A roughed-up watch bought for only £10 at a car boot sale has sold for more than £55,000. Turns out it was a rare Rolex given to Italian navy men in WWII.
It was found by a man in Cheshire, who was clearing out his late father's house. He originally expected the watch to fetch for about £500. But it was one of only 618 Rolex 17 Rubis Panerai 3636 watches made between 1941 to 1943 and ended up going for £55,660.
The watches, which were waterproof and visible in the dark, were supplied to the Royal Italian Navy for divers to use while operating human torpedos.
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Wait. Human torpedos?! What are they? Well, apparently they were rideable missiles that had a detachable warhead, which could be used as a timed limpit mine on enemy ships.
Wow. No wonder they gave them a watch for performing such a dangerous task.
Anyway, the most likely reality is that this watch was taken by a British servicemen at the end of the war and brought home.
That kind of sucks.
Niall Williams, the auctioneer who sold the watch at Wright Marshall in Cheshire said: "They are quite a rare watch and most of them were engraved by their owners but this one wasn't.
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"It came to us on a valuation day by a chap with it in his pocket.
"The wind-up mechanism didn't work properly and so wasn't in perfect condition. But we had a lot of interest in it and 10 phone lines taken up by bidders.
"When I told the vendor afterwards it sold for £46,000 he thought I had said £4,000 to £6,000 and had to repeat it three times before he believed me.
"I think it is a considerable amount of money for him. It is a remarkable result."
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Words by Josh Teal
