It’s every watch enthusiasts dream. Finding a collectable vintage watch in an attic or flea market, acquiring it for virtually nothing and then selling it for thousands.
This is exactly what occurred at a Goodwill store (Vinnies) in Phoenix, Arizona for a Mr Zach Norris who was in the shop looking for a used push-pull golf cart. As a semi-informed watch guy, he picked up the basket of old watches hoping to find a diamond in the rough and found exactly that.
After pushing past some debris he noticed a dial that read ‘LeCoultre Deep Sea Alarm’ with a price tag of $5.99. Zach knew the LeCoultre name and knew the watch was made by Jaeger-LeCoultre and probably was worth far more than the $5.99 price, but he didn’t realize it was a vintage LeCoultre Deep Sea Alarm from circa 1959, worth tens of thousands.
He purchased the watch and left the store and immediately seeded it into the vintage watch community. He was soon inundated with thousands of requests to purchase and ended up selling the piece to none other than Eric Ku, one of the world’s most respected sources on vintage Rolex.
Eric made Zach an offer over $35,000 (or as Zach put it, over 6000X what he paid). Zach accepted the offer with the stipulations that as part of the deal he would get an Omega Speedmaster Professional and that he would be able to deliver the watch in person to Eric in the San Francisco.
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The full story is insane. Check it out over at hodinkee.com.
