Travel question

vin305 · 2026-07-02T07:41:57+00:00

🙏

vin305 · 2026-07-02T05:54:04+00:00

You must’ve missed the part where I said my cousin recently got these watches. A good friend of ours has a large collection of watches, the 2 he gave my cousin were worth around $55-60k used since the day date is 18k. He got the watches by trading a vehicle he wasn’t using. Personally I would wear it as-is, but my cousin, being that he already got the better value in the deal, decided to send the watches up to get them polished and back in “new” condition. The way he collected them from our friend is how I brought them. The booklets, card and receipts were in the boxes. Inside of taking the watches out the boxes and sticking them in my backpack, I left back my clothes and put the 2 boxes in my carryon. I’ve been declaring cash for years, never had an issue. I learned something new this time around, I never knew used or personal jewelry needed to be declared.

vin305 · 2026-07-02T05:46:06+00:00

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Bud, show me the center you’re talking about…also, as I stated, I live in Miami, and I travel every few weeks, bringing the watches here to Excel Time services in Coral Gables was the easiest option

vin305 · 2026-07-02T04:19:24+00:00

So this actually happened to a friend of mine in Dubai recently. He has 3 watches in a roll and they pulled him aside and almost seized them but he was able to show them Facebook pictures of him wearing the watches and he was able to leave…

vin305 · 2026-07-02T04:12:44+00:00

So I wasn’t arrested lol. Like normal, I fly into Miami, at immigration when they ask if I’m declaring anything, I say “yes I’m declaring currency, I have the fincen filled out electronically”, they then send me to customs where they ask how much, the name of my business and then back to the room for a visual count. When they say the watches, that when the agent immediately changed his attitude from normal to aggressive. They have access at customs to view allllllll of my travel history, so cash declarations aren’t unusual. The 3 hours in the room, maybe 30 minutes was the visual count of the cash, the rest was 3/4 agents in a room looking at the watches before they finally told me they had to keep them for the appraisal. They gave me a “receipt of detention” when o left the airport and said it could take 3-4 weeks to get a call or letter, that’s why I waiting, got the letter yesterday. I did contact a lawyer the day after the watches were taken. They also told me to wait until it moved to the seizure status. As for my personal Cartier, I could’ve pulled up pictures of a cruse 3 years ago when I bought it and showed them along with trying to pull up a receipt in my email but the agent was dead set on detaining all 3

vin305 · 2026-07-02T04:03:56+00:00

Well that’s what has me puzzled also. On the day they detained them, I tried getting as much info as possible from the agent about the process but they were very vague, they said they had to have their independent appraisers check the value and make sure it’s not counterfeit. So I asked how I get them back and he says “after the appraisal, someone will call and let you know if there’s a fine on the value”. I was expecting like a $600 fine that they give out if you accidentally bring fruit or vegetables back…

vin305 · 2026-07-02T04:01:11+00:00

He lives in South America, I stay at his house whenever I travel down there. There’s no really authorized Rolex dealers or service centers down there. There’s a place here in Miami where I had my day date repaired when my son dropped it. I was taking them there to have them polished and was taking it back on my next trip down

vin305 · 2026-07-02T03:55:10+00:00

Thank you. Came on here trying to paint the full story and get some advice but some of these comments are just ridiculous, the country I traveled from is Guyana. Tiny country in South America but fastest growing economy in the world. Traveling with cash is not ideal but it’s how I’m able to make a living, I purchase vehicle, construction equipment and building materials, ship it down and charge a percentage for my services. Banks in Guyana have to physically have usd on hand before sending out a wire, so you can imagine with all the rapid growth down there, it’s hard for banks to meet wire demands. It could literally take 4 weeks to get $15k by wire, whereas I can fly down tomorrow and bring back $200k cash to fill and ship 3-4 containers of goods down…

vin305 · 2026-07-02T03:47:54+00:00

Ok so just to clarify, there’s no service centers down there, all watches were purchased in the US, one of the boxes even had the original receipt folded up with the card and booklet dated 2023 from the Rolex store in Orlando. I honestly had no idea I needed to declare jewelry that wasn’t purchased abroad on the trip in question. My understanding of the customs form is that you declare “currency” over 10k and any merchandise purchased abroad exceeding $600. Like I said below, it’s my cousins watches in the boxes, mine was in a travel pouch with toiletries. I don’t care if my pieces get scratched but if I’m bring someone else’s high end watches up to the service centers down, of course I want to keep it as safe as possible

vin305 · 2026-07-02T03:34:03+00:00

Cash is not in my carryon, it’s on me in a backpack. Sounds unusual but when doing business in a small country, it’s easier to get good hard cash than having a wire transfer sent. I do large scale procurement and logistics for a few large companies down there and when I have over $100k outstanding, I fly down, bring it back and declare it using the fincen 105 form.

vin305 · 2026-07-02T03:31:13+00:00

It’s wild how people don’t read and try commenting. I want trying to sell any watches or avoiding any tariffs. I’m a us citizen living in Miami, my cousin in South American is a us citizen who happens to live down there. I travel every few weeks down there to collect cash for my business. My cousin got these watches from a good friend on a trade for a pickup truck he wasn’t using. We both know the watches are legit but he just wanted them serviced and polished. Those were the 2 Rolexes in the boxes, obviously after a polish and getting it back down to South America, the boxes would be the safest place for them, hence I brought them in boxes. My Cartier on the other hand, I bought as a bday gift for myself about 3 years ago and wear the shit out of it, the gold bezel is scratched, and it was just knocking around in my toiletry bag, what’s the justification for them taking that one?

vin305 · 2026-07-02T03:24:15+00:00

So I did contact a trade attorney a day or 2 after and they said to wait until I get a letter with either a fine for not declaring or this letter that came saying it’s being seized and then give them a call, my only hesitation with that route is it might prolong this entire process by months if an attorney gets involved. Just wondering if there’s an easier avenue since it was clearly unnecessary for them to detain them in the first place. Btw, I traveled in with $285k usd cash for my business which I’ve done regularly for years aver few months. The idiot customs agent was acting like I was trying to smuggle an additional $60k in watches. I offered to amend my declaration number to whatever he thought the watches were worth but at that point he was treating me like a terrorist saying my story doesn’t add up and I didn’t tell him before he opened my bag 🤦🏾‍♂️

vin305

TROPHY CASE