Travelling with AP Too Risky?

[LUDA]

Originally Posted by kb866

Just had an incident in the El Born area of Barcelona last week. I deliberately did not wear a watch and left my wallet and watch (PP 5811) in the hotel safe. I was wearing a polo shirt, light nylon jacket, jeans, and sneakers - nothing fancy. I was with three colleagues of mine. After leaving dinner and walking towards the road to hail a cab, I was approached by 2 young men, most likely in their 20's. One of them grabbed my left arm, rolled up the sleeve on my windbreaker to check for a watch, and when he found I wasn't wearing a watch, proceeded to go towards my front pocket to make a grab for my phone. I instinctively thrust my elbow into his abdomen which sent him to the ground. This all took place over the course of a few seconds at most. At this point, the colleagues with me started shouting for help. Both would-be robbers turned and ran.

The entire incident seemed very strange to me. I was not wearing my jacket during dinner and we dined outside. It was clear I was not wearing a watch and the rest of what I had on was not worth stealing except for possibly my phone (just an iPhone with a clear acrylic case). It was clear they were after a watch though. The only explanation I can think of was that someone saw me wearing the watch during a customer lunch in the hotel or walking between the hotel lobby, my room and the restaurant we had lunch at. That was the only time I wore my watch the entire trip. When leaving for dinner, I asked the hotel concierge to write the address for the restaurant, during this time I had my jacket on and wrists hidden. My guess is the concierge tipped off the two would-be robbers and they waited for us to leave the restaurant.

I live in London, and despite its bad reputation, I've never had any problems there taking the tube and walking everywhere. I seem to get targeted frequently in Barcelona. Previously I've had people make an attempt on my laptop carrying backpack in broad daylight and my phone ripped directly from my hands as I was using it to send a text message. Someone ripped a fairly cheap/thin gold necklace right off my wife's neck in Barcelona.

My work often takes me to Jakarta, Manila, New Orleans, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo. At these places I would always hire a driver and possibly someone to handle security for myself and colleagues traveling with me. I've had enough incidents in Barcelona now that I consider it completely unsafe and will no longer consider going there without a driver to get around and private security. Despite the city being beautiful and historic, I would not ever consider vacationing there. As for other cities in Europe or the US, honestly, they seem a whole lot safer than Barcelona to me and I've never been targeted so brashly. I've had things stolen but never any outright robbery attempts anywhere else.

Sorry that happened to you, and good thing you were clever and were not wearing a watch, and also you reacted fast against those POS.

Did you report it to the police? Even if they didn't end up stealing anything from you they could look into it, probably those 2 guys are already known to them so they could get one more in their list of pending stuff.

Being from a city near Barcelona, and working there for over 10 years I can tell you there's people wearing their nice watches for years without the issues you encountered, you really had bad luck, or are a very easy target to spot.

Or someone tipped them or you really look like a wealthy guy, which sometimes isn't good.

Originally Posted by brandrea

Reading this thread one things clear …the only practical answer is to wear a watch if you feel comfortable. If you have to ask, generally the answer is don’t.

We can all cherry pick a city, pretty much anywhere, and come up with a statistic to support why it’s dangerous or why it’s safe.

I hear Rome, Paris and London mentioned frequently as places where it’s not safe to where a Rolex (I realize this is the AP forum).

I guess my question would be, where do all the people who are locals, who live, work and play in these cities wear their watches? Presumably ADs sell to locals more than tourists, so one would assume a good number of Roman’s (say) own AP’s.

Perhaps they just keep their watch in a safe at home and wait to wear it when they go …. where exactly?

That's a great point I sometimes also make. There are thousands of locals in those cities wearing nice watches daily without issues. But they are locals, they don't move around the tourist traps speaking foreign languages. Wealthy tourists are a way easier target for thieves.

Knowing the city and where you will be going helps. There are days I might wear a Daytona, and other days I will just wear a Tissot.

Originally Posted by AperolSpritz

I am and used to be a local in these very 3 cities.
Yes, there are gangs specialized in watch theft, coming either from southern Italy or eastern europe. They are very specialized and they know what to go after (probably read this forum ).
Yet they target mostly wealthy tourists. As a local you generally don't find yourself going to the most touristic areas everyday.

So my own experience, is that I never had a single issue, even wearing loud watches in short sleeves, day and night. But I know the cities and would be more cautious in some areas, not necessarily bad neighborhoods but touristic areas.

Exactly my experience too.

But lately (last 2-3 years) I pay attention to the people I pass by walking and I see lots of eyes going to the wrists (mine too), specially guys from some northern Africa areas... I feel when they realize you see what they are doing they might move on to the next easier target.

[rcwatchcollector]

I think the thieves don’t even really know what watches are valuable. A plastic tonneau shaped cheap Watch looks like an RM from a few feet away. I saw some guy in NYC with one it looked like an RM 11 but was just some random plastic watch.

I blame instagram and social media for ruining the ability to wear nice watches all over the place.


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[edo]

Believe me that gangs that steal APs and RMs in Europe exactly know what they steal and where watches go next morning...

[rcwatchcollector]

Originally Posted by edo

Believe me that gangs that steal APs and RMs in Europe exactly know what they steal and where watches go next morning...

Yeah most likely. For me in NYC I feel safe with my watches. But I think the whole awareness of watches by thieves definitely has me a bit worried I’ll be robbed.


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[edo]

Originally Posted by rcwatchcollector

Yeah most likely. For me in NYC I feel safe with my watches. But I think the whole awareness of watches by thieves definitely has me a bit worried I’ll be robbed.


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The thing about RM is they are too easily moved to drug cartels lord lowlifes who don't care about papers and from where watch comes... and like normal people with lot of money they also have problem allocating one from the boutique and don't want to pay gray premium ... so the most horror stories of watch cutting from the hand comes in RM case... AP is probably second most popular in these circles...