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.
After watching the segment, filmed at the Ulster Folk Museum, the former teacher rushed over to a chest of draws and found the sought-after timepiece, where it has sat for half a century. He now plans to put it under the hammer at John Taylors auction rooms, in Louth, Lincs., next Tuesday, where it’s expected to sell for £13,000 to £15,000.
Auctioneer James Laverack, of John Taylors, said collectors would pay a high price for the watch so that they could complete a full set of the period timepieces. He said: “It’s thought that 145,000 – 150,000 watches were manufactured as a result of the wartime contracts.
“Most of the chosen firms supplied at least 10,000. Omega hit 25,000. Grana made the smallest number, perhaps as few as a thousand. “Dirty Dozen collectors dream of completing a full set. Only twenty are known to have made it so far – and that’s entirely down to the rarity of the Grana.”
James added: “The discovery of this watch has been something of a miracle. The retired teacher actually missed the transmission of the Ulster Antiques Roadshow a few weeks ago but . . . a real stroke of luck . . . he decided to view it later.
“He knew nothing about the Dirty Dozen nor just how rare the watch is. I think it’s fair to say that he was quite pleased when we told him what we expect it to make.”
