it actually belongs to my husband but
you know Texas is a community property
state so I figure it's mine too after
having had his first Rolex bought off
his wrist when we were living in South
America he went to the PX in Panama we
retired military and bought this he
bought it in 1966 and he was enroute to
Vietnam for the first tour so it has
endured a helicopter crash because he
was with the first night of the ninth of
the first kam division it went through
another tour in Vietnam and then he came
home and was having a little brawl with
our son a fun time dropped the watch
broke it so I had to have it repaired so
I sent it to my daughter with
instructions don't let it out of your
sight she took it to Rolex in Dallas
they repaired it he's 88 years old and
now we have to have a new band put on it
what would you suggest should I send it
back to Switzerland where they could
repair it or shall I send it to Dallas
what was his right lieutenant colonel we
call him our hero a he came back to life
but he came back wounded also well I
think everybody here at Antiques
Roadshow would thank him for his service
well we certainly did so now let's talk
about the watch it's a Rolex stainless
steel GMT master this watch has been
around a long time the first one was
built at around 1954 this particular
model the reference one 675 was built
until 1980 we looked up the serial
number it's in the 8 million range was
made in 1963 it is the original band and
I the way I know that is there's a date
from the first quarter of 1963 on the
band it was very popular for this bezel
which was this blue and red back it's
referred to in the business as a Pepsi
bezel soon after this watch was made
they switched something in production if
you look over here these crown guards
are pointed
soon after this year they went to a much
fatter crown guard and it's not pointed
point to crown guard more money okay
Pepsi bezel more money more money all
right
for collective deal how much a hundred
and fifty dollars you had told me when
you came up about the bracelet right
being broken we can see here it's pretty
banged up yes there's nothing wrong with
sending a watch into the company for
service I mean they manufacture the
watch they certainly know what they're
doing but there's little things that you
have to know about a collectible watch
at this point in time that you might
have done a little differently today
that was not even an issue back then
okay all right so I'm gonna start off
with this watch at auction is worth
eight thousand to ten thousand dollars
okay good good right big return on his
investment big return okay here's the
rest of the story when they serviced it
if you see over here it says disc four
revolving bezel replaced right below it
dial and it says the Anur black GMT this
in nineteen ninety eight twenty one
years ago replaced they took about the
second hand and the other hands yes
placed although I noticed the red hand
which is for military time that's the
great thing about this watch it was
actually originally made for Pan Am
it could easily distinguish between
day/night and in different time zones
when you send a watch and today for
service no problem senator Rolex have
them serviced the guts the engine have
them let them do that okay do not let
them refinish the case do not let them
replace the dial and the old days used
to go get a watch service in the sixties
seventies they would actually give you
back the old parts at some point in time
they stopped returning parts that old
bezel was probably all faded and banged
off if it had all been original
15000 to 20000 my word yeah still great
but I think it's there's a big lesson
and all that for people out there will
have these old watches yes
you