great holiday watches...
Every day. Including some of the more fruity places. Sub, Speedy, Black Bay, SMPC...never had any trouble. Eyes open, wits about, don't flaunt it but otherwise fine. Was out and about after watching Iran-Portugal tonight in shirt sleeves, so what?
This whole 'I'm wearing a nice watch so I'm going to get mugged' hysteria is getting out of hand. Yes it happens but as a % of all the thousands of people in London who wear a Rolex etc.? It's a tiny number. And, while some are just unlucky (as a few on here have been, and have my sympathies), most who get mugged present themselves as a victim in some way. I've seen enough pissed/high bankers in the City who wouldn't even notice being relieved of their watch while slumped in shop doorway or asleep on the tube.
Muggers look for easy targets, not for a challenge.
London is generally a very safe city for those who don't invite trouble.
That reminds me, I once fell asleep in the early hours on a bench on Rue du Rhône in Geneva as it seemed to be too much hassle to get home at the time. I was shaken awake at around 3am which immediately put me into a bit of panic. The fellow who had woken me pointed at the ground and told me that my mobile phone had fallen out of my top pocket.
I think you are wrong some get of on the violence,the sense of entitlement one of them had in an interview
Was shocking.
It was I have decided to take it no one will stop me or they will get hurt.
I thought you were going to say he had chided you for sleeping in an untidy manner.
I think there was a Ross Kemp’s Extreme World on Naples, worth a look. They used to have old school mafia, but now they have insane kids on scooters, which sounds familiar. That said, up and down the nearby Amalfi coast, Capri and Pompeii, no problems at all.
In terms of London there’s definitely two Londons. Central London, I’ve never had any problems and have lived there my whole life. Out of my comfort zone and in unknown territory I sometimes go vintage, including vintage ‘it’s just a Seiko’ GS. But I’ve never been one for big + expensive + obvious as a look anyway, there’s something to be said for subtlety.
And as others have said, don’t look like the weakest of the heard late at night, just the way you walk can imply there are easier pickings. Not always the easiest if you’ve had a few too many but a bit of mental focus can achieve it!
Although I live in rural Lincolnshire now, I grew up in South East London, Peckham to be precise. I remember visiting the old manor recently catching up with friends and while out for a drink my Pepsi GMT which I wore had caught the eye of a small group of potential would be takers. “Nice watch” I hear one of them exclaim as I walk past their group. “It’s a fake” I say, “Off East Street market bruv.” In my best local accent. Case closed, no further interest in my watch and no longer a potential target for a watch jacking. Anyone else claimed a real watch was fake to avoid a situation?
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
Naples is notorious for moped thieves. I'm shocked you didn't read this in any of your research.
If you went through a travel agent, dump them. That's one of the biggest things to be aware of specifically with Naples.
Where I'm from its assumed fake & I've never felt the need to correct that assumption.
Did no research, and didn’t go through an EA. We were only passing through on our way back from Sorrento, Positano, etc. - only popped into the city centre to kill some time before our flight. Perhaps not the brightest move, but we like an adventure and lesson learned. We grew up in the rougher end of London, so normally know how to handle ourselves.
Was just surprised to receive a warning from a local!
One thing we were warned about in advance was the driving standards. And everything we heard was true, but worse.
All sounds very familiar! I’ve never had any problems in London my whole life, whatever watch I’ve been wearing. At least I now perhaps have a permissible excuse with the missus to buy some more (lower-end) watches.
No doubt about that. I saw someone losing their Rolex right in front of me via the moped brigade. They obviously had someone at the port watching people coming off the cruise ships and that was him targeted once 100 yards up the hill and standing at the first main road at the pedestrian crossing. He was the first that day but was certainly not the last, based on feedback later that day.
I am a frail old man just a whisker from his 3 score years and ten.
I recently spent a couple of days in Naples wearing the 1655 and my wife wore her YG Rolex in Naples and neither of us even noticed any ruffians.
I suspect that some here potter around in the more dubious areas looking dodgy night clubs etc.
Bloody hell - it must be bad if even the mopedophiles are scared of being robbed! What kind of vehicle do you need to prey on a Vespa-rider - I have apocalytic visions of a ne'er-do-well descending from the skies riding a Pterodactyl bareback?
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
The entire city looks dubious.
Much more likely to get mugged for your phone/laptop etc This is a watch forum so any watch (and there has it seems been a lot of publicised watch crime) incidents seem to hit closer to home..
Never had any issues in London/city - but i do remember being sensible when i picked up my lv from a tower block near canady wharf :)
Naples is undeniably a bit ‘moody’, but it’s not as bad as it’s often made out to be, and there’s a lot to like about the old city. It’s true though that the graffiti (common to other Italian cities also) and lack of rubbish collection at times doesn’t present the best image to the casual visitor.
Certainly, the central train station is a real hot-bed for thefts, but again that’s true of many places. Many of the really deprived areas featured in the likes of the Italian TV show ‘Gomorrah’ are away from the city centre, in the suburban area.
Amusingly though, on a train to Pompeii, I had an Italian bloke lean well forward to read the name of my watch (when he thought I was looking out the window), which he then communicated to his colleague – but I think (hope…) it was more curiosity at seeing a blue Orient Mako, as they seemed affable enough (or perhaps they only like 'Swiss Made'!).
Went to the Amalfi coast a couple of years ago. Spent a day in Naples, Wasn’t the nicest place I’ve ever been. However I did have my SDc on the whole time with no issues.
Apparently a couple of scrambler bikes and a stinger will do the trick.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-new...-halt-12789709
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crim...-a3672366.html
Last edited by alfat33; 26th June 2018 at 18:27.
Yes, wear one everyday.
I’ve never never had any problems.
Been to London many a time including watching football at..
Spurs
Arsenal
Chelsea
Fulham
Brentford
QPR
West Ham both grounds
Crystal Palace
Millwall
Visited museums, shops , bars and restaurants and theatres even that Winter wonderland place.
Been in taxis , tubes and buses never mind walking miles around the place.
Never had a problem wearing a Rolex watch , wouldn’t expect one to be honest.
Check out the 'wear in bed thread'.
Posting Permissions
