Antiques Roadshow

GUEST

The watch belonged to my husband's grandfather. He was a vice-president of an oil company, and while he was vice-president, he brought in a large oil field in Southern California. And when that happened, they presented him with this watch, this Patek Philippe.

APPRAISER

You can see that the dial has Arabic numbers made out of gold on a silvered metal dial. And then it's surrounded by chasing and enamel. The hands themselves are gold. We can take a look at the inscription on the watch. This watch was made by Patek Philippe, which is a company founded in Switzerland in the 1830s. And their great contribution to watches was Mr. Philippe discovered how you could wind and set the watch at a crown, getting rid of watch keys. Now, looking inside there, we see a beautiful nickel finish movement. Patek Philippe is famous for very, very high quality watches. But they made very, very many of them, and the story of this watch is that it was presented in 1928. We can check the serial number, which was around 800,000, and indeed the watch itself was made in 1928. Now, Patek Philippe is still in business. They make very many high-end watches, but not all of them are of the absolute top quality. But if you look closely at this watch, you will see right about there a small seal from the Geneva Observatory that tells you that this was a certified chronometer. It was a special watch. It has a beautiful chain, gold, enamel, that matches, actually, the gold and enamel work on the side of the case. And quite commonly you'll see a fob on the other side or in this case a very nice gilt metal pocketknife. Most watches which are kept as family heirlooms have really very, very little value beyond the sentimental. On the other hand, you are very fortunate to have one of the finest Swiss watches ever made and actively collected. If you were thinking about replacing this watch, going to a store and finding another one, you would probably spend over $5,000 to replace it.

GUEST

Oh, my goodness. Five thousand?

APPRAISER

Yeah. You couldn't make this watch today for $5,000 or $6,000. If you had to go to the factory and ask them to make it, you would end up probably spending $15,000 or $20,000.

GUEST

Oh, my.