Traveling With Watches Is It Worth It

Having been interested in watches for over twenty years, the question of if I’m going to take a watch on a trip has come up numerous times. From being in my early 20s to now being in my early 40s, my thoughts on traveling with watches has changed drastically.

When I first got into watches, my budget wasn’t anything to write home about and my collection typically consisted of one watch. In those days it was a simple answer, if I was going on a trip, I’d take my watch. With my early watches being divers from Omega, they were also great watches to take on a typically beach vacation. Also being young, I never thought anything could happen while wearing the watch, be it at airport security or during the vacation.



As I started my career in the watch industry, I suddenly found myself with access to numerous watches that I was able to wear that I did not own. One trip to Mexico in particular sticks out, since it was the first time I had extended wrist time with an IWC Aquatimer. The Aquatimer I wore on that trip was the Cousteau Diver IW354806, which now is an extremely collectable model. Over the course of the trip, the watch wore and functioned excellent and really started my love of the Aquatimer series.



Vacations back then were also when we were in our early to mid 20s, so we weren’t nearly as cautious as we are today. Being on vacation at an all inclusive resort in Mexico, we obviously drank too much and were super carefree. It wouldn’t have taken much for the watch to be misplaced or stolen and then I would have been on the hook for a watch I did not own.

Being in my 20s, we would go out often and never really think about the negative consequences our actions could bring on. Like the trip to Mexico with the Aquatimer, we would frequently go out downtown and walk around to various bars and clubs drinking. In one particular instance after a night out, I woke up in the morning with no clue about where the watch I was wearing the night before was. The watch in question was an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Arnold Schwarzenegger in yellow gold, which at the time was a $50,000 watch. I would typically put my watch on the night stand when going to bed, which it was not on the morning after. After running around the house and looking everywhere in a panic, my wife noticed and immediately said “The watch is in the kitchen.” It just shows how being irresponsible while wearing a nice watch could possibly lead to an extremely bad situation. My 24 year old self really couldn’t afford to have to replace that watch. It was also probably the last time I drank like that wearing something so valuable.



Besides being irresponsible and drinking while wearing a nice watch, especially in a location you are not familiar with, is the high possibility of theft or being targetted. Being from Austin and at the time living in Philadelphia for work, we decided that we were going to have a destination wedding. During that time, we were constantly traveling to Las Vegas for watch tradeshows, so it sort of became our adopted city and we picked it for where we were going to get married.

The venue we picked was the Wynn and during this time all the hype in the watch world was on the Royal Oak Offshore. I knew for our wedding, I really wanted to wear something special to me. Just happened that at that time we had a pre-owned Royal Oak Offshore Montoya in rose gold in stock. This was also peak market on these watches, with the rose gold Montoya hovering right around $100,000. At the time and being so naïve, I didn’t think anything about it and off to Vegas for a week we went with the Montoya in tow. Looking back, I can see how ridiculous it was to be in my 20s walking around Vegas all hours of the night with that sort of watch on. While we were a little more mature on the drinking end of the spectrum, walking around the strip with something worth the value of a very nice car on your wrist just makes no sense.



I know I’ve kind of gone off the rails here a bit, but I’ll add one more story into the mix and tie this all together in a bit…

Just before the decade long period of my life when I fell out of love with watches, I was on a trip to a snow-covered area of the country wearing a Royal Oak Offshore Team Alinghi in rose gold, which was valued around $65,000 at the time. Now being from Texas and only living in Philadelphia for a year, I was not at all used to snow and ice. At our hotel I was making my way back from our car to the hotel carrying something and stepped on some ice I didn’t see. I fell instantly and my wrist hit the ground and whatever I was carrying had completely shattered. The Team Alinghi was on the wrist that slammed into the ground and it took an extremely hard hit to the rose gold case and forged carbon bezel. I had seen a few forged carbon Team Alinghi’s take on extreme damage since the material is so soft and also with the watch having a rose gold case, I could only image the damage the very expensive watch I was wearing had just incurred. Luckily for me, the watch was OK and needless to say the rest of the trip I was watching my step.



Although nothing really happened in these above examples, they show what can happen when you’re wearing a watch in an area you are not familiar with, are maybe having a little more fun than normal or are just plain naïve while on vacation.

I’m not sure if it was that I was much younger in the above examples, or that I had not paid for these watches that lead to me being so irresponsible in these scenarios, maybe it was a combination of both. Either way, when I started building my current collection over the past few years, I’ve started thinking back on these times and looking for watches for both myself and my wife that I’d feel comfortable taking on trips and not being on the verge of financial ruin if anything happened to them.

We live in a very safe area and for the most part, we stay in our little bubble when going out. My main watch rotation is between an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Montoya in titanium and an IWC Big Pilot Top Gun Perpetual Calendar in ceramic, both watches are valued around $25,000 to $30,000 and I feel 100% comfortable wearing out and about. My wife’s main watch is a Rolex Yacht-Master 16622, which is around $10,000, which she never feels uncomfortable wearing out.

I feel extremely fortunate that we were able to add watches like this to our collection and would be devastated if anything were to happen to them. Even sometimes when we need to run errands more in Austin proper, I feel a bit on edge wearing them. The Big Pilot is more stealth, since nobody really knows what it is, but with the recent watch hype an AP or Rolex would look pretty enticing. Now would I ever take any of these watches on vacation, absolutely not.

From the moment you get to the airport, you run into an issue with security that might ask you to remove your watch while going through screening. In those few moments you don’t have your watch on, it could disappear in the blink of an eye. Then most people’s inhibitions and awareness of surroundings are lowered when on vacation. To us, the risks far outweigh the rewards of taking such watches with us.

Since I restarted collecting watches, we really haven’t been on many trips. Covid forced us to cancel a few booked trips and also having twin baby girls, also forced us to stay home. I did know at some point we’d start traveling again, so I started looking for watches for both of us that I’d feel comfortable traveling with.

The first watch I bought for myself for the sole reason of being a travel watch was the Sinn U2. I had always liked the U2 since it and its sister watch the U1 came out. I loved the looks and the fact that it was crafted out of German Submarine steel made it a must have. A few months after our twins were born, we got adventurous and booked a weekend stay at a nice resort about an hour from our house. For that trip I took the U2 and my wife took a Casio G-Shock Supreme collaboration watch. The day after we got home from the trip I listed both for sale.



While they did meet the needs of being watches we could travel with and not be too worried about, the G-Shock was way too large my wife and the U2 just didn’t work for me. I have always liked large but lightweight watches, say made out of titanium or ceramic and the U2s large size and very heavy submarine steel just made it a beast to wear for me. I know some people love some heft to their watches, but I just don’t.

Now we were back at square one with no real travel watches. We had booked a cruise a few months ahead after we got back from that little weekend trip, so I knew I had a few months to find new travel watches. The watch I ended up getting for myself was the IWC GST Aqautimer 2000 in titanium and for my wife the Hublot Big Bang All Black 41mm in ceramic.



The GST Aquatimer 2000 is an important watch for IWC, one of my favorite brands, and on a rubber strap is a perfect vacation watch. It doesn’t scream for unwanted attention because you’d really have to be a huge watch nerd to know what it is. The head of the watch is extremely light in titanium and on rubber it weighs nothing and is great for the heat. The 2000 meter water resistance is really up for the task of a dip in the pool. The Big Bang is also very light in ceramic, and can take a good beating from my wife or our babies. I know Hublot is known to be flashy and people know they are valuable, but the All Black really just blends in.

Another great thing about these watches is that I was able to get them both for roughly $3,500 each. I think I just got lucky to be honest. The Aquatimer looked very rough in pictures and wasn’t marketed great, but was a full set including all the links. A quick clean up with soapy water and a toothbrush and it was as good as new. The dealer auction for the Big Bang just didn’t have much interest and I was able to win it at a great price. Sure $3,500 is a still a lot of money, and I’d be very upset if something happened to either watch, but it’s a fraction of what our other watches are worth.



We just got back from our first trip with both watches and I’m happy to report that they both did much better than the watches on our last trip. We drove from Austin to Galveston and both watches were extremely comfortable during the drive. The night before the cruise we stayed in Houston, nobody paid attention to either watch while we were out at dinner or at the hotel.

For the cruise we had to go through security screenings while getting on and off the boat as well as when visiting foreign ports. During all of these screenings, the watches never set off the metal detectors either. We were asked once to remove our watches, but just kept them on and were fine. I’ve read that you are not required to take your watch off, and if it does set anything off, you can be manually scanned... so that was my mindset going into security.

With twin babies, we really didn’t find any time to get the watches into the pool or splash areas, but did have them both tested by our watchmaker before leaving for the cruise and both passed water resistance tests, so they should have been good for water activities.



I never found myself waking up during the night worried about where the watches were either. Even one night my wife asked if I had seen her watch after she took it off a few hours prior, I said no, but I’m sure it was there. If these were some of our other watches, I’d be out of bed and searching the room. One time my wife did forget to put her watch on before we went to dinner, I didn’t freak out too much and just went back to the room to get it.

The watches also didn’t attract any attention while onboard or in port cities. I know some of the ports could be a little rough if you get into the wrong area, so that was great. The only people that noticed any of the watches were the people at the watch stores onboard, not surprising seeing one was a Hublot boutique. Had I found somebody wearing a nice watch onboard, I knew both watches were known and interesting enough to be included in conversation.

All in all, I think we had a great test with these watches on a vacation. They pretty much did all they were expected to do, while not giving me 9 days of heartburn and anxiety. I would say we now have a pair of watches we feel comfortable taking on any travels based on our recent trip experience.