A retired teacher realised he had the “holy grail” of wartime wristwatches in a draw after seeing an episode of the Antiques Roadshow – and it could now fetch £15,000. The man, who wants to remain anonymous, went looking for the heirloom after he saw an expert valuing a similar timepiece and realised his could be worth a small fortune.
During the show, clocks expert Richard Price told the owner of a wartime Omega watch that it was part of a collection known as the ‘the dirty dozen’. He explained these wristwatches were commissioned for the military by the War Office during Second World War and manufactured by twelve chosen clock markers.
Richard valued the Omega at £2,500 pounds but said the rarest of the collection was made by a Swiss company called Grana, later known as Certina. He called these watches “the holy grail of the Dirty Dozen” as there were only a few thousand produced at the time - and just 20 known to be in current circulation.
