Safe to wear a rep through US immigration and customs?

[wiseman]

Guys,

In a 1.5 months time I will fly to San Francisco again (I usually go once a year for techie-training).

Now I have been blessed with a kinda mean and evil looks (but I am a really nice guy, trust me on this) and I assume because of this, I was tagged with some sort of "Special Screening" tag when I flew to the US a couple of years back. This "SSSS" on my boardingcard meant that I got my own little extensive search and they took all of my handluggage and checked with some kind of scanner after traces of explosives and whatnot. They send my watch through the x-ray machine and also my belt and my shoes and my silverchain around my neck...(thank God they asked me to remove it anyway before sending it through the machine!)

Question is now, If I get the Special Screening again (I will stop over in Chicago) would it matter if I wear a rep this time?

(I am currently waiting for a black very nice macho-looking 42 mm B&R from Chris at Eurotimez)

I know that customs doesnt look too kindly on reps when delivered in packages, but I assume that this doesnt apply if I *wear* a rep through immigration and customs, right?

I just want to check beforehand if I should bring the rep or not (or stick to my old Kenneth Cole watch).

Edited November 24, 2008 by wiseman

[Samurai]

I don't think there should be any issue with wearing a rep when crossing Immigration....as long as you don't have rdx/semtex/c4 hidden in it

I have traveled a few times thru JFK and Newark without any issues.

[tomhorn]

The SSSS on your boarding pass is the random screening code here in the US. I don't believe it's because of your "looks" ...

I've never had anyone at security give my watch a second look when they've done the random screening on me, whether it be within US travel, or coming home from outside the country.

Now if you had 50 of them in your luggage you might draw more attention, but if it's just the one you are wearing, it shouldn't be an issue.

[JohnG]

I will be going through with two reps and a gen the day after tomorrow. I am not too worried. Will wear one rep, other in my pocket, the gen in my luggage (gen Poljot - not a high end watch).

I got busted with cured meat last time - see if I made it onto the "list"...

[fotoman]

unless your coming from China - no big deal, i go through customs all the time with reps in my bag and on wrist

[greg_r]

I go through US customs wearing a rep at least once or twice per year - and have done for the last 5 or 6 years. Never had a problem - in fact nobody has ever even looked at the watch closely. My only precaution is that I tend only to take the watch I'm wearing - I don't pack any others. That's probably unnecessary too, but I'm paranoid by nature, ask anybody

[Watchmeister]

No one cares about your watches. I regularly travel with 3 watches. I wear one and carry two in a nice leather watch carrier. I carry it in my carry-on luggage. I have had that luggage checked 4 times in the last 2 years - twice in the U.S. and twice abroad. No one ever cares. At least one of the US Customs inspectors was nice enough to pay me a nice compliment on the watches. So no worries.

[wiseman]

The SSSS on your boarding pass is the random screening code here in the US. I don't believe it's because of your "looks" ...

It could actually be triggered by your looks from what I understand. I talked to a friend of my wife that used to work as a stewardess both on planes and on the ground and she mentioned that the ground-crew checking you in actually can tag you for special screening.

Maybe this is working two ways, first a truly random mode and also the ground-crew.

She told me that the ground-crew (at least when she worked a couple of years ago) had lists that changed frequently with characteritics of apperance that would trigger a "SSSS" on the boarding-card. I actually got the SSSS from the start checking in at Arlanda, the Stockholm airport.

Could have been truly random, but I was all dressed in black, with a shaved head and shades....so I didnt look like a nice boy I guess...

[Gabus]

Looks do play into it, my wife is a petite middle aged white women but was nervous when she started traveling frequently. She got pulled almost every time! Now that she's an old pro at traveling she never has a problem. I'm a professional pilot with "crew" tags on my bags, I travel out of uniform and get picked for closer inspection 10+ % of the time. So there's random but also some kind of profile.

Never had anyone look closely at my watch.

[DrTime]

I wore a gen one time and had a guy question me on whether it was new from the trip. I guess he wanted me to pay extra tax or something. I have never worn a rep traveling internationally though.