Mission accomplished...

[Hamilton Carvalho]

My *%^$&$& car broke down again and for 3 days my mechanic tried to fix the %$$#% thing and so far no success. In the meantime since I didn't have anything to do at the shop except see them work on my car, I did what I usually do which is to turn normal human beings into freak watch collectors. On the first day they told me they couldn't care less for watches and even used four letter words to express exactly how they felt about watches. I couldn't care less for what they said since this is pretty normal to me to experience this kind of attitude from those who can't appreciate the art of a watch. I told them about my own experience as a watch collector, how many watches I've owned in 32 years, all the friends that I have around the world and I spoke about the many different brands of watches I've owned. All these talk about watches kept them from working. They actually stop to work to listen to me and the owner even got the customers involved in the conversation. On the second day I brought my International Watch magazine with the intention to start a little fire. Everybody wanted to see the magazine and again we spent the day talking about watches. Yesterday, the owner of the shop came to me and said "Hamilton can you please talk to me about watches? I want to hear more." Needless to say that we spent another day speaking about watches. He also invited some of his customers to make part of our conversation by saying "come here you've got to listen to this guy, he knows a lot about watches." I felt a little uncomfortable because I don't know a lot about watches, I'm just a watch lover not an expert. Anyway, at this point he is interesting in getting a Daytona and a Panerai. Now, what did I get out of this? Well, he charges $75.00 an hour for all the work done in his shop. My %$%#% car had an electrical problem and it took them 6 hours to fix the problem. At the end of the day he gave me a bill for $150.00, that's all. I was speechless. I have a few watches that I want to sell and he asked me to take to his shop next Monday - he may buy something. Funny thing, he was the first one to say how much he didn't care about watches. His worst mistake? He listened to me and I gave him the bug.

[jasonbellevue]

Mission accomplished, indeed. Good job there Hamilton.

Pretty soon, he's going to be on TRF.

[ezmoney46]

Originally Posted by Hamilton Carvalho

My *%^$&$& car broke down again and for 3 days my mechanic tried to fix the %$$#% thing and so far no success. In the meantime since I didn't have anything to do at the shop except see them work on my car, I did what I usually do which is to turn normal human beings into freak watch collectors. On the first day they told me they couldn't care less for watches and even used four letter words to express exactly how they felt about watches. I couldn't care less for what they said since this is pretty normal to me to experience this kind of attitude from those who can't appreciate the art of a watch. I told them about my own experience as a watch collector, how many watches I've owned in 32 years, all the friends that I have around the world and I spoke about the many different brands of watches I've owned. All these talk about watches kept them from working. They actually stop to work to listen to me and the owner even got the customers involved in the conversation. On the second day I brought my International Watch magazine with the intention to start a little fire. Everybody wanted to see the magazine and again we spent the day talking about watches. Yesterday, the owner of the shop came to me and said "Hamilton can you please talk to me about watches? I want to hear more." Needless to say that we spent another day speaking about watches. He also invited some of his customers to make part of our conversation by saying "come here you've got to listen to this guy, he knows a lot about watches." I felt a little uncomfortable because I don't know a lot about watches, I'm just a watch lover not an expert. Anyway, at this point he is interesting in getting a Daytona and a Panerai. Now, what did I get out of this? Well, he charges $75.00 an hour for all the work done in his shop. My %$%#% car had an electrical problem and it took them 6 hours to fix the problem. At the end of the day he gave me a bill for $150.00, that's all. I was speechless. I have a few watches that I want to sell and he asked me to take to his shop next Monday - he may buy something. Funny thing, he was the first one to say how much he didn't care about watches. His worst mistake? He listened to me and I gave him the bug.

It's addictive, what can I say.



Steve

[SPACE-DWELLER]

Great story, Hamilton!

I also just talked and talked when I saw that Explorer today

[KLM]

That's great, Excellent story!!

[harvey]

hamilton... as always i love reading your threads!

i just hope he doesnt expect in return...the same "mates rates" he gave you when fixing your car! lol

[frostie]

Nice story

[ryan_m]

hey Hamilton. its sort of true that people in the shop dont really care for watches. like myself im a mechanic and never bring my rolex to work. its not like i can wear it anyways. but the owner of dealership i work at he wears a rolex. so its nice to see other rolex owners at work.

[badsmac]

Preaching the gospel of watches.

[Troy]

Got me have 3 of his past watches....lol

[RolexNoob]

Ham,

maybe he will get you that Pepsi you have been looking for. You need to convince him to buy two of them. One for you. and ONe for him.

[roadcarver]

Preach him the good word! Watches, its all us guys have!

[Leighton]

Hamilton, the ambassador, the apostle of time!

[Hamilton Carvalho]

Originally Posted by Leighton

Hamilton, the ambassador, the apostle of time!

[daibach]

A guy at work spotted my SS GMT-IIc last week and commented at how he could never imagine spending so much money on "just a watch".

We chatted for a while about Rolex and the other watches I own. He even got to wear "Jimmy" for a little while.

When I came back from lunch he was looking at the IWC web site!

I give him a few weeks at the most.

[oztimelord]

My workmates initially thought I was a bit when I told them about my passion for watches. The big irony is that I work for a swiss bank and in Singapore and Switzerland they think I'm a guru. In Australia they scratch their head in disbelief when I tell them the prices of some of my watches.

The bug does hit hard as 3 people in the office have already bought a decent watch after having a chat to me.

How perspectives change

Regards
Rene