Horological Meandering

As I recently commented on in the AP forum, I saw a gentleman wearing a Carbon Concept at the AP Bal Harbour trunk show.  I was wondering what's the most impressive watch all of you have seen "in the wild?"

Truly in the wild, the nicest I can recall was an Offshore Tourbillon Chrono sitting next to me at dinner one night.

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. . . spotted on the wrist of a thirty-ish gentleman at an LA nightclub . . . cordially, Art

was worn by a friend.... cognac, friends, Paris...... what a great evening...... his watch on my wrist..... my favourite complication.....

cheers ps. I am certain that he will post a better photo of his watch.... maybe with a tour in the background?

to use someone you met from here, though NOBODY can dispute the wildness of the owner of that wrist



a

I'm sorry but I don't get your commend...

would you care to elaborate?

thanks

What I was meaning was that If you're having coffee with Nico, whom you know from thePurists, you know you're gonna see a nice watch. It isn't really "in the wild"

A

although it could be described as a "wild" night....

cheers

Mr. Amanico is the calmest, least wild person I know.

Or something
A

the hairy wrist?

does it qualify as wild?



cheers

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On the wrist of a knife dealer in NYC. The only time I have actually commented to a complete stranger on his watch...

a

Most amazing watches I saw:



















And many more...

Fr.Xavier
This message has been edited by foversta on 2010-03-11 12:55:46

 

This message has been edited by AnthonyTsai on 2010-03-12 09:36:59

Hey FX. I saw you wearing a 5970 R last week ....

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I've seen many great watches, but for the finest watch I ever saw at random in the wild, read this repost of something I wrote over two years ago:

So I'm sitting at Starbucks in Framingham, Massachusetts, twenty miles west of Boston, with my 3-3/4 year old son to get a snack. He hasn't napped so he's just hanging on to serenity by a thread. Sitting next to me is a gentleman, casually dressed in very fine clothing, sporting an asymmetric watch in a white metal. Hmmmm. I can't help but stare. You know what question I'd like to ask, but the man is talking with a female companion and I don't want to be rude, so I bite my tounge.

Ah, serendipity....they make like they are going to arm wrestle and the woman asks me to count to three. I oblige. The woman tries to  win and the man makes like he's in casual conversation with me, showing he is not feeling any exertion. I play along, "Please tell me about your watch," I say.

"It is a Patek Philippe." He takes it off and allows me to handle it. It is gorgeous. I reciprocate and hand him my VC Jubile 1755. It is not a fair trade, but the least I could do. He tells me that I'm only the second person to take notice of his watch. It's hard having a proper conversation with him, since my son keeps interrupting. I hand the watch back to him with thanks. Preventing the thread of serenity from being cut in a public space trumps WISdom.

Folks, it was a 3424 in platinum. They don't make them like they used to and they hardly made them then. This is the best picture I could find on the net, though it is of a white gold model (from Antiquorum).

 

I love that turn of phrase, Bill.  Do you mind if I use it?

Some of us around here perhaps hang onto sanity by a thread, too!

Nice story. I have nothing to match it but my only true 'in the wild' encounters have been a steel mid-1960's Omega Constellation on an elderly gentlemans wrist in one of our cities best coffee joints and a diamond encrusted Frank Muller in a large Cintree Curvex case in a nice restaurant in Singapore. The wearer was being flashy and loud in other ways too and I didn't feel comfortable engaging him in conversation about the watch. There have been other nice watches on wrists of shoppers in watch boutiques, but I kind of rule those out from true, random, in the wild sightings.

Andrew

One of the more interesting sightings I've experienced was seeing an Overseas Chronograph  (older model) on a guy's wrist while at the post office, when I was wearing the identical watch too!

Bill

I have never seen anything wild. One red submariner and possibly a simple PP calatrava .Perhaps I need to change my surroundings btu I have never come across a real collectors piece inthe wild.

Where are they all hiding??
Julian

But this forum's owner flashed one of his "postal scale" beauties at a casual GTG a few months back.
Pretty impressive.

Seating in front of me on flight from LAX to Toronto and yes it was in first class

but saw and touched urwerk cc1 during a watch event in Singapore and gasp when an esteemed moderator dropped it on a (luckily) chair. I thought I saw droplets of liquids running down his pants that nite .

cen@jkt

on a vintage car rallye in Kitzbuehel, Austria (pic by Paul Boutros):





The owner raced a Mercedes SSK, and took the Blancpain only of for racing - where he wore a Cartier Roadster!

Best,
Magnus

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... a guy I was seated next to at a work-related dinner. And I was wearing a Journe too!! For both of us the only time that happened "in the wild"

Andreas

As I was flying back to London last year from Basel, the fellow sitting in the row in front was wearing a Daniels Millenium piece. As we exited the plane at Heathrow, I noticed it peeking out from under his cuff of the tweed jacket he was wearing. So I made sure to sit next to him on the bus in to the terminal, and said to him, "That is a beautiful watch, it looks to be a Daniels Millenium watch" to which he replied it was and we then had a chat for about 5 minutes until we went into the terminal and parted ways. We discussed watchmaking and his passion for English watches. He had a rather special watch he had commissioned from Roger Smith that sounded superb, a tourbillon, that he was eagerly awaiting!
Not the most complicated, but certainly the most interesting from my perspective.
Cheers,
Tim

But I am nearly certain it was a fake...because it was a 5002 and the wearer didn't know what it was called.  I noticed the watch immediately and said, "Is that a Patek Philippe?" he replied "Yes! Good job!"  And even though I knew what it was (or what it was trying to be) i asked what kind it was.  He replied, "It's the tourbillon or whatever it is."  I asked where he got it and he said Chicago.  As he hurried off he said "it's nice because it's really complicated."

The whole situation made it seem like a fake.  I know that this is not an amazing watch obviously since it was fake, but as soon as I saw it i thought of this thread.

Have a good weekend!
B

Does this count?

It happened in the tiny old ABP store  a few years ago. Given that it is a watch strap atelier, you would expect that visitors might own or wear some decent hardware. As we were discussing the finer points of electric orange toadskin straps for a Panerai, a dashing English gentleman came into the store. It was enough that he was wearing a complicated Patek (no, sorry, no idea which: it was not a place to be staring intently!). However, he then produced a stylish leather watch-carrying case and from within that case he removed a watch carefully wrapped in a dustcloth and explained to the proprietor of the boutique that he wished to have a strap made for the watch in a colour similar to that of the case. That watch, even from a furtive glance at five paces, was dazzling for its elegance, presence and finesse. It was [then] not a familiar piece, but upon being unwrapped it 'filled' the entire boutique. Have you experienced such an effect?

The boutique owner handled the watch appreciatively and asked who the maker was. The Englshman replied with a name that sounded like 'Limousine', but it was indistinct. A subsequent retelling of the story and a  'callout' on this forum failed to produce any insight as to what that watch might have been, but it was possible to know instinctively that it was very special. The identity of that piece has remained a vexing mystery, and the failure to overcome reserve and engage the gentleman in conversation has remained an eternal regret. Any insights, even now, would be most welcome.

 

Cheers,

pplater.