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Antiques Roadshow was a particular delight for watch collectors Sunday night after it featured a Rolex so rare it would baffle most experts.
Taking place at Ebrington Squarer, Derry, Northern Ireland, a guest brought on a watch called the Rolex Sky Rocket, which was exclusively made in Canada.
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The show’s expert Ben Wright gave a little bit of background to the rare item: “First, it’s a Sky Rocket, there were very few made. And the word Sky Rocket is unusual though, we know the Sea Dweller, the Sky Dweller, but most people have never heard of the Sky Rocket.”
What, how, when?
Wright shared some knowledge on the rare timepiece saying: “It was made exclusively in Canada. And they curiously didn’t use a Rolex movement, which is very unusual. Rolex adapted a Swiss movement for this watch. And they called it the Sky Rocket. I have no clue why, but it was specifically bought or made for Canadian pilots in the Second World War.”
The watch had a number of unique properties, most notably its size as it was very small compared to most Rolex pieces with the expert calling it “miniscule”. The Sky Rocket was also made with silver dials compared to black dials and had little in common with other military watches of the same period.
The guest then revealed that the watch had originally been bought for £300 at an online auction two decades ago but the expert placed a current valuation on the Rolex as between £1,500 and £2,000.
Other valuable watches
Rolex’s can be incredibly collectible and valuable with the most expensive versions being sold at auctions for millions.
The most expensive Rolex ever sold was Paul Newman’s Rolex Daytona which was purchased for him in 1968 by his wife Joanna Woodward. It is inscribed with the words “Drive Carefully Me” and Newman could often be seen wearing the watch while motor racing.
The watch came up for auction in 2017 and was bought by an unnamed party for $17.8 million.
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