To leave Rolex at home

[Huromjuicemaker]

Is wearing a nice watch in or around London asking to be mugged? What about in other cities?
Will be traveling back to UK to visit family and do a few work related visits and I have read that watch theft is quite rife and it is organised and targeted, ie there are spotters checking your wrist and arranging ambushes etc. Would I be unreasonable to leave my beloved Rolex at home because the risk is too high?

It looks nice. I don't have any though

I don't wear my Rolex in some places because it has sentimental value and from that perspective is irreplaceable.

Also particularly for some high end watches (eg Rolex) they are difficult to get hold of in the first place and therefore very difficult to replace. Insurance would probably leave you with £10k worth of goldsmiths vouchers waiting a few years for your watch to become available again at which point the price will have increased

No, I meant what’s the point of buying a watch you’re afraid to wear outside?

Oh sorry. Lots of people have it as like an investment.

fuck living like this

I agree with this. There would be a very small risk of being mugged, more chance of it breaking or being lost.

I wear a similarly priced watch and have never had a concern. Sometimes on the bus I might flip my rings around 180 degrees so the stones are hidden. But I appreciate that most people don’t get the bus through dodgy bits of town (I like the bus so I do)

Wondering what the point of owning a watch that can't leave the house is?

Genuinely curious about the concept of spending £10k on a watch and only wearing it indoors?

edit - I see you are a collector, so kind of get it.

It's London, not Johannesburg 🤔

Your Asda bag would also be helpful in deflecting the assassins’ knives.

Meow!

I'm in London, it's fine. Those being targeted are the 300k Richard milles.

Not just London anywhere in Europe isn't safe to wear a Rolex unfortunately but yes London is worse.

I see mixed answers here, I wouldn’t wear it if I was planning to be walking around alone or spending a lot of time out walking in public. If you’re getting taxi from hotel to destinations etc. you’ll probably be fine.

I know a lady who was mugged in Mayfair last year - she went to hand over a brand new iPhone and they told her no, they wanted her bracelets and bag!!

Any mugger worth their salt can spot a fake Rolex at 50 yards.

That is until you get mugged/attacked or worse

In the scheme of things, lets say a 80 thousand people wear a flash watch to work and back - of those, one may be attacked for their watch in an average day so 7 per week

often muggers target watches, wallets and often later at night and I've seen them in action EG - I was waiting to pick up my OH from the station down the road on a dark night - about 11pm - this bloke walking in a zig-zag appeared drunk - a car pulled up in the middle of the road, two muggers ran out and pushed the big guy over and wnt through his pockets and failed to take the wallet as I sounded my horn they did not even look up but ran away - when others approached the man that was attacked I too got out and noted the wallet on the pavement abut they took his phone and I think it was a laptop bag - they guy was dazzed bit certainly pissed

Therefore, often they drive past looking for easy prey

Having said that a few celebs had their watch taken as they waited in their car - we are always wary when stuck in traffic in a built up areas and see youhts with heads covered and at time faces looking into cars - our car, the main one a big SUV has a safety film on it - to smash in the from drivers and passenger window you need to hit it several times with a large hammer but its easier to break outwards - makes us feel a bit safer

BS

I've seen experts fooled by fake Rolex watches

I find it bizarre to own things that you are scared to wear.

Where are you travelling from? Do you not have baddies there?

What strange responses. London is perfectly safe. As are the rest of the cities in the UK. Yes of course muggings happen but it's not rife. Wear your watch if you ordinarily wear it.

Rolex are way easier to spot than a lot of other (even more expensive) watches because they are showy. It takes far less guesswork from a mugger to spot one compared to other brands, so you're likely to be a bit more vulnerable.

We had a friend whose DD was mugged walking home with her BF. Her watch was stolen and worth only about £500.00 This was late at night though.I would not take anything expensive .Just because there are some people walking around with their bling on ,doesnt mean they never will be mugged .The current Govt have created deep divisions in our society.There was a programme called "Rolex Rippers" about gangs targeting jewellery and phones .

I will say that, if you are planning to go somewhere for drinks outside and plan to make an afternoon of it beware of large groups of men with flyers for West End shows. They’ll act as though they want you to buy tickets from them but they are actually pickpockets trying to distract you.

Ffs, really ? Do you believe you would be the only person in London to wear anything expensive ? Literally many millionaires walking about, but yes of they would target you for a watch .

Fact check:

‘According the Crime Survey for England and Wales, someone is actually less likely to be a victim of crime in London than they are across the country as a whole. In the capital, 14.9% of people experienced a crime either to their person or their household in the year ending September 2023, compared with 15.7% nationally.’

https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/26/fact-check-has-sadiq-khan-really-overseen-a-surge-in-london

Oh my gosh. I cannot believe the fear and paranoia of some of the posts on this thread. We lived in London for years and still work there. DMIL and DBIL’s family live in Zone 1. None of us operates at this level of alert. Nor does DBIL in New York, or DSis and her grown up daughters in Paris.

Just wear nice things (or don’t if it worries you), and get out and enjoy the world. What is the point of having lovely things of they cause you worry? Or of living like catastrophe and menace lurk around every corner.

Is wearing a nice watch in or around London asking to be mugged?

No. No one "asks" to be mugged.