Almost Robbed While Exploring London’s Luxury Watch Scene! | VLOG

What are we paying for those? Sorry, we need to get out of here. Just trust me with this. We're standing at a dealer's window. All of a sudden, we noticed there was a group of guys across the street from us, looking dead at us. One of them crosses the street, circles us, starts looking at our wrist, starts seeing what we're wearing. This is where it got sketchy for me. We're in London. We're going to time in London. It means we're going to spend some time in London. It's at the back entrance, whatever the f**k that means. Paul sent me a voice message this morning. Roman, it's going to be the like. What's going on? You alright? Yeah, did a start. You looking good? This is the goat of watches. Every single week, a watch. We're based in Poole in Dorset. Just over a decade old. Roll tanks over them, we blow them up. We do all kinds of things. We had one in Poole Harbour for six months. Came out like a barnacle. We blew one up last week with 400 grams of explosives. It blew up. Sounds like you have a fun job. I don't do that with my watches. Apparently, they blow watches up and run them over with tanks. What would happen to a Rolex if I ran it over with a tank? This is our biggest collection, which is Holton. And this we made in conjunction with the special forces in the UK. It has its own NATO stock number, whereas that particular one has its own stock number. So it is issued as kit to the military. And we do it both in quartz and automatic. And now we're in a GMT quarter as well. And then this we launched last year, which is our Beachmaster. And this was born out of a conversation with the Marines. On beach landings, there is a guy called the Beachmaster who organises where everyone's going, what they're doing. And he counts down to mission start, up to mission completion. But that has the functionality. Yeah, so the question was, can we do a watch that has that on it? So we have a patent on the timing mechanism in this movement. And again, we do it in both automatic and quartz. But that's been a huge halo product for us. To me. What is the price point on the watch? In sterling, it's about 400 to 2,500. But everything has got what we call the movement shield system in it. So it has a shock absorption system. You're blowing these things up with tanks, I would imagine. Yeah. That's amazing. Well, thank you for your time. It's a pleasure. Nice meeting you. We are an Italy-based company. We make Swiss-made watches, 90% with Sellita movements. And we have mainly three collections. This is the vintage one with three hands. Three hands like this, GMT and chrono manual winding. Three hands, so we have many colour versions. But here we have just a few pieces. Tell me about 1956. 1956, because we are inspired by the Dolomites and the places near our house. Cortina is the country that held the Olympic Games in 1956. So we made a vintage collection inspired by that event. We have a chrono GMT, so it's a complication of the chronograph with the red hands of the GMT. Here we have the field watch with three hands and a big moon. It's a moon phase. It's a rounded moon, 3D, with the two red arrows that show you the phase. What is the price point? The price point between 600 euro, tax included, up to 2,000 for the chrono GMT. The price of the chrono is 1,690. Thank you very much. You're welcome, thank you too. Tell me about this watch. We're almost 10 years old. We try and be very meticulous in what we do. So we work with the Campbell Family Heritage Trust. So we have here the Bluebird CN7. So we do a Bluebird watch, which is one of our bestsellers. Sapphire crystal, it's powered by a Miyota movement. We sell it at 369 pounds. We call this the track day. We range from 369 pounds to, the majority here is 399. This watch here is an Attawack. It's definitely not inspired by this, which is a Casio, right? Okay. And I know a lot of people complain about the waiting list on watches. I had to wait five minutes for this. That was five minutes of my life to get this watch. So which one is this inspired by? Probably the one next to it. Now, it's probably inspired by a brand called Erwurth. A brand called? Erwurth. Erwurth, which is German. No, that would be Swiss. Erwurth. But it's the German language. I'm not going to argue with you because you're bigger than me. Yeah, it's a really good interpretation. And the reason I say that is because I'm actually wearing one. You're wearing one there, right. Right, wow. So you see the resemblance. Exactly. And this gets back to my original point. Cheap, nasty Chinese knockoff of probably what is a very expensive watch. How much does that watch cost? About 120. What pounds? Thousand. 120,000 pounds? Dollars. This costs 12 pounds. Not a bad deal. 12 pounds, right. But not bad, huh? Not bad. So how much is this? I think these are around 2,000 pounds. 2,000 pounds. 2,000 pounds or 12 pounds. That's a lot of savings. As you can see, I have a lot of money. They allow a lot of the micro brands, less known brands, to display their product directly to the consumer. A lot of the vendors were actually selling watches at that show. Once again, for all of you guys that I met at that event, it was a pleasure meeting you, a pleasure hanging out with you, and I had a great time. The Diamond District of London is a place where wealth and desperation dance. A very dangerous tango. It's not the diamonds or the watches that make it dangerous. It's the people. This place has its own rules, its own rhythm. You got to keep your eyes open. Because in the Diamond District, the real treasure isn't what's in the window. It's making it in and out with your wallet and your life intact sometimes. $59.90. How much is $59.90? Uh, $59.90. It's expensive, mate, to be honest. I've had it a while. Probably not going to work for you. I feel like it's going to be way too high. But there could be something else we can deal on. What about the $59.80 rose? New class, $22. How much is the one on the strap? That one is also too high. Got it. How much is the green Royal Oak? The green Royal Oak, I have two. One of them is the $22.50, and one of them is the $23. So the $22.50, I'm asking $62. And the $23, I want $64. And then the little Tantalum Royal Oak next to it. Beautiful watch that. Really, really nice. Uh, I want $12,000 for it. I have to convert to dollars. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The green Royal Oak on a strap. Uh, one is a $22 anniversary. The other one is a non-anniversary. What are we paying for those? You know what I mean? Like, he's asking $62 pounds for one, the anniversary, and $62 for the non. Sorry, we need to get out of here. Just trust me. We were standing around looking at watches. All of a sudden, a couple of guys came around, circled us. You know what I mean? And they're, like, checking us out, and I see him going on his phone. I'm not bothered by it, but we've got a guest here. We've got, you know... We're standing at a dealer's window. All of a sudden, we noticed there was a group of guys across the street from us looking dead at us. One of them crosses the street, circles us, starts looking at our wrist, starts seeing what we're wearing. We noticed he started texting someone. So we had to take precaution and pretty much get out of there ASAP. Now we're heading over to Gray's Market, which felt a bit safer than the last place we visited. We might not come and see you, cos we're doing buy one, get one free. Oh, nice. Yeah, that's what they do in London. So what's selling around London besides Rolex? To be fair, you know how it is. Fastest mover. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What do you need for it? 10K, a bit high. No, it might work. And what year is it? It's 2022, completely on one with Bond. So you said £10, so that's what? It's about £12,800-ish. Pound's quite strong at the moment. I agree. Sorry, Roman, let's just move in here a minute. Getting a bit too close for comfort. Too close for comfort. Sorry, it's a tight shop. Yeah. Spence, where are you? Come here. It's a really good piece, innit, that one? What is the standard? So, that's a 7021, watch only on NATO, and then the other one's with the box and paper that says 9-4-1-1. What are you asking for this? This one, I need 6-5. Can I see the daycast? This is nice as well, Spence, look. That's a Stephen Rose. We have a Stephen Rose. Another one, 16-0-1-1. That's got Sigmund on. You know, it's funny. Your prices are literally the prices I would pay. No, but the prices I would pay, but in dollars. Because of your stupid VAT. Yeah. It's literally that. Once I convert the currency, the difference becomes the VAT you guys pay. Yeah, for sure, for sure. I mean, some pieces I can purchase here. Yeah. Right? But for the most part, I look at the price and I'm like, okay, if that was in dollars, it would work. For sure. And the difference between the currency is what? No, I'm saying... That's around the time you fellas went to high school, no? Yeah, exactly. Somewhere around there. So, it's actually not bad, like the two-tone. They're about like $8,000 to $10,000 depending on condition, box of papers in the U.S. So, this is coming out to $9,700 U.S. So, what are these again? The best on these? The 5K on the Stephen Rose gold. Yeah. 5K on the UAE dial again. Yeah. And that one, I can do $4,000. Could we get anywhere near $15,000 for the four? He also has to make a profit, right? If you give me halfway, I'm happy to. Sorry, what did you say? $17,000 or $17,500? $17,400. $17,000. So, let me see here. $17,000. I'm going back to my app, sorry. Okay. Thank you very much. Let me think about those. No problem, no problem. I'm just curious if you have any of the original English drum watches, the ones that date back to 1600s. Any of those around? Just sold one. Just sold one? Just sold one. I just want to, I mean... I have one very, very interesting. I've got Oliver Cromwell's watch here. You have that here? What a company. Can we see it? Tell us about this. What is this? This is a grand tour piece. This, you went on your grand tour when you were 18 to 20, either with your nanny or with your parents, and you travelled from Belgium, France, all the way up to Italy. And on the way, you normally collect various different souvenirs. You'll end up in Italy, go to Florence, where the cabinet makers were, give them all your bits and pieces that you bought on your grand tour, hopefully. And they would make a memory piece for you, and it would be shipped back to you two or three years later, and you'll have a memory of your trip. It's about 1830 to 1850. So they made you a storage cabinet for your knickknacks. Did they embed any of the knickknacks into the piece? No, no. And sometimes you turned up then, you haven't bought anything on the way, and they had departments where they would sell you bits and pieces, you choose what you want, and they'd put everything together. And if you close it, you leave it at home, it looks like nothing. No one's going to steal it. Yeah. So how much is this? £89,000. Beautiful. So how did you find Oliver Cromwell's watch? Speak to my son, he found it. I found it in a sale. It's beautiful. He found it in a sale? This is it. Puritan watch. Oh my God. It was given to one of his generals in the Battle of Cromwell in Ireland. They lost the battle, by the way. And he took it off his chateau and gave it to him, and it's passed down through the family when it was put into auction. And the last time it was seen was in 1812. And there was an article on it in The Gentleman's Digest. Have you been here since when? 1976. Well, hang on, hang on, I found something I like. It's one of the original Ulysse Nardin chronometers, World War II era. So this is chain fusee. I don't know. It's like in perfect condition. I would like to purchase that. Can I give you a credit card, yes? What's the very best we can give this one? 2828. That was my chronometer regulation on it. We bought a World War II era Ulysse Nardin chronometer. I asked if he had it, and he goes, as a matter of fact, I do. How much is green? Green one, we can do it for $175,000. Sold one for $600,000. What do you need on RM 1103? $250,000. Yeah, $59,000, $60,000. That one, we can do $105,000. Difficult to strike deals in London due to the currency conversion, as well as the VAT that's in London, but I did end up walking away with a beautiful World War II era Ulysse Nardin chronometer. These are like 5,000 to 7,000 years old. They've been found in Mesopotamia and other places like that. The variety here is insane. I've never negotiated for a penis in my life. Oh, then you haven't negotiated. Never once have I negotiated over a penis. I've got to be honest. Spencer and Paul took us to a place called the Silver Vault, right? They're little underground vaults, and the majority of the place is silver. There are a few dealers in there that deal in watches and jewelry, but there was an interesting story there involving the assassin of Abraham Lincoln. Now, this beer. Yeah, but it's probably, you've got to remember in those days, it's probably given as a presentation. It's the equivalent of the 19th century sort of gold watch from Penn. You know, I think it had a sort of more symbolic aspect. I mean, it's too big. You wouldn't drink ale out of something that expensive at the time. It was about your days. Yeah, it was my fifth birthday. It was your fifth birthday, right? Yeah, that's actually even older. That's 1673. It's a bit smaller. The condition. Yeah. I mean, silver is a pretty durable metal if it's kept. This wasn't a trinket. This was an expensive thing that's kept over the ages. Yeah, it's interesting you say that because sometimes it's silver of the 18th century to be found in better condition than things like brass or more household things that people sort of treasured it. But the pieces that are here, these were all very, very expensive pieces for the time. So they were treasured, obviously. Compared to the value of them in their time, they'd be worth a whole lot less. In most terms. I mean, when that was made, that spoon. I mean, why they're rare at this day is that silver in today's money probably before the opening of the New World's Wine was somewhere New World's Mine, I should say. That was a 2,000 pound in today's money. That's a sort of 2,000 pound gift. Oh, my God. You know, in those days. If you had that in your house 70 or 80 years later, it'd be a very valuable piece of metal, but very old-fashioned looking. So they would scrap it. It'd be like this man buying a very expensive silk shirt in 1977 with lovely flyaway collars. He has some of those shirts. So would you say the odds of these being melted down for the value of metal were pretty high at those times? You said, say, some 80 years later. Oh, yeah. I mean, the value of metal was still high. But there's a thing, you see. You can buy a spoon. If you and your sister were dividing that between you, see, there's a spoon from 1778, which was roughly the time. There's a spoon from 1528. That's 20,000. That's 90 quid. So, I mean, you can buy a spoon from the early 1700s, middle 1700s, probably for a quarter of the price they can make it new for. And is it because it's also how many survived? There's enough. I mean, put it this way. That spoon from 1788 is too good for 90% of the population. They're not really good enough for a hardcore collector. Does that make sense? Yes. It's sort of stuck in that sort of middle world. They're wick trippers. In the old days, when the candles burnt down, they were all made of quite smelly animal fat, and as it all burnt down, the guy who made this, his brother, was the grandfather of John Wilkes Booth, who did for old Avery. Was he in the theatre, 1868? I'm mind-blown. That'd be for eating some type of a shellfish. Not some kind of nuts or snails? No, the bone marrow. Bone marrow, OK. Scoop it up, scoop it out, and that's it. You can scoop out the bone marrow? That's cheese. Steel from cheese. How much would I pay for that clock? I don't know. Make it even better. If I was able to buy it, I would probably pay a million for it. If something like that were to go to auction, which it never does, you never have architectural clocks that go to auction because they belong to buildings, most of them are historic, right? Theoretically, they're priceless. We're going to go in there and see if we can strike a deal with a company that's 120 years old, and I'm sure they might want to sell. We're looking at a brother. I think it's f***ing amazing. Good. I'm actually happy to meet somebody that appreciates complications versus hype. Wow. I mean, I've watched bits and pieces of, like, social media when you were building the place. It's very difficult, you know, to imagine it live. Hi, how are you? Good to see you, good to see you. So, we have everything here. We have all the papers. Everything's coded, so we can go back to where it is. So, let's see one thing. OK, so, it's so funny how great minds think alike. So, if you went into my safe, I don't have closed shelving. I have open shelving, similar boxes. There's a tag on the watch, just like you have. And then, here, we have an insert. So, it doesn't go on a tray itself, so we can reuse the trays. We have a small plastic insert that goes in that has the same tag as the watch. So, the minute a salesperson comes out, my logistics manager says, they pull out whatever watches, she can scan them all out, and she knows who has them. And what she does, instead of having to peel it off every time, she just pulls out the little plastic tag. She puts it in a bin like this, and when they come back, she matches them back up and puts it back in. I need you to sell that for me. That's a US... I knew what he was going to say. I knew he was going to say that. So, with Arnold Schwarzenegger's relationship with Audemars Piguet, which he's actually the biggest ambassador in terms of number of pieces made for a single individual. It carries his name. So, they came out with the T3, with titanium, with the white dial and the blue dial. And then, they came out with this monster in rose gold and white gold. The problem with this watch, or any T3 for that matter... It's really just... It's the sheer size of it, right? It's a 48-millimeter watch. And then you add diamonds on top of it. Now, one time in its heydays, you cannot get these. They're sold like hotcakes. We'll talk off-camera what the cost on this thing is and see if I can find a client. Because I actually just remembered I may actually have had a call on this recently. Where was this? Here? Yeah. So, this is how we get all our pieces. This is a nice piece. I do very well with those. Oh, yeah. We do very well with the Zenith. Put the weight on it. It's just a lovely... We do well with the automatic. We do well with the chronograph. The white ceramic does really well for us. The price point works. And it's a gorgeous watch. And it's the Alfa Renaro. So, this is how we look after each piece. What I love the most about it, as Spencer told me, like, Roman, when I visited your office, I took a lot of cues for what you got going on in terms of movement of merchandise, logistics, how things are set up, security especially. And I applied it in my own office. Of course, when I got there, I quickly realized that he applied it on steroids. And I, in turn, took some cues back to some of the things that I can improve in my office. Spencer, big congratulations on a new store in Radlet. If you guys don't know who they are, check them out. They're BQ Watches. And if you get a chance to pay them a visit, I highly, highly recommend. With that said, guys, as always, you know, we put a lot of effort into these things. So, I hope you enjoyed today's video. Hit that like button. Subscribe if you're not a subscriber. Share this with your friends that you think may enjoy this content. And I'll see you on the next one.