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Amazing Watches Found in the Most Unusual Places. Part 1
Let’s not kid ourselves—it really is the ultimate dream for many of us.
You’re hunting around a local thrift store or flea market or even up in your own attic, and there, nestled in amongst the accumulated mass of generally worthless detritus, is an old watch. But not just any old watch.
Somehow, someone at some time has discarded, sold, given away or just plain forgotten about a timepiece of rare vintage and it has wound up gathering dust in the most innocuous place you can imagine, just waiting for you to come along and snatch it up.
It may seem like an impossibility, mainly because, as submerged into the world of horology as we are, it is difficult to believe others wouldn’t recognize a valuable watch when they see it and keep it for themselves. However, it does happen, and more frequently than you might think.
Commonly referred to as barn finds, a term we’ve purloined from the classic car fraternity, these pieces are often also accompanied by fantastic stories—pure meat and drink for the average classic watch collector.
To that end, we thought we would put together a short series documenting some of the best of these hidden treasures, starting with an absolute beauty you are probably well aware of.
Paul Newman Goes to Fargo
Back in 2020, an ex-USAF serviceman named David (who decided to keep his surname a secret for reasons which will become obvious) brought his old Rolex to North Dakota to be appraised by the experts on the Antiques Roadshow.
For those of you unaware, the Antiques Roadshow is a TV program first aired in the U.K. in 1979 in which various professionals and auction house specialists travel the country offering free valuations on the cherished items members of the public bring along. Speaking personally, it was one of those shows my parents would watch on a Sunday evening that used to bore me to tears and which has since become essential viewing now I’ve reached that age and my own kids can be placated with iPads, a luxury my sister and I would have killed for forty-odd years ago. The format has gone on to be syndicated in numerous countries across Europe, and the U.S. version started in 1997 on PBS.
With hundreds of people turning up on the day toting their family heirlooms, obviously not every appraisal can be filmed for the show, so the ones put in front of the cameras are going to be either the most interesting or the most valuable. And if they decide to make a little display of accompanying materials—as they did in David’s case when they arranged the watch’s box and papers on the blue velvet board behind them—you’re more or less assured a good ‘un.
That turned out to be something of an understatement, because what the Air Force vet had come to Fargo with that day was an exotic dialed ref. 6263 Daytona, better known these days as a Paul Newman. Not only that, it was as near as makes no difference unworn.
David’s Story
We can only imagine how the Antiques Roadshow’s resident horologist, Peter Planes’ eyes must have lit up when he first encountered the watch.
According to its owner, David Secret-Surname, he became aware of Rolex as a manufacture when he was stationed in Thailand clearing landmines in his role as an explosive ordinance disposal tech, flying around the country on Air America and Continental Airlines. He noticed many of the pilots and crew members wore the brand and figured they would know best about that sort of thing. A few years later in 1974, posted to another base, he took up Scuba diving and, remembering that Rolex watches were famous for their water resistance, decided to invest in one of his own. Why he settled on a Daytona rather than a Submariner or Sea-Dweller is not explained, but lucky for him he did.
David ordered the watch through the base exchange in the November of 1974, taking advantage of his 10% discount but still paying an outrageous $345.97. As ridiculous as that sounds today, it amounted to roughly a month’s salary at the time. The watch arrived in April 1975, and with the sort of premonition we should all be so lucky to have, decided it was too nice to wear. As such, David locked his Daytona away in a safety deposit box for the next four decades, taking it out only ‘once or twice’ to look at but never wearing it.
The Watch
As Peter Planes demonstrates on the show, the markings on the watch’s Oyster bracelet dates the model to the first quarter of 1971, slap bang in the middle of that bizarre era when Rolex couldn’t even give the Daytona away.
Because of its relative unpopularity, comparatively few were made, and those with exotic dials numbered even fewer. It is estimated that only one in 20 leaving the factory were Paul Newmans. So, a rare watch to begin with, but it gets better.
The ref. 6263 was produced between 1971 until around 1988, and was made with either push-piece chronograph buttons or the much scarcer screw down pushers. Guess which one David has!
Up front on that glorious Art Deco Panda dial, with its cross-haired totalizers and square-ended hash marks, in-between ‘Rolex’ and ‘Cosmograph’ reads the word ‘Oyster’, indicating this is an incredibly rare Mk II version, complete with screw-in buttons. The name ‘Daytona’ however is nowhere to be seen. And, confirming that David has indeed never worn the watch, turn it over and the original sticker on the case back is still there and pretty much untarnished.
If you watch the video, and I highly recommend it, it is at this point that Peter informs David his Daytona is worth around $400,000 at auction, causing the old airman to fully collapse to the ground. But he hasn’t finished yet.
Almost unbelievably, every single piece of original paperwork (brochure, BLANK warranty card, two receipts) as well as the box AND its outer sleeve are all present, correct and preserved just as meticulously as the piece itself.
Summing up, Peter describes the watch as possibly the best example of its type in the world and puts a value on it of between $500,000 to $700,000.
Although finds like David’s are few and far between, the world of watch collecting does sometimes throw out these wonderful tales, and they are one of the reasons it has become such an enormous phenomenon. More than the beauty of the timepieces themselves, it is the human stories behind them that capture our imaginations. Every vintage watch has a history, sometimes embodied by a scratch on the bezel or a dent in the case, other times, as with this immaculate Cosmograph, the lack of them.
But was David’s watch the most valuable piece to delight the Antiques Roadshow’s experts? Not quite. We’ll get to that one next time.
Featured Photo: Volkan Vardar via Pexels (cc).
