Welcome to this Watch LIVE. Hi, I'm Lydia Winters.
And I'm Boo Booy. OK so I have the best story.
It is unrelated to watches, but I I can't not tell it.
You haven't even told me this story yet, so I'm very curious.
Ask me about my day yesterday. How?
Was your day yesterday. It was a dumpster fire.
Wait, wait, hold on, wait what? Maybe I have heard the story
then. You have not.
OK, I turned the corner with my mom as we were running to the
convenience store. OK, and what did I see but a
literal dumpster fire? A fire in a dumpster.
Wait, really? Yes.
Like just an uncontrolled dumpster fire.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The, the.
So my mom ran in to tell the people who run the store so they
could make sure they had already called 911.
I was sitting there waiting for her.
And then I was like, wait, it's a literal dumpster fire.
So I jumped out of the car and took a photo of it because it
was like. Wait, it took you to realize the
joke before you even went to take a picture of this fire?
That's interesting. People just.
Go to take pictures of everything these days.
Yeah, but I would have to get out of the car.
So it took that. It took that extra thing, but
OK. So all I've been thinking about
since then is like the firefighters who I also helped
flag down, American Hero. You are a hero.
You saved that dumpster, although probably not That
dumpster pride needs to be replaced.
But the best part is I just thought about how if you were
the firefighter that was called to the scene and you got home,
you could say today was a dumpster fire and it would
literally be true. And I just can't stop thinking
about it. But you get to say the same
thing. Yes, and I will.
Dumpster fire photo OK, It's a like a big dumpster fire OK.
We're not talking about a little bit of smoke.
No, no, no. There were flames.
Like, like flames. Wow, about like.
OK, well how well did this happen after I already went to
sleep? Yeah, you were already asleep.
And my mom and I were on a mission to get some whipped
cream for Key Lime Pie. This isn't very Florida.
Yeah, you were going to the convenience store to get some
Key Lime Pie and there was a dumpster on oh of whipped cream
for your Key Lime Pie. This.
Is a very. Florida story.
Yeah, yeah, it is a very Florida.
Story. Well, I, I'm, I'm impressed that
you were able to hold this story from me so that we could record
it live. Yes.
Good. Job because it's it's one of my
favorite things. Now I'm going to tell everyone.
So Adrian PT asks, would love to hear your thoughts on watch
storage both at home and on the road.
What are your go to boxes, rolls, wallets, etcetera and how
do you handle security? Well, I'm glad we started with
the simple question of a dumpster fire.
This is this is, this is a really tough one.
And I think, I mean, especially because it's like so terrible.
We've had lots of friends who have been robbed of watches.
I guess being robbed is typically being armed, stolen,
burglarized. And it's just, yeah, it's a
scary. It's a scary topic.
It is a scary topic. And there's also lots of news,
you know, and the news like their whole deal is to get
people watching. And so they're incentivized to
also blow things up sometimes. So sometimes things might even
seem worse than they really are. But like, it's just terrible
that we have to talk about this. But it is a thing.
It's it affects a lot of. People.
But I guess we're talking about the security side of it and the
watch storage side, not? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're
not. Going into debt.
Side, there are two things to talk about that are related.
Like you said, storage and security, they're separate, but
the way we do it at least they become quite related.
So and also I'm not going to talk about insurance or any of
that kind of stuff. Like great, it's a good idea get
insured, you know, like that, do that.
But that's not what this is about.
The question was more about security and about storage.
So we'll start with security as like there's OK, there's so many
things to worry about when it comes to storing your watches at
home. Like the big ones though are
probably burglary and environmental damage.
And of course there's robbery. But in that case, give them the
watches. Like if someone comes to rob
you, then give them the watches and leave with your life.
And you know. Yeah, I've always been a big
proponent of that. Like, what do you want?
I I said I was going to be like, oh, the pin is this.
Like, yeah, also, hey, I have a cake in the fridge if you're
hungry. Like, have it and then please go
be on your merry way. Like, what can I give you to
make you leave? You know, it sounds like we're
joking, but no, this is actually like our mentality is stuff is
stuff. Versus life, yes.
Exactly. So the only thing that will keep
your watches safe in that case, if you have the mentality that
we do that just like give them whatever they you have to do to
get rid of them, is like, if those watches aren't at home at
all, like they aren't with you, right?
And like, OK, so this is all we're going to talk about
robbery. But it brings us to our first
piece of advice, which is off site storage.
Like at any given time, I think it's a good idea to have at
least part, if not most of your watches at off site storage.
And usually that means like a bank or other safety deposit
box. But like there are different
options out there that you can look up for off site storage
that is secure and also insured and that you will have Peace of
Mind when your watches are there.
But it it adds and this is going to be the themes or this whole
talk, it adds inconvenience, right?
Because isn't it? The more difficult it is to
steal, the more difficult it is to wear right.
Basically like that is kind of the theme here, right?
Like, so if you, OK, if you have valuables, you know, jewelry,
watches, you put them in a safe deposit box at the bank.
Actually, I'm going to specific use bank in the in this example,
because banks have such limiting hours, right?
That's why there are also other options.
But like if you do that, then the only time you get to to
interact with those things is if you plan ahead, go there during
bank hours and get them out, right?
So like that feels very inconvenient, incredibly safe,
incredibly inconvenient. So then you have to balance
things out, which is why usually I'd say most people would keep
part of their collection at these safety deposit boxes so
that it's it's more convenient that you have a couple options.
But then you never have everything at home all at once
where it could be in danger because, you know, burglary is
not the only way that things go. But like, you could have a fire
at home, There could be flooding, there could be,
depending on where you live, tornadoes, hurricanes.
Like, you know, there are other ways that that your watches
could be damaged. Although I, I feel like when you
get to these certain levels, it's kind of like, yeah, OK,
things have gotten really bad. And maybe the watches won't be
your first thing to think about in that in that case.
But we're not talking about that.
We're just talking about watches.
And I think the biggest thing that we do ourselves is to keep
watches off site. Like the priciest ones are
usually the ones that are there. And then you know that at any
given time, if anything happens, that some or if not most are
safe. Yeah, absolutely.
I think it's just like to me, I think it's funny when I think of
safety deposit boxes because I always think of like a little
old lady going to get it or like someone you know, trying to
figure out. It's like always sort of a thing
in a movie of like you have to go.
It's like one of the. Clues and then.
You go there and you open it and there's like another clue.
In the safety. But it's much more simple than
that. Real life is is at least not
that inconvenient. It's not a series of clues that
you have to go through. So that brings us to our second
piece of advice, splitting up your storage.
So even if you keep all of your watches at home, like it's best
not to keep them all in one place, right?
Obviously, Because if someone does, if we're talking about
burglary, which I do think is most people's main fear is
burglary. It's what we've thought about
the most, right? And so having multiple storage
containers and then keeping those containers in different
places makes it less likely that you'll lose everything.
So even the watches that you do have at home, don't just keep
them in one nice easy to take package that's in one place,
right? Like and you just put a bow on
it and you say like, have a great day.
I mean, unfortunately that is what it could feel.
Like that is. What happened?
And so like, it's like it's just the fact that security is
inconvenient. It is a trade off.
Like that is just a fact. And so you have to decide what
level of inconvenience is worth it to you, I guess.
But like you could, OK, you could, you could go spend a
bunch of money. Like if you, I mean, hey, we're
collecting watches, we have at least some kind of money, right?
You could go and spend a bunch of that money instead of buying
watches and have like convenient and attractive storage.
However, most of us are not going to like get like some
super high tech safe that's built into.
Like you know how many? Watches exactly that's.
High tech, safe cost. Just have a regular.
I'll just have a few regular safes.
Yeah, I mean this is, this is also part of the trade off when
you look at the safes that will actually really do a good job of
keeping your valuables safe. I'm not just talking about
fireproof safes because you can get relatively affordable safes
that would keep your watches from like too much damage in a
home fire, but like safes that will keep people out of them.
Like you have to go pretty high end to get to safes that are and
everything you know, all of this is like it's all on a scale,
right? O the third OK third piece of
advice, use hard to find places and that is not what most people
think it is. I've done so much research on
this over the years and it's very funny because.
It sounds like you. Yeah, but most people think the
same way. Like, so they're like, I know
where I'll put it. No one would ever think of this.
I'm going to put it in the toilet, you know, like.
The water. And it's like, Nope,
unfortunately, so many people do that that it becomes.
Freezer too. The freezer is also at like a
horrible place because watch very often cash and jewelry in
the freezer. Yeah, I guess watch people
aren't probably going to put their.
Watches in the. Freezer, but cash and jewelry
are often stored in freezers or in like literally cookie jars
like these. Unfortunately, thanks to movies,
I think a lot of these things sound like a good idea but are
also so common that burglars know these places.
Your clothes closet. Like that's where most people
store store a lot of value. If I saw a cookie jar on a on
any counter, I would. In this day and age, I would be
like, oh, they got their money in there.
It's their watches. It's just a bowl of watches.
Who keeps just a cookie jar? Full of cookie jar but also a
cookie jar. So, okay, also, well, the most
obvious is don't keep it out in the open, right?
Like sometimes you may want to display something that's cool
for when you have guests, but then just put that stuff away,
right? It's always scary because you
know, I have my watch on my night stand.
But then there's. More fun times.
No, but I'm saying then there's been times when we leave home
and all of a sudden I realized that I have a watch just
sitting. Out.
Yeah. And and then I'm like, hey, we
have to go back because I. Decided to wear.
Something else or like, I can't, you know?
And so I'm always like every day now I just no matter what I'm
doing, the watch goes straight back on the wrist.
Yeah, exactly. That's what you got to do.
And then under the better mattress.
It's like the the most common place to hide valuables.
I don't like that 'cause I'm like the Princess and the pea
who, like, can't sleep if there's like a tiny thing.
So I'd be like, Oh no, the watch indent.
OK, but like good ideas are like, how do you find places
that are hard to even find or see, let alone like that they
would be obvious. So false walls like this, this
is stuff you do see in movies, but it's not actually that
common that you're going to come across it so.
But they have to go quick. So that's the thing.
Yeah. Yeah, it's again, it's back to
that being inconvenient for both them and you, everybody.
'S in exactly, exactly so false walls, false floors that false
drawers different things like yeah, you if you get creative,
you can actually have quite good storage at home.
The end of course, the downside to you is inconvenience.
You have like multiple places across your house that you're
keeping different watches and you have to keep track of it all
and you have to, like you said, remember to put them there and
not just leave something sitting out.
But like the and the reason I'm not talking too much about safe,
there's like too many variables when it comes to safes.
Like we have a garage and I have tools in the garage and you
could use my angle grinder to get into a safe.
Like most safes you can cut into with fairly basic tools.
Not like super high end hard to get tools like basic.
That's cool. It's cool though that you
provide the tools on. I know.
What a guy. This is one of the things when
you look into security, they're like, look, if you have a garage
and you have tools like angle grinders, these types of things,
then you have to think different about security because you can't
just throw a safe in there and think everything's going to be
fine. You're going to need multiple
levels of security because you're providing the tools to
break into your own security. And even if you don't, people.
Throw a safe in. There and just.
Throw everything will be safe. OK.
So bottom line, and then we'll end the security part is that
aside from off site storage, right, every other tactic,
you're just using time against these burglars, right?
Usually, like especially if you have an alarm system, like they
know they have a limited amount of time.
If you have an alarm, they have a limited amount of time.
And So what you're really trying to do is place more time between
them and your watches. So the harder they are to find,
the harder they are to cut into. You know, if you are using a
safe, like the more secure your safe is, the more split up your
collection is. That means you're putting way
more time in between them and the watches.
And that's the most likely thing if they're not off site to keep
them safe. It's just.
Like how hard? It is to find.
And that's the part that you have to remember to like do it
all the time. I think that's the hard thing
because I know for my parents, their house was burglarized
years ago. And it was like the one day my
mom didn't move her jewelry into like the place that she
typically moved it. And that's what happens is like,
you go quickly and leave. But it let it not only took away
like the safety, but then it also made her feel so much
regret like. For yourself and that's.
Such a hard, like, it's such a terrible, like, terrible,
terrible thing to happen. And then if you feel like you
could have prevented it, it's even worse.
And that's, yeah, that makes it really sad.
OK, let's let's transition into happy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then let's talk about storage,
cause storage is way more fun. So I prefer and I know you
prefer the deluxe zip cases. I bought you one a couple of
years ago and. For my birthday.
Yeah, for your birthday, it held eight watches or it holds 8
watches and like in love like, yeah, beautiful, convenient,
easy to use, fantastic. Like, yeah, what what is there
to say about them? There are plenty of other
options as well. Like I like that leather case
because I also own hard ones. So I bought a wooden one on
Etsy. This is before I had my own
workshop and couldn't build my own.
And so I, I bought one that someone had built in Poland and
it's really beautiful, but it's hard and it's just a pain
because I don't leave it out. I think if you're going to leave
it out, which again, if you scroll back in the in in this
episode and you can hear how we say don't do that.
But if you were going to leave it out, then yeah, these wooden
boxes can be beautiful and very easy to use.
But since I don't leave things out, then it becomes a little
bit more of a pain. I also have some of my watches
in a like this super heavy duty like worn and wound metal case
that you gave me and I like, I, I think it looks cool.
It feels cool. But again, it's a pain because
it's heavy and it's hard. And so when I am putting that
away, it's just a little bit annoying.
Yeah, it was a free gift when I bought my Auris bronze in the US
and then I left it at my sister's house 'cause I was
like, I cannot bring this. Like too big, like way too
heavy. And then when Mindy came and
visited us, she's like, here it is.
And you are so excited. You were like I want.
Here's the thing. I love that thing.
I I just for the way I use it. It's not perfect.
Yeah, I prefer like a bunch of small cases, like 3 to 8 versus
even though I think it's so cool when I see a photo where it's
like everything I don't know, I, I'm always, I feel I feel like
I'm more of like a squirrel type store store.
I want to make sure there's like little watches like hidden.
The The thing is also like actual squirrels, you sometimes
forget where some of your watches are because you have
even more security spots than I do.
You know what my theory is? If I can't find it, a burglar
can't. Well, that's a pretty good
that's a pretty good theory. I'm.
Not sure. If that's true, I would I would
say. But also the other thing that I
love is we have. We have watch pouches from watch
pouch and I bring those like on this trip I only wanted to bring
a Nomos and I bore my Tudor BB 54 and it was like that was all
I had and it was so easy to just wear that.
And the watch pouch. Like bring wear one, bring one.
Yeah, wear one, bring one. Then Something like a watch
pouch is nice. You can Stow it very easily.
You can hide it in a hidden pocket in your bag while you're
traveling. It makes it a little bit more
secure. I get.
In bag pockets is a whole, and traveling with watches is
another. No, no, well, we don't have time
to get started on that, but OK. The last one, the one I've used
the most actually, 'cause I used it for years and years before I
ever found Watch Pouch. Like was this flat heavy canvas
roll that I got when we just stumbled into Warren and wounds
wind up watch fair in Chelsea market in 2016.
And I just bought this canvas roll that holds 2 watches
completely flat. I used it for like 5 years.
It it was great. Holds 2 watches, super compact.
So like there are a lot of options out there, but I would
say that for travel, keep it small.
That just makes it easier to manage.
I mean, I guess this is then then we're rounding back out to
security. We used to travel with way too
many watches. Oh.
For sure. But then what I found is all the
time I'm just thinking about watches like where they are and
knowing that like a hotel safe, isn't it?
So it just now I'm very minimal. I'm just like, look, I love all
my watches. I'll get to go back to them.
Yes, I just need to bring one or two on my trip and not like spot
makes. The heart grow fonder.
Yeah, exactly. I would love to know what your
security and storage is. What are your best best tips,
best tips so we can all use them?
Yes, bye everyone. Bye, stay safe.