Hello everyone,nice to see you here outside of Instagram! For those that don’t know me I am watch_fashionista and am an Instagram vétéran on women’s pretty watches. I don’t promise technical know how, what I do guarantee is a sense of beautiful wrist candy and an honest outlook. It is great to be able to chat with you here and we can do a Q & A at a later stage but for my first article, I want to address an issue that now affects every watch lover , the issue of safety. Watch theft is now the ugly beast that is refusing to be curbed.
You may love watches for any number of reasons, there have always been collectors but as a woman there’s very few of my friends or people that I know that have liked to collect them. They have for the most been seen as a necessity (pre iPhone ) and you would have a day watch and an evening watch. I on the other hand have always loved them but as jewelry to my wrist. I didn’t need them to do anything but look beautiful and compliment bracelets ! In my opinion you either love wrist candy or have no time for it. I am definitely in love with it. But for the first time ever due to a series of events I am opting for bare wrists whenever I leave my home region. As a frequent traveller to London , Paris , Milan and Greece I have witnessed, heard , watched and read about such awful incidents ranging from watch pickpockets to horrific watch thefts that have gone wrong and lead to murder . If you follow any major watch accounts this will be common news to you now. Gangs of people on Vespas, foot and cars wielding machetes or other knives targeting men and women just for their watches.
A friend robbed in Mykonos , where a couple of guys pretended to bump into him and ripped his RM of his wrist, a lady I knew with a knife at her throat in daylight in London outside the claridges hotel , her RM and Cartier diamond ring stolen in full view of a full street . My family member attacked again in london for her watch , which I’m sure was a tip off from someone in the restaurant (a common occurrence) someone attacked in London with a machete for her Rolex outside her home, and my own father with a knife in his stomach for his diamond Rolex. I could go on and on but you get the picture. Since when did we lose our right to wear what we want? Since when did it become ok to enter a restaurant and grab a watch off someone’s wrist ? Since when did the watches become the quick buck sale and who is buying this supply chain? Because the real question here is that: who are the buyers of these stolen watches with serial numbers? I may go so far as saying that Instagram has played a huge role in this. Why? Well it has taught everyone that used to only recognise the gold Rolex what other watches to look out for. It’s given the thieves a catalogue of what will sell and for how much and their respective values. IG has also made the second hand market a huge industry. Half the time they are sold for a fraction of their worth but leaving scars on the people they are robbed from. Sadly there is only one solution for the time being. As the authorities are failing to act with police claiming there is nothing they can do, it is up to us to protect ourselves. For now our only option whilst in Europe is to take away the candy . Apple Watch here I come. Stay safe everyone.
