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....
I don't really care after a while. If they want to judge the way I spend my hard earned money that they don't have, then they're the ones who are suffering. Why should I suffer for their nosiness?
I will talk what I paid with two people. One is my wife because we share a bank account and she will find out. The other is my brother who is also interested in watches. I don’t want to get into the whole ‘I cannot believe you paid X’ discussion with people generally.
İt is definetely not their bussines. There are 2 aspects of watches for me. First it is the only accessor for a guy. Secondly, in most cases, you invest your money to a piece that can be called as the combination of modern art and unfortunately "capitalism".
I tell them the truth: "Normally this is a $22,000 watch, but I paid $140 for it in the Istanbul Grand Bazaar." It's always fun to sit back and and enjoy their reaction.
If I'm not comfortable sharing the number, I often say something like "about half as much as our last vacation to _____."
It frames the watch purchase as discretionary, yes, but not any more inherently extravagant, logically speaking, as going on a nice trip. And since nearly everyone understands the concept of spending money on a nice trip somewhere, it helps them "get it."
I agree with those who replied, if a person asks you that question then he or she is not into watches and probably very cheap or not on your level financially. If someone asks me that, I'm gonna look 'em right in their face and tell 'em exactly how much it costs. What's gonna happen?, life's too short to worry about how someone is gonna feel about the price of your lovely timepiece!
Or I should simply respond, "It cost less than my wife's wedding ring" Am I the only one that doesn't get how women's wedding rings are allowed to be outrageously expensive and it's not even a big deal?
I don't actually think I've come across anyone who has asked me outright how much any of my watches have cost. However, I usually respond with something along the lines of, "a little bit of my savings" or something ambiguous. People who know watches will know how much things cost, and everyone else can think whatever they want to think
"It was a gift, I swear! I didn't even think it was real!" I cried out, as they forced my head into the guillotine and threw my watch into the bonfire.
It's pretty funny because it never happened to me in the past few years, and then within the last 2 weeks, it happened twice !
I honestly just dismissed the question but two different scenarios happened:
- the first person looked up the watch online after I gave him to look at it;
- the second person (he was a cashier at CVS) was pretty insistent, and was asking for a range. He was like "so, like $100? or maybe a couple of hundreds?", and I could just mutter with a visibly embarrassed smile "yeah something like that".
The worst is that in both cases those persons ended up taking pictures of the watch to look up the model later on. They definitely found out.
So, my evasive techniques didn't work, and I guess I should have just lied bluntly at first. My attitude probably just made them more curious and they ended up finding out.
It's happened to me a couple times in the past year. Once in a McDonald's, and once at a Gas Station. In both situations I said "Thanks, I got it for $80, it's fake."
They kill people on the streets for sneakers or Canada Goose jackets, can you imagine what they'd do for high-end watch?
This is a good suggestion. I usually say something quasi sarcastic along the "less than my ex-wife" lines," (despite not having an ex-wife), but I recently had a friend who was stabbed to dealt which has actually made me a bit more reluctant to wear my higher end pieces at night, etc. In this day and age you really can't be too careful. Thanks for the tip.
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