I've only ever had one person comment 'Nice Watch'. I was on a flight to Peru for a hiking vacation. Because of the location and the need to be up at the crack of dawn each day I took a Timex, yes a Timex. Hey, it had an alarm, light-up face and told the time; what else do you need in the middle of nowhere. Needless to say I responded; 'Oh, thanks...'
Looking around at work (about 300 people) I observed the following:
1) 50% of men don't even wear a watch.
2) With the exception of a handful of others the remainder wear cheap LCD watches.
3) Our CEO (who I've known for over 20 years back when he was a lowly sales rep) has a Tag Heuer Rep. When I spoke with him the other day I saw his eyes pick up on the Rolex GMT11c that I was wearing; he said nothing. Hey, maybe he will read this post!
The bottom line is that, at least in my world, very few people seem interested in watches. I'm also a collector of antique clocks and nobody seems interested in them either!
In answer to the original post; if someone showed interest I would explain that I am a collector of high quality replicas. I have no reason to lie, deceive or embellish.