Rolex Oyster Cosmograph & Documentation, ca. 1971 | Best Moment | ANTIQUES ROADSHOW | PBS

I brought a Rolex watch that I had bought while I was in the military. I was stationed in Thailand from 1973 to 1975 and while there I flew on Air America Airlines and Continental Airlines and noticed most of the pilots who flew. Those planes wore Rolex watches and I was intrigued. I always wanted to buy them, but they were very expensive. Then when I transferred to another base, I did some diving and learned that the Rolex watch was good for diving. I found this. particular watch where I could afford it and I never wore it I looked at it and said, you know, this is really too good to put in salt water.

I saved it after leaving the service. I had other watches that I wore. and I just put this one in a safe deposit box, it stayed there for 30 or 40 years. I only took it out two or three times to look at it and that was it before I brought it here. In what branch of service? you were in I was in the United States Air Force I came in in

1971

my draft number was seven that's a pretty low number huh that's not really lucky in the draft right not when I found out about that I had to join the air force or another branch or I was enlisted on January 1st and what did you do in the service?

I worked in munitions but there are like four different branches and I worked in explosive ordnance disposal to put it simply, I helped clear the roads of landmines at municipal storage. areas that had been blown up or sabotaged we cleaned up there were several children and adults who were injured as a result of unexploded ordnance and the danger still exists today you bought this where was it? It was in a military store. I asked for it. in November 1974 through the base exchange, I think it arrived in April 1975. The amount you paid, you even got a discount of 10, it says 345.97, it was a lot of money in 1975 for you, it was a lot of money for me, was it? what was it?

Salaries back then were between three and four hundred dollars a month if I understood correctly, you know, it's a Rolex. This particular model is known as an

oyster

cosmograph

. They are also known as Daytona. This is a reference 6263. You saved everything. which is really wonderful, the warranty document was never filled out and it was never numbered, so it actually has a blank warranty, which is quite unusual and even here this paper is blank. A blank today is probably worth about two thousand dollars because it can be made to match any watch and add value so that guys will pay money to buy a blank.

Here is the original Rolex brochure for the

cosmograph

. You have two receipts, the order receipt and your payment receipt. Here is the original box, including the outside. box here, so these watches, as we've talked about on the

antiques

tour, have become very collectible and valuable. It has a couple of very special features below the word

rolex

and above the word cosmograph it says

oyster

and it refers to these screwed buttons here. I made this version with and without screwed buttons. The ones without screwed buttons are still waterproof, but this was a much better waterproof case because you could lock the chronograph buttons.

It still has the aluminum sticker on the back with the watch reference number 6263 if it had been worn it would be the first thing to wear off the watch. The date mark on the bracelet shows that it was manufactured in the first quarter of

1971

. Your watch was manufactured in approximately 1971 and you ordered it. a couple of years later collectors love this watch because the Paul Newman award in a movie called "winner" was not this particular model, it did not have the screwed buttons, the one Paul Newman currently wore at auction, those watches sell for about 150 to 200 000. your watch is more special you say it says oyster yes they made it for an extremely short period of time we refer to that as mark ii dial and this particular model marked oyster is extremely weird, a watch like this at auction is worth around four hundred thousand dollars, okay don't fall, I'm not done yet, I said a watch like yours because of its condition, basically it's a new old watch, it doesn't have nowhere the original aluminum sticker on the back and the fact that we have all this complete

documentation

here also maybe one of the few in the world who still never wore his watch at auction today 500 to 700 thousand dollars Now I'm very serious oh it's an absolutely fabulous fine, it's one of the rarest Paul Newman models and in this condition I don't think there is a better one in the world.

I can't thank you enough for bringing me one of the

best

watches ever seen at the antics

roadshow

and thank you so much for your service. Incredible, you can't use it, although if you use it, it drops to the value of 400,000 which