Funny watch stories from my everyday life that are most certainly not factual (part 2)
Disclaimer: Nothing in this tale should be considered financial advice or even factual. As far as anyone ought to be concerned, this is the product of sleep deprivation and a lack of personal watch purchases over the past 8 months.
Also brought to you with encouragement from and great appreciation for @AllTheWatches and @HotWatchChick69 . Also tagging @celinesimon, @MegaBob, @JaeBust , @valleykilmers, @ChronoGuy and @Rolexahoma who I suspect might have interest in the part 2😉
Steve-O's Revenge
You should read the last edition. But the summary is as follows.
An investor of mine, Steve-O, invested about $1.1m into 26 Rolex Daytonas on the advice of his not-terribly-savvy nephew, Steve-O Junior. As you can imagine, paying $42k a piece for Rolex Daytonas at the peak of last year's bubble pricing was unlikely to do well. When we last left Steve-O, he was grappling with how to rid himself of 26 ceramic daytonas and I left you guys hanging as to the conclusion.
Three months ago, Steve-O and I reconnected and we decided that we should immediately take possession of the watches to inspect them ourselves and then call in experts to assess what could be done. I am far from a Daytona valuation expert but it is my experience that delay in implementing a plan causes more losses than bad luck and bad planning combined.
I quickly called in a trusted dealer friend of mine who flew in and we quickly managed to strike a deal for 22 of them at just above retail price (call at 18k or so). Despite weakness in the overall watch market, ceramic Daytonas still apparently move quickly and the dealer was certain he had buyers for most of them. Done and dusted (though $1.1m in Daytonas has apparently turned into just around $400k in Daytonas). That's a negative 64% return for those of you who are counting at home.
The last four though....they were bad. Some had inauthentic parts, others mismatched papers, and one was so badly used and worn that I couldn't understand how it was manufactured in 2020. Nonetheless, it appears that Steve-O Jr got even more snookered than I thought. I won't name names but his grey market buddy has since pulled up roots and disappeared.
Lacking any real resale options, I had those four watches sent to my watchmaker a couple weeks ago to see if there was anything worth salvaging. More on that in a bit.
Steve-O has expressed to me his gratitude and a promise to separate his family's hobbies from his investments.
Repeat after me, watches are not investments!
Uncle Billy's Jets
Despite the ruinous speculative loss on his Daytona investment, Steve-O still has a soft spot for Junior. Family is family after all and he did think of the boy as a son. He wondered if I could give the kid a talking to to help prevent this sort of incident in the future.
I was 100% prepared to dislike the Junior in person, but there's something that softens my heart about someone who is earnestly trying to achieve something (even if trying to achieve that thing is stupid). Junior was a genuinely aspiring watch flipper/dealer who was a bit too entranced with the "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" lives of his favorite Instagram/TikTok influencers.
Like a puppy that pees on the carpet, you can't get super mad when someone like that screws up. After all, it's just a puppy.
But perhaps you can rubs its nose in the spot for a bit so they learn that perhaps they shouldn't do it too much.
So I decided to introduce him to Uncle Billy, the richest man I personally know. No he's not a gangster. But he's old as dirt, owns a substantial amount of bay area real estate, both residential and commercial, and is probably not a billionaire but probably not super far off either. He's a OG who drives around in the shittiest Toyota Tundra I've ever seen in his oil stained dungarees fixing water heaters while also wearing a Datograph. My kind of guy.
He's also the only person I know who owns a Gulfstream private jet, though perhaps not in the way you think.
When he first bought it, I congratulated him. Moving from pricey watches to the large private jet set is no small feat. He laughed at me and said that he frankly never expected it to leave the ground and described a business plan that I thought was ludicrous.
Among his other business interests is a small side business in renting his no flying Gulfstream IV parked at a local private airport to Instagram influencers who want to take pictures with it to post on their social media accounts. For $8K a day, you too can be a fake jet owning billionaire! For an additional $2K, he'll throw in a Ferrari Stradale or Spyder to pose with!
Who better to show Junior the world behind the Instagram influencer curtain?
When we rolled up to the airport, Junior exclaimed.
"That looks like **Instagram/Tik Tok Influencer du jour** 's plane!"
I introduced him to Uncle Billy and his business manager and we sat down to a lovely lunch, (if slightly wet) lunch in an aircraft hanger.
Uncle Billy very pleasantly recounted all of the Instagram influencers that they had rented the plane to, including no small number of watch influencers. With every name, Junior got a little quieter, realizing that all these people he'd talked to and aspired to be like were not quite as wealthy as he might have thought.
It was a very long and silent ride back.
How do you buy a $700k Daytona?
My watch dealer got back to me this morning with the damage. He didn't think any of the watches as a whole would be salvageable but, perhaps he could cobble together a full Daytona with some spare parts left over. If we wanted, he could put it together in a couple weeks and have it to us, good as new. $700k later and we might have exactly one fully functional Daytona.
On relaying this to Steve-O, he immediately gave the go ahead, muttering something along the lines of wanting to engrave something in the back as a monument to his own stupidity.
Being the snarky type that I am, I gave him another idea for a name that got a fully bellied laugh.
I think that one is going to stick.
By day, investor and father. By night, Seiko nut. #justgooutsideandtouchgrass
Wow, what a story. It makes me very grateful I’m just a working man with just enough money to pay the bills and buy something I’m interested in once in a while.
Wow, what a story. It makes me very grateful I’m just a working man with just enough money to pay the bills and buy something I’m interested in once in a while.
I have all sorts of interesting stories like that from my line of work, most not watch related. I'm not smart enough to have a unified theory on it, but there's always something funny going on with super rich folks and their families.
Wonderful summary of the end of this journey. So many people do not understand there is a whole industry of people making a decent living renting a fake lifestyle to influencers. Watch “Dealers” on youtube are the same. The faster folks realize watches are not investments the better they can enjoy the hobby.
Omg @Edge168n, what a great story! Uncle Bill, Steve-O, and Junior need a reality show 😂
Wonderful summary of the end of this journey. So many people do not understand there is a whole industry of people making a decent living renting a fake lifestyle to influencers. Watch “Dealers” on youtube are the same. The faster folks realize watches are not investments the better they can enjoy the hobby.
I thought this influencer jet/car/house rental stuff was pretty well known. Kinda like how everyone knows that "The Bachelor" isn't real.
It's just the same old saw and the old rules end up applying. Just buy what you like.
Omg @Edge168n, what a great story! Uncle Bill, Steve-O, and Junior need a reality show 😂
Uncle Billy is a hoot. And you couldn't pay any of these guys enough to let this get out into the open with their names attached 😉
Uncle Billy is a hoot. And you couldn't pay any of these guys enough to let this get out into the open with their names attached 😉
We’ll just have to rely on your awesome stories for entertainment then
Wonderful story well told.
We’ll just have to rely on your awesome stories for entertainment then
Being a WC's court jester seems to be my calling. 🤣
Steve-O is one of the better men I know. Big heart, very forgiving but also 100% won't make this sort of mistake again. The loss is 100% forgiven but Junior is on his own from now on.
My dealer bud said he reckoned quickly market clearing price for a pretty good condition Daytona is $24-25k and that a 30-35% markup was reasonable given carrying costs etc. It tracks.
He might have gotten a good deal but not a ridiculous one.
Wonderful story well told.
I have dozens of them. Sadly they're not all about watches 😉
Absolutely amazing!
Steve-O's accommodation of his nephew's short-comings is nothing short of remarkable! I mean, I read accounts like this, and my immediate reactions are:
And yet... I can also totally understand how you'd do anything for your kids... even if they're total screw ups - maybe especially if they're total screw ups!
My 7 and 9 year-old daughters recently cost me this...
No, they didn't break my watch. I don't own the Speedmaster '57, so there was nothing to break. But, the reason I don't own it is precisely because they're screw ups! They leave all their toys on the floor. And, recently, one of my doggies ate one of their toys, which proceeded to block the pup's digestive system, which resulted in her becoming violently ill and necessitating emergency surgery. And all told, ignoring pain and suffering (my sleepless night worrying whether the dog would live or die and a week of cleaning up doggie diarrhea after she came home from surgery), the whole ordeal cost the same as the Speedmaster '57!
Thought about giving my kids up for adoption, or at the very least, grounding them till their 18th birthdays. My wife, though, reasonably said, "Honey, I know it sucks, but it's not going to bankrupt us. I mean, I thought this was the reason for working hard and making money - so that we could brush off stuff like this."
I still think I should ground them until at least they're freshmen in high school.
Absolutely amazing!
Steve-O's accommodation of his nephew's short-comings is nothing short of remarkable! I mean, I read accounts like this, and my immediate reactions are:
And yet... I can also totally understand how you'd do anything for your kids... even if they're total screw ups - maybe especially if they're total screw ups!
My 7 and 9 year-old daughters recently cost me this...
No, they didn't break my watch. I don't own the Speedmaster '57, so there was nothing to break. But, the reason I don't own it is precisely because they're screw ups! They leave all their toys on the floor. And, recently, one of my doggies ate one of their toys, which proceeded to block the pup's digestive system, which resulted in her becoming violently ill and necessitating emergency surgery. And all told, ignoring pain and suffering (my sleepless night worrying whether the dog would live or die and a week of cleaning up doggie diarrhea after she came home from surgery), the whole ordeal cost the same as the Speedmaster '57!
Thought about giving my kids up for adoption, or at the very least, grounding them till their 18th birthdays. My wife, though, reasonably said, "Honey, I know it sucks, but it's not going to bankrupt us. I mean, I thought this was the reason for working hard and making money - so that we could brush off stuff like this."
I still think I should ground them until at least they're freshmen in high school.
I have told @valleykilmers this story, but I feel it is relevant.
My beautiful, talented, charming daughter was curious about my Daytona and what father could resist his daughter taking an interest in his hobby.
After many warnings about being careful, I gingerly handed it over....and upon taking it in her hand, she immediately lost interest, dropped it on the tile floor and ran off to go find her stuffed dog.
I nearly had a heart attack.
So what I mean is....send them to the Agoge. If they survive, they can become Spartans and fight their old man for the watch.
Perfect consequence. LOL
good story, remind us what social media influencer "influence" younger generation with getting rich quick mentality. i hope junior learn his lesson from this story. anyway enjoy and appreciate any watch that you own guys 🙏🏻
What a brilliant story!
It's so far removed from my day to day life, it's a different world!
My dad's still annoyed that my brother hasn't given him the £100 back he lent him. £700k? 😂
Brilliantly told story, educative and entertaining.
Fantastic story. What a wake up call for Jr.
What a brilliant story!
It's so far removed from my day to day life, it's a different world!
My dad's still annoyed that my brother hasn't given him the £100 back he lent him. £700k? 😂
It reminds me of how everyone has a different price in mind for a beater watch. For some, $100. For others, the price of a house 🤷🤷🤷
Absolutely amazing!
Steve-O's accommodation of his nephew's short-comings is nothing short of remarkable! I mean, I read accounts like this, and my immediate reactions are:
And yet... I can also totally understand how you'd do anything for your kids... even if they're total screw ups - maybe especially if they're total screw ups!
My 7 and 9 year-old daughters recently cost me this...
No, they didn't break my watch. I don't own the Speedmaster '57, so there was nothing to break. But, the reason I don't own it is precisely because they're screw ups! They leave all their toys on the floor. And, recently, one of my doggies ate one of their toys, which proceeded to block the pup's digestive system, which resulted in her becoming violently ill and necessitating emergency surgery. And all told, ignoring pain and suffering (my sleepless night worrying whether the dog would live or die and a week of cleaning up doggie diarrhea after she came home from surgery), the whole ordeal cost the same as the Speedmaster '57!
Thought about giving my kids up for adoption, or at the very least, grounding them till their 18th birthdays. My wife, though, reasonably said, "Honey, I know it sucks, but it's not going to bankrupt us. I mean, I thought this was the reason for working hard and making money - so that we could brush off stuff like this."
I still think I should ground them until at least they're freshmen in high school.
My idea; give the kids the best edumacation money can buy, love them very much, ensure they'll have all they need to be rich and successful... But wait, you say, this doesn't sound like much of a punishment! And here's the sting. Using the ancient powers of Asian parent aura of disapproval and disappointment, guilt them about the missing Speedmaster 57.
Tell them that you have been emasculated by your watch buddies (don't worry, we'll gladly give you the mickey any chance we got) and it is their duty as filial children to give you expensive watches to the end of time and beyond to avenge this shame! Even better if your future grandkids get roped into it too. 👍
Now praise me, for I am smort dugong! Arms wide open for praises coming his way 😎😛
My idea; give the kids the best edumacation money can buy, love them very much, ensure they'll have all they need to be rich and successful... But wait, you say, this doesn't sound like much of a punishment! And here's the sting. Using the ancient powers of Asian parent aura of disapproval and disappointment, guilt them about the missing Speedmaster 57.
Tell them that you have been emasculated by your watch buddies (don't worry, we'll gladly give you the mickey any chance we got) and it is their duty as filial children to give you expensive watches to the end of time and beyond to avenge this shame! Even better if your future grandkids get roped into it too. 👍
Now praise me, for I am smort dugong! Arms wide open for praises coming his way 😎😛
Ha! I took my 9 year-old out for a daddy-daughter thing yesterday.
I have told @valleykilmers this story, but I feel it is relevant.
My beautiful, talented, charming daughter was curious about my Daytona and what father could resist his daughter taking an interest in his hobby.
After many warnings about being careful, I gingerly handed it over....and upon taking it in her hand, she immediately lost interest, dropped it on the tile floor and ran off to go find her stuffed dog.
I nearly had a heart attack.
So what I mean is....send them to the Agoge. If they survive, they can become Spartans and fight their old man for the watch.
Yeah between both of your kiddo stories I fear I too will be adding to the “guess what my kid did category”. @HotWatchChick69
Hopefully my dog won’t need Speedmaster ‘57 surgery bc of a pacifier and hopefully I remember not to let my kids HOLD any of my watches for a long time.
Thanks for tagging me as this is probably the one Cruncher tale that kept lingering in the back of my mind wondering what the outcome was.
Born into Gen-X, I’ve experienced working through the Dot com bubble of 2000, the Great Recession of mid-2000s brought on by financial market bubble (mortgage backed derivatives) and now this series of bubbles bursting on the backside of the pandemic. Watch bubble (pssst gray prices still over retail for most hype pieces), Crypto Winter (here comes derivatives again), market contagion … so many bubbles it’s going to give me gas. I‘m neither fabulously wealthy nor am living paycheck to paycheck. I’ve done well over close to 30 yrs of working, enough to afford some nice things like a couple Rolexes, but it’s all from working my ass off.
I hope that young man knows how truly fortunate he is to have a loving and understanding uncle who happens to have some real nice and upstanding friends like @Edge168n. You really did go the extra mile by exposing the lie that often is the IG/TikTok influencer set. I’m sure that will be one of the most valuable life lessons that young man ever learns. Period.
If he uses that $700k lesson and turns it into something that motivates him to work hard from here on out, it’ll probably be worth it in the long run.
Ha! I took my 9 year-old out for a daddy-daughter thing yesterday.
One down. Marks the elder as partway pacified
🫡
Thanks for tagging me as this is probably the one Cruncher tale that kept lingering in the back of my mind wondering what the outcome was.
Born into Gen-X, I’ve experienced working through the Dot com bubble of 2000, the Great Recession of mid-2000s brought on by financial market bubble (mortgage backed derivatives) and now this series of bubbles bursting on the backside of the pandemic. Watch bubble (pssst gray prices still over retail for most hype pieces), Crypto Winter (here comes derivatives again), market contagion … so many bubbles it’s going to give me gas. I‘m neither fabulously wealthy nor am living paycheck to paycheck. I’ve done well over close to 30 yrs of working, enough to afford some nice things like a couple Rolexes, but it’s all from working my ass off.
I hope that young man knows how truly fortunate he is to have a loving and understanding uncle who happens to have some real nice and upstanding friends like @Edge168n. You really did go the extra mile by exposing the lie that often is the IG/TikTok influencer set. I’m sure that will be one of the most valuable life lessons that young man ever learns. Period.
If he uses that $700k lesson and turns it into something that motivates him to work hard from here on out, it’ll probably be worth it in the long run.
I have a friend. We'll call him Miami Dan.
He's a good guy, a year or two younger than me, single, decent six figure a year job (middle manager at an insurance company), the whole bit. He should have very few cares in this world.
But he is up to his eyeballs in debt because he owns a Royal Oak and a Nautilus and a G-wagen and a Cayenne and can barely make his rent payments on the apartment he lives in on the South Shore...all to feed the Instagram algorithm.
The last time I talked to him, he was worried about his credit card rates because he couldn't remember if they were adjustable rate (they are) and wondered why my watch collection wasn't bigger given that prices were falling and "don't you have a house you can borrow against?"
I attribute some of this to the fact that 2022 was the first real bear market he'd ever seen (FWIW, I lived through 2008 as a professional and grew up in Silicon Valley during the late 90s). Like you, I remember what both uncertainty and mania feel like. I trust neither.
Different strokes for different folks but some strategies are suboptimal.
You're too kind. I did not intend this to be a morality tale (although perhaps it ended up one), just a funny story's conclusion.
All I can say is, a picture might be worth a thousand words, but real life beats a picture every time.
Junior seems like a nice kid (emphasis on kid) and I did get a nice text back today. We will see.
700k USD - (1 million CAD !)
It takes well over a decade to accrue that wealth through high paying jobs. So loosing it all and laughing it off as NBD is hard to relate with. It would financially ruin most people.
It’s still a crazy interesting story, even if makes me feel economically like a speck of dust
I do see the other side a bit here in Vancouver. But our super rich are slightly different. The 10m+ dollar homes and Lambo Aventadors are often owned by 18 year old kids of Chinese political leaders. 🤪
700k USD - (1 million CAD !)
It takes well over a decade to accrue that wealth through high paying jobs. So loosing it all and laughing it off as NBD is hard to relate with. It would financially ruin most people.
It’s still a crazy interesting story, even if makes me feel economically like a speck of dust
I do see the other side a bit here in Vancouver. But our super rich are slightly different. The 10m+ dollar homes and Lambo Aventadors are often owned by 18 year old kids of Chinese political leaders. 🤪
It's hard to conceptualize I agree. By it's very nature, the abundance of wealth does create some odd incentive structures. I think this one, in particular, is related to the need to DO something which is absolutely deadly in the context. Sometimes waiting is perfectly fine.
Steve-O is a relatively recent wealthy person, so he's not super far removed from our lives and, for narrative purposes, I have not talked about some of his more emotional responses. Still he got to the right place in the end.
Absolutely amazing!
Steve-O's accommodation of his nephew's short-comings is nothing short of remarkable! I mean, I read accounts like this, and my immediate reactions are:
And yet... I can also totally understand how you'd do anything for your kids... even if they're total screw ups - maybe especially if they're total screw ups!
My 7 and 9 year-old daughters recently cost me this...
No, they didn't break my watch. I don't own the Speedmaster '57, so there was nothing to break. But, the reason I don't own it is precisely because they're screw ups! They leave all their toys on the floor. And, recently, one of my doggies ate one of their toys, which proceeded to block the pup's digestive system, which resulted in her becoming violently ill and necessitating emergency surgery. And all told, ignoring pain and suffering (my sleepless night worrying whether the dog would live or die and a week of cleaning up doggie diarrhea after she came home from surgery), the whole ordeal cost the same as the Speedmaster '57!
Thought about giving my kids up for adoption, or at the very least, grounding them till their 18th birthdays. My wife, though, reasonably said, "Honey, I know it sucks, but it's not going to bankrupt us. I mean, I thought this was the reason for working hard and making money - so that we could brush off stuff like this."
I still think I should ground them until at least they're freshmen in high school.
With all I have spent on vet bills (and feed bills, btw), my collection could be epic. And I don't even have kids to compound things. The pleasant fantasies I have of "re-homing" the putain animals...
Hey, maybe you can re-home the kids?
If not, I'd say don't ground 'em. The more they are out of the house, the less they'll be around to stymie the watches.
JK--I'm sure they're darlings.
With all I have spent on vet bills (and feed bills, btw), my collection could be epic. And I don't even have kids to compound things. The pleasant fantasies I have of "re-homing" the putain animals...
Hey, maybe you can re-home the kids?
If not, I'd say don't ground 'em. The more they are out of the house, the less they'll be around to stymie the watches.
JK--I'm sure they're darlings.
The 9 year-old watched "Tenet" with me yesterday. She was super into it. For no other reason than that, she gets to stay for the time being.
I think that when she sees all the Christopher Nolan films, she earns a Murph.