Life sometimes has funny ways of showing how your luck turns out, and this farmer had a ‘life-changing’ experience when he found his vintage Rolex 50 years after losing it — he had assumed it had been eaten by a cow on his farm.
After staying below the ground for five decades, the farmer’s son found the watch because of his ‘treasure hunting’ voyage.
The first thought anyone would have is, ‘There’s no way it can be usable now’ — but thanks to the watchmaker’s craftsmanship, it’s not beyond restoration, and someone already volunteered to fix it for free.
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Farmer finds his prized Rolex Air-King
James Steele bought his prized Rolex Air-King, when he was in his early 20s, sometime around 1950.
As anyone would, he wore it everywhere he went, including while working on his farm.
However, on one unusual day in the 1970s, he noticed that the watch wasn’t on his wrist.
The farmer was bringing in his cows at the time and thought he dropped the watch somewhere.
His search lasted for days but unfortunately bore no fruit.
Steele eventually gave up and thought he had lost it for good and a cow had eaten it.
Since Steele liked Rolex timepieces, he already had another one because who knew he would find his old one?
James Steele’s son had an intuition that he could find hidden treasure on his dad’s farm, so he called in a metal detector-ist.
And you guessed it — they ended up finding the watch, and Steele reunited with his long-lost Rolex.
Getting it to work again
It’s not the first time someone found a Rolex in an unusual place, just like this woman who found a $250,000 timepiece in her $25 couch.
The Swiss watchmaker ensures the Air-King is corrosion-proof, but 50 years below the ground can be unpredictable.
Or under the ocean, for that matter.
However, the Air-King didn’t rust, and it has the potential to work again.
According to GQ, Netherlands-based watch restorer, Kalle Slaap, reached out to the Steele family to offer his services.
The family obliged, and now Slaap will try to fix the roughed-up timepiece.
It’s certainly not an easy process, and it might take a decent amount of time before the watch is up and running again.
All things considered, the restored timepiece could sell for six figures if the restorer manages to fix it.
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