Air Force veteran’s $350 Rolex shocks Antiques Roadshow: This is its jaw-dropping value today

There are good investments... and then there are life-changing investments.

A purchase made by a retired Air Force veteran, named only as David, definitely qualifies as the latter. He appeared at a North Dakota edition of ‘Antiques Roadshow’ back in 2020 and brought along a Rolex watch that he had bought more than four decades earlier.

While serving in the Air Force in 1974 he explained that he had saved up to buy the Rolex for $345.97, a major investment at the time. He even managed to get a 10% student discount on the watch, which is worth an absolute fortune.

David had initially planned to use it for scuba diving but later decided that it was too nice to risk damaging and kept it in a safe deposit box.

He finally brought the watch out to take it on Antiques Roadshow and was shocked when appraiser Peter Planes revealed its potential worth. A similar one, reportedly once worn by Paul Newman, had sold at auction for $200,000, but David’s was even more rare.

Planes explained that because the watch had the word ‘Oyster’ inscribed on it, it was “extremely, extremely rare,” and therefore even more valuable. He told David that the watch could sell for as much as $700,000 given the pristine condition and rare hallmark.

It’s fair to say that the valuation shocked David, who dropped to the ground in disbelief...

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