With spring blossoming in large parts of the northern hemisphere many of us Rolex wearing office dwellers may have our minds on taking a little vacation to ease our souls from the tedium of our everyday lives. Whether it be a weekend tryst with your sweetie or a full blown out excursion into areas unknown, the time to get out is here, but I warn you, if you are thinking about wearing your Rolex overseas, think again!

I know that you may think that just because you wear your Rolex everywhere in your cushy suburb without incident that it is just as fine to wear your Rolex everywhere and anywhere else in the world without incident as well. You may even have one of those “discreet” Rolex models, and you may think to yourself that no criminal could possibly distinguish this watch from the ordinary. That, unfortunately, is not the case.

Well to state the obvious for all you golf playing, SUV driving, Polo shirt wearing, big house dwelling Blackberry jockeys out there! While we may think that our affluent suburb may, or should represent the status quo for all the parts in the world, that is very far from the truth. While your high-priced watch may seem like just an expensive trinket to you, to many of the bad elements in other parts of world that watch is their meal ticket, and they will gladly chop off your hand to get at it. If you put things in perspective, a Rolex watch represents more than the annual income of a huge percentage of the worlds’ population so the temptation for evildoers is very high indeed.

So why is it particularly dangerous to wear a Rolex as opposed to another high dollar watch brand?

Well as much as I hate to admit it, Rolex is the most highly regarded watch brand in the world. And it is made particularly valuable by the fact that Rolex is one of few brands that NEVER discount, and also by the fact that Rolex frequently increase their prices. The end result is a watch that retains their value like no other brand can.

On top of that, for all intents and purposes it is very easy to recognize a Rolex, because short of the obscure Rolex Cellini line, the Rolex Oyster line, which consists of the vast majority of Rolex watches bought and sold in the world, have very distinguishing features that even the most blurry-eyed of bandits can recognize.

One dead giveaway is the date magnification bubble, or as we watch enthusiasts like to call it, the “cyclops lens.”

Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner Date Steel Mens Watch 16610

This useless lens used only by Rolex (and imitators) magnifies the date excactly 2.5 times. Honestly I find it more distracting than helpful, but if your Rolex has a date function, than unless your watch is a Rolex Sea-Dweller, your watch has got this very recognizable feature.

On top of that Rolex watches really only use TWO bracelet patterns. They may have leather straps on some models and a “President” bracelet for their really high-end models, but for all intents and purposes you will find the vast majority of Rolex watches sporting a bracelet that looks either like this “Oyster” band:

Or like this Rolex “Jubilee” band:

They may have different polishes and may be made of different metals such as gold or whatever, but the patterns are still easily recognizable to those who are lurking about.

The fact that there are so many imitations and fakes out there may help your chances a little bit if you dare to venture to area unknown with such an expensive watch on your wrist. I heard stories in which a Rolex was used to get tourists out of a tight situation abroad, but the stories of tourists being mugged,hurt, or even killed far outweigh those. It is just not worth the risk.

My friends father, a scientist and world explorer has always advised travelers to look impoverished while traveling abroad, and that’s a policy I think we should all live by. So my advice to the travelers of the world is to save your showing off for the local mall and enjoy your vacation without the worries.