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What do you say when someone asks "Nice watch, how much did it cost"?

56K views 324 replies 223 participants last post by  SethThomas 
#1 ·
I just don't feel comfy telling anyone that I spent over 10k+ on a watch, including my own family..... Is there a way to diffuse this? This happens often at poker tables, and yesterday my neighbor and I were chatting and she said she spent $2k on a watch and her husband freaked out, then she asked me how much mine was.... I deflected, distracted and left....
 
#38 ·
Haven't gotten asked this question often with watches....would probably say, "It costed a few pennies," or "its up there...."

What's especially worse is with cars....frequently get approached at gas stations and asked "How much...?" Ugh


Sent from my 16M
 
#44 ·
Well I always have the same respond, which is more or less when someone asks me if it's real.

Other: "What it is the price of that watch?"
Me: "This,... oh it's a fake, a real one can costs hundreds of euro's."
Other: "Hundreds,.. not even thousands!!"
Me: "Really!??? That's just insane.

I only give them a real answer when they are really interested and thinking of buying one and are looking for advice.
 
#45 ·
Well I always have the same respond, which is more or less when someone asks me if it's real.

Other: "What it is the price of that watch?"
Me: "This,... oh it's a fake, a real one can costs hundreds of euro's."
Other: "Hundreds,.. not even thousands!!"
Me: "Really!??? That's just insane.

I only give them a real answer when they are really interested and thinking of buying one and are looking for advice.
I quite like that answer
 
#62 ·
If its a stranger or an acquaintance I tend to say its fake and it was $50 on the street.

If its a semi close friend or my wife I will give different numbers usually topping out around $1000.

Very few......and I mean very few people know what I actually pay.
 
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#67 ·
Hmmmm, we're way off topic by now, but I have to ask: what happened to the (maybe not so) good old white lie?

I pride myself in "ahum" never deliberately lying, yet I vividly remember quite a few lies to (1) my wife, (2) a dying relative, (3) a motorcyclist that was just T-boned by a car running a red light, .... I can give more examples, but you get the idea.

  1. No, not about marital (in)fidelity - that's an entirely different topic. How about she returns from the hair-dresser, all excited and you just don't like the new hair-do? That special gift she picked out ..... The new dish she has cooked ..... Do I look fat? ....
  2. Will I see you one more time, will your brother be here before I pass, will I kick this one, ......
  3. My bike, my bike .... tell me my bike is fine
Tony may categorize me as a lying bastard from this point forward and that's fine with me. To me, though, it's sometimes better and more compassionate to lie than to be brutally honest because the truth is sometimes just that, brutal.

This exchange between Bidle and Tony is a classical example of the dangers of fora, social media and written communication in general where we communicate and engage in discussions with (relative) strangers and people we don't know well, not everyone writing in his or her native language and where we lack the visual and non-verbal elements of traditional (face-to-face) communication and conversation.

Okay, I'll put my flame-suit on and will go in to hiding ;-)
 
#72 · (Edited)
Hmmmm, we're way off topic by now, but I have to ask: what happened to the (maybe not so) good old white lie?

I pride myself in "ahum" never deliberately lying, yet I vividly remember quite a few lies to (1) my wife, (2) a dying relative, (3) a motorcyclist that was just T-boned by a car running a red light, .... I can give more examples, but you get the idea.

  1. No, not about marital (in)fidelity - that's an entirely different topic. How about she returns from the hair-dresser, all excited and you just don't like the new hair-do? That special gift she picked out ..... The new dish she has cooked ..... Do I look fat? ....
  2. Will I see you one more time, will your brother be here before I pass, will I kick this one, ......
  3. My bike, my bike .... tell me my bike is fine
Tony may categorize me as a lying bastard from this point forward and that's fine with me. To me, though, it's sometimes better and more compassionate to lie than to be brutally honest because the truth is sometimes just that, brutal.

This exchange between Bidle and Tony is a classical example of the dangers of fora, social media and written communication in general where we communicate and engage in discussions with (relative) strangers and people we don't know well, not everyone writing in his or her native language and where we lack the visual and non-verbal elements of traditional (face-to-face) communication and conversation.

Okay, I'll put my flame-suit on and will go in to hiding ;-)
Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.
― Franz Kafka

I don't care what "color" it is, a lie is still not the truth, and my sensibilities prefer a truthful answer to an untruthful one every time. That said, I don't think of you or Bidle as lying bastards. My comments had to do with the answers given, not the persons giving them. I can hardly call someone a "lying bastard" or anything similar on the basis of one anecdote.

I'm not a hermit who lives in cave. (Some of you D.C. folks may see a pun in that; I didn't intend it.) I know what "white lie" is for and why people utter them. As I said before, I think a vague or ambiguous answer is best if one (for whatever reason) doesn't want to deliver the unadulterated truth. As I said, I've told lies before. I know consequences of doing so:

  • Sometimes there's no consequence in the present or foreseeable future.
  • Sometimes the consequences range from negligible to major.
Take a "big deal" question and resulting lie from history (paraphrased):

  • Press: Mr. President, did you have sex with M. Lewinsky?
  • Clinton: No.
I know Mr. Clinton lied, yet I wouldn't deem him a "lying bastard." I know why he lied; that still doesn't make a truthful answer or a non-answer a worse choice in my view. Just as with Bidle or you, my "issue" isn't about the person but rather about the answer. Heck, I don't know who you are, so how could it be about you? You've heard me decry the act of making assumptions about people on the basis of the watch they wear rather than on the basis of knowing them and having solid evidence that they truly are "this way or that."

The discussion re: lying is, in my mind, quite the same. It's no more fair for me to judge you or Bidle, as individuals, as humans, on the basis of what you've shared here than it is for me or anyone to judge someone because they wear a Rolex or whatever sort of watch they wear. There's quite simply insufficient evidence to judge the person, but there's ample evidence to state what one thinks, what I think, of an action. In this discussion, it's the act of lying.

Sidebar:
Now to my view of things, the only person who had any right to ask that question was Hillary Clinton because she's the only person on the planet to whom he had promised he would "forsake all others." Now my view also says that Bill Clinton answered the question directly when he should have simply refused to answer. IMO, he should have said, "That is none of your business, and that's as much discussion as I'm going to have on this or any similar matter with you or anyone else except my wife."

As a lifelong D.C. resident, I strongly feel that public officials need to start setting some boundaries between what's expected of them in their professional capacity and what they are free to do as private individuals. Public people, elected or merely well known, are nonetheless deserving of a private life. If they break laws, well, that's one thing. If they are breaking promises to their spouses and kids, that's between them and the people personally involved.
End of sidebar.

I understand that folks don't want to enrage the person standing before them asking an inappropriate question. In such cases most anyone will provide an answer of some sort. I'm just saying that whatever answer is provided needs to be honest. I'm not even insisting that the answer given actually answer the question that was asked. Look at the variety of replies various folks offered:

  • "You don't want to know."
  • "More than it should have."
  • "I treated myself to something nice" followed by an effort to move to a new topic without directly citing a figure.
  • "I tell the truth."
  • "Less than my speakers."
  • "Don't be fooled by the rocks I got."
Those are some I found on the first two pages. I haven't read the entire thread. FWIW, I did notice that a few folks on the first two pages mentioned lying as the approach they'd take. I don't feel any differently about those lies than I do about "white lies" or Bidle's specifically quoted conversation. It's clear that Bidle isn't the only person who answered such a question with a lie. I guess that is what it is.

The thing that inspired the post was someone (I don't know who, but you can look to see if you want) mentioned liking Bidle's reply. I thought, "Well, if they can say they like that lie as a reply, I can certainly say I don't like it and that the reason I don't like it is because it's untrue." As I said before, I'm not going to say I like anything about a dishonest answer. It doesn't matter what reason one has for doing it. If I were to do it, I would also, almost certainly, come to wish I'd instead chosen a different answer.

I'm not saying I've never told a lie. I'm not saying I've never told a "white lie." I've also been told lies, "white" ones and others, and gotten over them. I'm only saying that as answers to questions go, I prefer honest ones and that I don't like the reverse. I haven't attempted to make this discussion personal. I don't want it to be that. My points have to do with the answer not the speaker.

All the best.

Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth.
― William Faulkner
 
#68 ·
Nobody ask except my wife but she understands nothing so I can easily false the truth [emoji4]
Nonetheless when we are getting close to a nice watch shop she would naturally drag me away...
 
#71 ·
I had an interesting experience Sunday night. I was meeting a few friends at a restaurant/bar and was wearing a steel/platinum Rolex Yacht-master that I just bought the day before. Within 3 minutes into a conversation, a friend of a friend (which I had never met until 3 minutes ago) speaks up and says "Nice watch, when did you get it?" I told him that I got it yesterday. He immediately asked what I paid for it, and I told him "about the right amount." And right then he proudly extended his wrist and started boasting about a DLC Rolex stating that it was worth over $10k. I smiled and gave him quick "addaboy" and tried to move the conversation on to something different. He would have likely **** his pants if I told him the others that I have, but it was clear it was not the time nor place, and he wasn't interesting in hearing it anyways, but just wanted to boast about what was on his own wrist....
 
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#74 ·
My poor wife has neared the brunt. After they saw the Patek, and discovered we paid cash for a new car, they stopped calling. Were always busy when my wife wanted to meet for drinks. Lots of tears. They were friends since high school. Sadly, now they only call her for legal advice, or when they need a shoulder to cry on... All over a watch... Pretty sad
 
#79 ·
Okay...I'll bite.

Why do you choose to tell a "white lie" rather than give a truthful non-answer or truthful vague answer or just refuse to answer the question?

All the best.
 
#80 ·
Okay...I'll bite. Why do you choose to tell a "white lie" rather than give a truthful non-answer or truthful vague answer or just refuse to answer the question?
For the... reason I included in the post you quoted: it could make someone unhappy.

Can you really not imagine any situation in which the truth, evasiveness, or refusal to answer might leave someone upset? It seems fairly reasonable to me that such situations will occasionally occur.

(My post wasn't directed at you, by the way. I actually don't read most of your posts because they're so long. I only noticed that I potentially disagreed with you after I went back to see what might have made you defensive. My apologies if my post felt like an attack.)
 
#81 ·
For the... reason I included in the post you quoted: it could make someone unhappy.

Can you really not imagine any situation in which the truth, evasiveness, or refusal to answer might leave someone upset? It seems fairly reasonable to me that such situations will occasionally occur.

(My post wasn't directed at you, by the way. I actually don't read most of your posts because they're so long. I only noticed that I potentially disagreed with you after I went back to see what might have made you defensive. My apologies if my post felt like an attack.)
There are three types of lies -- lies, damn lies, and statistics.
― Benjamin Disraeli

Red:
I'm fine with that...I know they're often long or longish. Maybe someday you'll have the time to read some of them; maybe not. Such is life...

It didn't feel like an attack; someone's disagreeing with me never does feel that way to me.

Blue:
Actually what I can't imagine is a situation where it's impossible to tactfully use one of those tactics so as not to upset the other party.

Were I asked the question I asked you, my answer would be, "...because I'm too lazy to think of a better way to respond or too hastily judged doing so as the 'easy way' to go for the parties involved." I try to "do the right thing" but I'm not perfect and don't always do so. I have yet to find an occasion were I was in fact incapable of thinking of a better response than a white lie, and yet I can identify occasions where, at the time, I felt like I was.

By the same token, I'm not going to assume the failings to which I succumbed be the reasons you or someone else tell a "white lie." I asked the question because I have been in situations where I found myself being lazy or rushing my thoughts.

As goes lying, I have a certain level of disdain for with the act of doing so (whether I or others do it); I think nearly everyone does. I have zero tolerance for the idea that lying is better than taking however many seconds it takes to come up with a suitable, polite, kind and truthful way to respond to direct inquiries.

All the best.

White lies always introduce others of a darker complexion.
-- William S. Paley

P.S.
I tried to keep my response above sufficiently short that you might read it. <wink>
 
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#82 ·
I don't tell people what my watch cost unless I know them to be a watch enthusiast, even then I sometimes decline to answer.

I have the pleasure of sometimes working with some Doctors that are at the top of their respective specialty, some of these type A personalities will not take it well if they knew that a young kid (in their eyes) was doing better financially than they are. Whilst they are not all like this, I would rather not test my theory. This is why my Bentley is parked at home and I take the C63.
 
#86 ·
ROTFL

the truth.
For better or worse, there's nothing wrong with the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts, but that has to do with the receiver of the truth and whatever degree of denial they have on the topic at hand; not the truth itself.

All the best.
 
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#84 ·
I stick with the "It was a gift" story. I only even got asked, hell, even NOTICED when I had my Rolex. One of a few reasons I switched downmarket; it was time for a change. When the toy budget allows, I'm eyeing either a rubber strap steel AP or maybe a black Hublot; they're more "stealth" luxury.
 
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