Rolex watch bought for £70 could fetch £45,000 in Diss auction

A watch bought for £70 in 1964 could make £45,000 when it is auctioned this week.

The Rolex Submariner was owned by Simon Barnett, a diver on rescue helicopters in the Royal Navy, who died in 2019.

His son, Pete Barnett, is now selling the watch through auctioneers in his home of Diss, Norfolk.

“In those days a Rolex Submariner was a tool, it’s not the fashion accessory it’s become now,” he said.

Simon Barnett was involved in a number of rescue missions.

In 1967 he almost lost his life when trying to rescue the pilot of a crashed Navy helicopter in the Mediterranean.

Pete Barnett said: “All the aviation fuel from a helicopter had leaked into the sea around the helicopter and dad was trying to get to the surface – and he was gasping and he was breathing this fuel in.

“But he managed to get to the surface. How, I don’t know, and people have told me they just don’t know how he got out in those circumstances.”

Mr Barnett only found out about much of his father’s military career after he had died, when he unearthed old photos and log books when clearing out his house.

He said the watch was an important item as his father used it “to time his dives”.

“He had to know how long he had been under the water and that was the only means by which he could do it,” Mr Barnett said.

The Rolex watch led to an appearance on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow and it is now being sold on Thursday by TW Gaze in Diss, which has valued it at between £30,000 and £45,000.

Auctioneer Elizabeth Talbot said: “This watch, what’s so exciting and which brings it to life so much is that it is so very well documented… both visually and in terms of records of the serviceman’s history throughout his life.

“Virtually every day has been accounted for and that must be, I think if not unique, quite, quite rare.”