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Rep spotting on the London Tube

xray7

Renowned Member
1/4/18
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Old Dart
In my second year of undergrad, I got a job on the railways. I only did it a year but it springboarded me into other roles. The things to which you pay attention in certain jobs do come with the job.

Watching passengers and people in and around stations, back those years ago on the rails in Australia, one thing I got taught was "crooks don't need to know the time, see if the person of interest is wearing a watch" - the trainer was an ex state cop and I can say that little bit of advice in field observation did stick. I always wrist check.

Another day commuting home all these years and miles later in London's rush hour on the Circle line.

Pass a ceramic GMT at the door on a young male and a ladies DJ on a Jubilee bracelet on an elderly female to encounter a Pepsi GMT on a woman standing adjacent to the next door (with a male on a seat to her left with an AP ROO).

No wonder demand outstrips supply on gens in London. Everyone must have one! Not my job to be the rep police (who knows, ceramic GMT make may be one of you?) but the concentration of Rolex wearers in inner London, even on the Tube, is ridiculous.
 
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pompompurin

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I saw a fake 116233 on northern line before - the gold tone was a dead giveaway

Similarly in Hong Kong, there are many many many people that wear gen Rolex and I can see at least 2x sport Rolex wearers every time I go out
 

sunrayminor

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22/4/13
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Australia
Saw a guy with a Gen PP 3700 Nautilus on the tube the other day. Nice????

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ssouthall6

Put Some Respect On My Name
10/10/13
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Saw a JF LBJ on the train a while ago. Was surprised as I very very rarely see reps. In fact I rarely see particularly amazing watches- rolex, omega and cartier yes but there's some brands, IWC for example, that I've never seen in the flesh!


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xray7

Renowned Member
1/4/18
648
197
43
Old Dart
Saw a JF LBJ on the train a while ago. Was surprised as I very very rarely see reps. In fact I rarely see particularly amazing watches- rolex, omega and cartier yes but there's some brands, IWC for example, that I've never seen in the flesh!


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Might your username reference the suburb? As I may be in a living room there right this moment...
 

ssouthall6

Put Some Respect On My Name
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Might your username reference the suburb? As I may be in a living room there right this moment...

No mate, been through there on the train but that's about it


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stufuse

Put Some Respect On My Name
22/10/17
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UK
In my second year of undergrad, I got a job on the railways. I only did it a year but it springboarded me into other roles. The things to which you pay attention in certain jobs do come with the job.

Watching passengers and people in and around stations, back those years ago on the rails in Australia, one thing I got taught was "crooks don't need to know the time, see if the person of interest is wearing a watch" - the trainer was an ex state cop and I can say that little bit of advice in field observation did stick. I always wrist check.

Another day commuting home all these years and miles later in London's rush hour on the Circle line.

Pass a ceramic GMT at the door on a young male and a ladies DJ on a Jubilee bracelet on an elderly female to encounter a Pepsi GMT on a woman standing adjacent to the next door (with a male on a seat to her left with an AP ROO).

No wonder demand outstrips supply on gens in London. Everyone must have one! Not my job to be the rep police (who knows, ceramic GMT make may be one of you?) but the concentration of Rolex wearers in inner London, even on the Tube, is ridiculous.

I noticed this too, when I flew out of city airport last week, Rolex’s everywhere including my schnide DJ


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-prick

Active Member
15/1/17
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hahaha i always check wrists on subway too.
its really interesting

last year in summer i had my sub on the wrist and since i dont wear a tuxedo to work and it was a hot day i only wore a tank top and short trousers
and one guy who was sitting next to me seemed to have noticed my sub.
if i remember correcty he wore a big crown rolex... something vintage like that. (maybe someone on the forum?! ^^)

the whole time he gave me that "no way this guy has a gen sub on his wrist" look and checking out my sub trying to figure out if its repped
of course i was aware of that and it was real fun and i had to concentrate to stay serious and not to laugh
 

bkg!

Manui Dat Cognitio Vires
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17/8/13
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Somewhere in your peripheral vision
I travel to London maybe once or twice a month, and usually use the tube to get around, always sporting a rep. There are however, on average, 5M tube journeys per day. That’s a lot of passengers. If 0.1% wore a rep, that’s 5,000 or so reps at those numbers. I tend to see mostly Rolex, but hey, that’s what most people think a good watch is.
 

JDnTexas

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20/11/17
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How interesting! Here stateside I see high end watches on airplanes (when I fly first class), at trade shows, at professional sports events, and very seldom outside of that. Like someone said usually Rolex and Omega. Never seen a Panerai, IWC or a lot of the other brands.


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Thatwatchguy

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In the land down under I see a few Omega, Tags, only one Rolex, Breitling a Pam all gen...and a Chinese junior has 2 IWC, he also sports a LV belt and a Gucci carry bag!
 

-prick

Active Member
15/1/17
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saw breitling navitimer blue in the subway about half an hour ago ;)
 

Exklusive

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28/6/15
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I saw a fake 116233 on northern line before - the gold tone was a dead giveaway

Similarly in Hong Kong, there are many many many people that wear gen Rolex and I can see at least 2x sport Rolex wearers every time I go out

Double that, when I was in HK I noticed many wears Rolex.
 

Spectre007

You're Saying I Can Sell?
5/7/17
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The amount of quality REP wearers out there are actually quite minimal. It would be surprising to run into one and if you do it's most likely someone from the forums.
 

LifeTrekker

Known Member
20/10/15
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I try to do a little wrist spotting from time time too, but being in an area with no subway, I only really get a chance when I'm flying on a business trip. I do see a few Rolies and Omegi, but rarely anything else.

I also rarely get a good enough look at another person's watch to make much of a judgement as to its authenticity, unless I happen to end up sitting right next to them that is.

Most are gens I think, but if someone else were wearing any of my reps, (a ZF Tudor Black Bay Blue, a Phong 5512, and a JF 16610LN), I wouldn't be able to tell they were reps from only looking at their wrist. Give me a loupe and caseback opener, and sure, I could figure it out, but without that, it would be pretty tough, especially if they had been Frankened. Some of the reps today are scary good.

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