Antiques Roadshow: Watch is valued at £8,000 to £10,000
Antiques Roadshow saw one guest being taken, quite literally, head over heels for the valuation of a watch he bought in 1974.
Nearly 50 years ago, he had paid a hefty $345.97 for it and was eager to find out if the unworn Rolex had changed in value in the almost half-century since.
However, what he was not expecting was to be told that it would likely fetch a minimum of $400,000 at auction.
This wasn’t it though, as the appraiser noted that he had taken such good care of the timepiece that its pristine condition could warrant up to $700,000.
The former US Air Force veteran was bowled over, literally, as he fell to the floor right next to the appraiser’s table after hearing the monumental sum he had been holding onto all of these years.
The PBS series, which travels across America with a team of expert appraisers in search of “hidden treasures”, was stationed in Fargo, North Dakota when the veteran waltzed in with his Rolex Oyster Cosmograph.
The man explained that he had originally bought the pricey watch after hearing that it was good for scuba diving at the time and ordered it through the Air Force base exchange, which also left him waiting five months for it to arrive.
The timepiece cost nearly a month’s salary at the time even after his discount and although he’d bought it for a practical purpose, when he eventually got the watch he decided it was simply “too nice” to be taken into the water.
And so it sat in a safety deposit box for the next half century, only being taken on to check all was well, and the perfect condition alongside warranty papers, the original brochure and the original boxes it arrived in pushed up the six-figure price tag even higher.
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Appraiser Peter Planes noted that the Rolex tends to fetch a high value because it’s one of the rarest models that Paul Newman wore on-screen, specifically during his iconic role in the 1969 film Winning.
The appraiser noted: “It’s an absolute fabulous find. In this condition, I don’t think there’s a better one in the world.”
He explained that it hit the “Roadshow trifecta”, being an extremely rare item with a personal attachment to both the country’s history as well as “a fantastic guest reaction,” said the show’s executive producer Marsha Bemko.
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