MADRID, FLEA MARKET AND WATCHES

Ahh, Madrid… City full of beautiful streets, great arthitecture, even better food, wine and football. I spent 5 days in the Spain's capital. There is something for everyone. From eating paellas, drinking on roof top bars while waiting for sunset to shopping on Gran Via.

In Madrid you can find a lot of watch stores everywhere/around every corner, just like in every big city around the world. There is a mall chain named "El Corte de Ingles", where you can find almost every big watch brand name. In this mall I tried to buy myself OmegaxSwatch, but of course it was out of stock. At the end of one street there was a half-round corner watch store with a big Rolex sign in the middle of a high building. The green sign with a golden crown really stood out on the white building and if you saw it at night time, the view is majestic… at least for me. But again, AD didn't have any in stock.

Yeah, watch stores were great. But Madrid on Sundays is a whole new experience. One of the biggest flea markets in Europe takes place there and its location is between Calle Embajadores and the Ronda de Toledo. You can find everything you want there. Do you need a new pair of jeans? They got it. You want to buy your mother some jewlery? They got it. You need lego parts? They got it. Hell, they even have soaps and back sponges. But my eyes were focused on one thing and one thing only. Watches.

At first as I walked down the street I struggled with finding watches, because there is almost too much of everything. But the more I ignored other things and the more I focused, they were popping out everywhere. From vintage to new pieces, you could find Omegas, Durwil, Casios, Gruens, Doxas,…Of course there was a lot of fashion watches and sadly some fakes - many of them Rolex.

While going through big piles of mixted jewlery, straps and watches I found feminine vintage gold plated Seiko. To me it stood out with its small ellipse gold shape. It had a brown leather strap in poor condition, the mechanism was quartz and wasn't working. But my mind was made up. I wanted it.

Since the watch wasn't in working condition and it had a damaged strap, I made a deal with the salesman; the golden Seiko and another watch for 35€.

With a new watch on my wrist I went to a watch repair shop to check if the watch can be fixed The servicer replaced the battery and the watch worked. At the shop I also found a new strap, which was almost identical to the original, damaged one. Unfortunetly I wasn't lucky with other watch. The mechanism was broken, but I was happy with Seiko and didn't care as much about the other one.

I went home very happy with my new watch souvenir from Madrid and satisfied with a very unique experience from flea market. That experiance motivated me to serch for other markets in Europe, even if it is a gamble. Next one is probably in Porto, Portugal.

I don't wear the watch as much as I did at first, but when I do it makes me feel care free just as I was back in Spain while exploring and roaming through beautiful streeets of its capital city.

Thank you for reading.

Do you have any recommendations for a flea market in Europe?