In this week's Dispatch, we continue our exploration of the massive uptick in watch-related crime and discuss traveling with watches. Like most things in the life of a former CIA Case Officer, it was to be part pleasure, part work: a mix of business meetings, reconnecting with old friends and some time on safari in the bush. I planned to spend most of the trip in rural areas that were deemed safe by most standards, but would travel through Johannesburg and Nairobiβtwo cities notorious for petty crime that can sometimes turn violent.
My view is that a relationship can be developed with seemingly inanimate objects through shared experience, and this particularly applies to watches.
As we explored in Part I, watch-related crime has skyrocketed globally over the past few years and traveling anywhere with a luxury watch requires certain considerations. Watches are tools. I am willing to risk the potential loss or damage to use them for their intended purpose. Full disclosure, I don't have a Ph. D, and during my last bar fightβwhich was more than a few years agoβI was likely wearing a Breitling. When hopping time zones, the quick-change date and GMT functionality are useful for confirming the time back home, and a simple wrist check is easier than pulling out a phone.
The watch also captures the nostalgia of the romanticized vision of the Rolex GMT, originally developed in the s for commercial Pan Am pilots. While I am not privy to Rolex internal company practices, this feature seems to be accurate in the real world.
A semi-trained eye can recognize a Rolex from across the room in a dimly lit bar, and thanks to social media See Part I , in , semi-trained eyes are all over the place. A criminal call out scanning the arrivals hall at Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International Airport could do the same, immediately pegging the Rolex wearer as a potential target.
