Reply With QuoteSomeone I work with has an old-looking CWC quartz. As far as I know he was never in the armed forces but I am vaguely interested to know how he came about it, as it's not something with typical showroom appeal.Originally Posted by Dave O'Sullivan
Don't like the term 'in the wild' but you know what I mean. What's the most interesting watch you've seen out and about? I always check customer's wrists when they come in and the other day, a guy came in with a military issue Seiko 7a28. Not the most expensive but a proper enthusiasts watch.
Someone I work with has an old-looking CWC quartz. As far as I know he was never in the armed forces but I am vaguely interested to know how he came about it, as it's not something with typical showroom appeal.
...but what do I know; I don't even like watches!
i always like seeing a rolex pepsi gmt, i dont know why, it just cheers me up.
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
Saw a black Audemars Alinghi on the central line once. That was very cool.
One of my customers comes in wearing a quite battered Speedy Pro. On its own the watch wouldn't be that cool, but he got it and wore it whilst he was a Navy Phantom pilot. Pretty cool as a result!
My economics prof wore/wears a AL+S Pour le Merite tourbillion which I find cool.
Clearly, he is very good at economics...
I had a patient who wore an old issued Rolex. Dont know Rolexes at all so cant be more precise than that. Apparently it was issued to his uncle in the 60s in Canadian forces if my memory serves me right.
I made sure that he was aware that it might be worth a reasonable amount of money. Didn't want someone taking it off his hands for buttons.
A gold RM on the wrist of a chap in a Cobra, in a traffic queue next to me on the way into the Goodwood Revival. He was wearing a period flying jacket, hat & gogles too. Very cool combo.
Memorably and recently, a Plexi Sea-Dweller on the wrist of someone next to me at the pub who worked in a saturation diving and wore it under 242 metres of water. COMEX was a big part of Norway's industry in the '70s and '80s.
This one
I was sat in a curry house with someone I used to work with and he had a Heuer Autavia 7763 on his wrist. He knew nothing about watches but this had been left to him by his father-in-law and he wore it every day.
"A man of little significance"
For me definitely not coolest but more under category most expensive. Rafa Nadal's Richard Mille!
My son spent a lot of time in a comic book store playing fantasy card games when he was about 12 to 13 yrs old. One day I walked in to pick him up and noticed one of his young friends wearing a Hamilton Ventura. I was a little stunned....
A friend of my dads wears a Comex sub as his daily beater.
The first time we chatted in a pub in Manchester he was amazed I recognised it for what it was - second person in 15 years apparently.
His brother was a professional diver, ex-military, who died while diving an Oil rig (big news in the 80's but I can't remember the name of it!) and left the watch to him.
I've seen a couple
First was a rolex milsub. All original and full spec. The chap was very surprised I recognised it. Come to think of it, I saw another milsub on a chap once, one Mr Haywood Milton.
Third was a crazy expensive patek. I had tried on a similar watch at David Duggan just a few weeks prior to spotting it on the District Line. DD wanted £185k for his. . .
I haven't actually seen any cool watches "in the wild". But I always enjoy going to talk to my watchmaker/ friend's dad and seeing him wearing either his 50th anniversary Green Sub or Steel Cosmograph. They're a special pair of watches.
For me it was a couple of years ago and a Rolex 1655 Explorer II (aka the McQueen) on the wrist of an old timer. We were both sitting in the waiting area of a Bealls department store in Ormond Beach (near Daytona), Florida. We got chatting as we were waiting for our respective wives and he commented on my accent. I told him I was on vacation, staying with my wife's family in Ormond. He told me he had moved to Florida as a young engineer in the 1960's to work on the space programme and had then stayed at NASA up until retirement. I noticed his 1655 and, wearing my 16700 GMT, told him that his watch was a beauty and a good 30 years older than my Rolex. He said he had had it for about forty years and worn it day in, day out...
This is going to seem very self-indulgent, but TBH the coolest watch IMO I have seen in the wild is this one (surely it makes sense to already own what 'one' might see as a cool watch)
When we first moved to Southend I was in the line at Sainsburys and a rather unsuspecting chap in his early 40's in front of my turned and commented on my Omega 1040 Seamster Chronograph, the watch was my first punt in to Vintage Omegas and I had only had it a few days so I was really chuffed someone has recognised it! he asked about the watch then revealing his cushion case Speedsonic which was his father and passed down, we had a WIS moment before we went our own ways, as I was putting the shopping in the back of my humble Golf GTI he passed me and wound down his window, said 'great meeting you' and of he whizzed in his black Ferrari 599!
NICE
Last edited by dickstar1977; 25th February 2013 at 19:02.
Sounds like the Ferrari was a fake. A genuine one should have electric windows.
Ha ha, wondered why it looked like an MR2 with a body kit!Sounds like the Ferrari was a fake. A genuine one should have electric windows.
Interviewed a guy who had one of Eddie's PRS10 on a bond NATO. He got the job, and first day he had a PRS17c on a leather aviator-style strap!
I've seen a few vintage subs. Anything I spot that's battered and formerly expensive (vintage Rolex/Omega etc. that have really been worn) always make me happy.
Met Jamie Redknapp at Terminal 4, Heathrow a few years ago and he was wearing the AP Royal Oak Offshore T3 model, the watch looked stunning.
Last edited by shalako; 26th February 2013 at 18:37.
I spotted a couple of times that a consultant my firm uses wears a lovely white gold A. Lange and sohne, until on the day I had a chance to talk to him about it, he was wearing a rose gold H Moser & Cie,
not sure on exact models, both were simple, but large enough to be modern watches at least 40mm +,
AL&S was a small second version, the rose gold Moser was a power reserve
2 very cool watches in the wild on one person!
saying that a recruitment consultant I was introduced to, where normally the order of priority seems to alternate only between sharpness of suit, extremeness of haircut and "cock" level of car as a measure of OT earnings, was wearing a lovely birth-year GMT pepsi his father gave him when he graduated, needless to say he got our buisness....
and only goes to confirm that we are using the right sort of people to guide and support our business in my opinion
Lv
We were in a coffee shop about to complete a deal with a fellow Turfer on an 16610LV , when we noticed one of the clients wearing one as he bought his coffee !
What are the chances of that !
Apart from my Glycine SST the "coolest" I have seen is a McQueen Exp II on a guy I shoot with, who bought it brand new.
I saw something very unusual today: in an anodyne NHS canteen there was a 40something woman sat wearing a Rolex Daytona. At first I wondered if it was real, as she wasn't fantastically well turned out. The watch looked the real deal though and so did the huge diamond on the her wedding ring, so I concluded it was indeed kosher.
Nice watch, and S2K; still miss mine daily.This is going to seem very self-indulgent, but TBH the coolest watch IMO I have seen in the wild is this one (surely it makes sense to already own what 'one' might see as a cool watch)
A couple I play real tennis with have matching Patek Nautilus watches. Another real tennis pal has an 18ct gold day/date on a cordovan - he bought it from a mate when he was in Navy in the Falklands for £100.
About 10 years ago, I met an old guy through work who had a Patek Perpetual Chrono (I'm not great with older Patek ref's but I think 3970E). I didn't really know him well enough to get a good look at it, but I was transfixed to see one in the wild. I don't think he was really a WIS, but he seemed to like the good things in life, and was very old-school - he had a Bentley Brooklands coupe, which I think actually goes with a Patek Perpetual very well.
To me spoting a cool watch is more about the situation and person wearing it than the actual watch. To spot a weathered looking old man in a pub wearing a beat up Seiko diver is more interesting to me than to see some guy in a suit wearing a Patek.
Definitely my dad's GMT Master Pepsi that he has had since 1967 (wedding present). It has been everywhere with him, he worked abroad for ages, never taken off, truly a beater.
The bracelet is loose, the bezel is stuck, and he has only had it for a service once in its 45 years! But it has character.
I saw a vintage non-date Submariner on the Singapore Metro the other day, very yellowed lume, loved the plexi, looked very, very cool.
I recently saw CGI artist I was working with wearing an unusual vintage Seiko chronograph, which looked a lot like some of the classier vintage Omega chronos or pre-Daytona Rolex. He said he'd found it lying around in his father's draw with a bunch of other dusty old watches. I couldn't find anything like it online and after a while gave up. His father turned out to be the official horologist to the Queen! I can only imagine what else was in the draw.
Probably not the coolest but I was surprised to see someone wearing a Damasko at an Airport once.
Not very exotic I suppose, but last year I saw someone on the Edinburgh - Glasgow Central train wearing a Speedmaster Mk4,5. Until then it was the only time I'd ever seen one outside the internet. I liked it so much that I got one myself.
Coolest I have seen was PP Nautilus in Kazan airport and it looked like a real deal not a fake. Guy who was
wearing it looked wealthy enough to own one.
That would be me.
I am a government worker, and it will be no shock that my colleagues are also. One, however, wears an AP Royal Oak blue dial chronograph. Jaw-droppingly beautiful, much more so than in photos. I delicately inquired about where he picked it up (i.e., so how was shopping at cheapreplicas.cn?), prepared to turn him in for graft if he answered wrong. I learned that the guy comes from money and works public service as a choice. Good bloke, but must be nice . . .
I work at Schiphol Airport and I have seen a lot of exclusive watches there. The most bizarre one was an old Chinese guy, he had a gold daytona on his left wrist. When he shook my hand i saw a gold santos on his other wrist.
Another really nice watch was from a guy just returning from the watch expo in Moscow, he was wearing the prototype Devon thread 1 steampunk
Damn you guys have seen some really cool stuff out there!
How I'd love to even just see a tread 1 or any other of these watches in person.
We were at a Welcome to Yorkshire tourism meeting last year and sat with a very well spoken chap who was sporting a yellow gold A Lange & Sohn Tourbillon. Not sure of the number or model but it caught my attention immediately. Even Mrs Puntsdog had clocked it and spoke to me about it afterwards. Seems the chap was into exporting clothing and stuff and had made his pennies there. Now he runs a guest house like a ranch or something!
Patek Nautilus on an older (65 ish) guy in a (non-cannabis) cafe in Amsterdam. Suited him.
I spotted a Stowa Flieger on the bus on the wrist of a fellow student heading to university a few years ago. That was pretty unexpected.
Lanzarote last year, waiter at a restaurant sporting a rather nice 'early Seiko Tuna. Had to comment, and he tells me his father handed it down to him - clearly sentimentally attached to it :)
Sat beside a gent on the train a few years ago, wearing a Rolex Sub with a plexi crystal. Discovered he had worked in the oil industry for years and had worn the watch daily. Didn't know enough back then to identify the model. Envious me?
I had a physiotherapist who wore a GMT Master and later a Bremont Alt1-P. Before I had bought my first Rolex or Bremont.
Dave
Last edited by dforgrieve; 28th February 2013 at 00:59.
Good point . Local builder has a 2254 and it's absolutely mullered
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
My Fathers mate Dick Slatcher with his Omega WWW.
Me in 1977 "Had it long Dick"
Dick "Ohh ages"
Me "When did you get it then"
Dick "Can't really remember but I certainly had it when I was demobbed from the RAF in 46".
A cricketing friend of mine, Stan, with a Rolex Datejust (I think) in 1984 or thereabouts, solid gold case and bracelet. When the game was in progress this would usually be entrusted to the Umpire, Dave Bates, along with several wallets, loose money and other watches. After the game Batesy would dish out the goods to whoever claimed them as he often couldn't remember who gave him what. Stan's Rolex was the only one that everone knew who it belonged to. Batesy would often go home, on Saturday night with the Rolex in his pocket or on his wrist. When we met for Sundays game Stan would enquire if Batesy had his watch only to give it back to him in an hours time. Stan was - still is - a smashing bloke. It was just a watch to him.
i was looking at this on Ebay. looks pretty cool! vintage lookThis is going to seem very self-indulgent, but TBH the coolest watch IMO I have seen in the wild is this one (surely it makes sense to already own what 'one' might see as a cool watch)
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