Exceptionally Rare

After some careful thought, and discussion with our master watchmaker, something clicked and he started getting rather excited. He had only ever seen another one of these watches. To the untrained eye, it may not warrant a second look. This watch was recently received at W.E. Clark & Son  via our postal watch repair service.

In consultation with our customer, we found that the watch had a fascincating history, and one that he kindly explains below.

 

 

Exceptionally Rare

"This was given to my Mothers brother, Arthur Golding who was a Warrant Officer in the RAF in the Second World War, by a German submariner believed to belonged to the Kampfscwimmer of the Kriees Marine, who was shown respect and treated more as a friend by him than an enemy. This was around 1943. My Uncle did not know that this was a Rolex watch, as there are no markings that could be seen on it. This was then put into a draw and remained there until around 1964.

It was around this time on a visit to my uncle on a diving trip, he said that he had a diving watch which was given to him by a German submariner during the 1939/45 war and, as I was a diver, would I like to have it.

When I brought it home, I put it in a drawer where it stayed for the next 50 years.

I was then watching The Antiques Road Show and saw a watch that looked like the one I had. It turned out to be a Rare Rolex. It also had no markings on it to identify what make it was.

After searching high and low, as we had moved house about twelve times since having put the watch away, I found it. Boy what a smile on my face. I still wasn’t certain if this was a Rolex or not, so I had the back plate removed and found that it was a Rolex watch.

I now have to find my uncle’s R.A.F service book, which I have somewhere, to see if there is a record entry of it in there."

 

The watch is now back with our customer, who has since taken to a well know auctioneer. The initial advice is to set a reserve of £60,000. This special and unique watch could quite easily achieve over £120,000.

If you have a special watch that you would like us to examine, then please email davidclark@weclarkandson.co.uk for more information.