watch from james bond disappeared for decades until one man finally spotted it
there's nothing like a nice watch to make you feel like a million bucks even if its actual price tag
was a few zeros short of that mark that's why timepieces from luxury brands can cost a small
fortune still sometimes even the keenest eyed appraisers can miss treasures right in front of
them you wouldn't for instance expect a watch made famous by a classic 60s james bond film
to go missing but that's exactly what happened with the retro gadget when someone claimed to
spot it on sale years later nobody could agree as to its authenticity it seemed they needed a
super spy to get to the bottom of the case even as grown-ups we all like shiny new toys we might
wish that we had our own q branch to equip us with wacky gizmos capable of saving the world but most
of us settle for something a little more like this english shopper found adventurous gadget finders
usually have to settle for garage sales and flea markets but the anonymous man at one such sale in
2013 was largely disappointed with what he saw a lot of junkie thought until he came to the counter
of destiny the vendor had an array of watches laid out before him and many of them seemed like they
were half a century old while not the biggest or shiniest one piece caught the board shopper's eye
though its appearance was a little clunky he found himself taken by the timepiece it
looked a bit familiar too the make was breitling rather top-end but it had a weird modification
that extra metal around the side looked a little space-age and it probably explained the low price
but for 25 pounds the picker figured it was as good as gold after taking the watch home the
buyer didn't think much of it for a while however that all changed when he was flipping through
the tv channels something eerily similar to this clunky breitling appeared the station was airing
thunderball the 1965 james bond flick that marked sean connery's fourth time in double 07's shoes
one spy apparatus from the film had the watchfire's hair standing on end the plot
concerned an evil villain stealing nuclear bombs from nato and hiding them in his underground lair
a clever spot fortunately for bond he was carrying a gadget capable of pinpointing these submerged
weapons he did so with a 1962 breitling top time watch equipped with a covert geiger counter to
measure radiation the flea market frequenter could only hold the watch up to the screen and stare
surely this couldn't be the same accessory used in the film props from the james bond franchise
are too valuable and noticeable to pop up at a secondhand sale he must have just found a
knockoff or replica the next day the watch fan did a bit of research it turned out that bonds
breitling was a special piece considering that the agent wore a rolex in most films sometimes with a
laser although he didn't have q at his disposal the excited buyer took the timepiece to get it
appraised a horologist confirmed that it was an authentic 1960s breitling but also shared some
disappointing news that geiger counter feature fake the watch couldn't actually read radiation
at least not without some movie magic however the expert indicated that the lucky buyer very
well might have stumbled upon the original's film prop suddenly visions of a vast fortune
popped into his head although he admired the look of the timepiece the savvy buyer liked
the look of a potential payday even more it was just his luck when a prestigious art institution
announced a pop culture related sale christies in london actually already had james bond selections
in their inventory and they were happy to welcome the watch now confirmed to be a thunderball prop
into their auction all kinds of loaded movie fans would be in attendance experts at christie's
estimated that the thunderball accessory owing to its unique nature could fetch over 80 000
that's a price that would make even goldfinger blush but would the watch meet that estimate
when the watch went up for auction the staff could hardly keep up with the stream of bids
they were coming rapid fire just like bonds walther ppk just as the watch was threatening
to overtake big ben as london's most expensive timekeeper the champion bidder hit his mark
nearly doubling the estimated price he shelled out an incredible 160 175 dollars had he only
been at the market weeks earlier that posh buyer could have snagged the breitling for about 0.0002
of the cost at least he has the comfort of owning the most elusive prop in bond history
with all the chaos behind the scenes it's no wonder the franchise lost track of it
you