Antiques Roadshow

GUEST

It was a gift from a friend, um, and I do know that his grandfather purchased it here in a jewelry store in Spokane for about 60 bucks, in clearance, in the late '60s.

APPRAISER

Do you know who made the watch?

GUEST

I thought it was a company by the name of Williams.

APPRAISER

I hate to disappoint you; it's not Williams.

GUEST

It's not Williams?

APPRAISER

It's not Williams. It's the American Waltham Watch Company of Waltham, Massachusetts.

GUEST

Okay.

APPRAISER

All right? We look for the front, you see a classic porcelain dial with Roman numerals. And we open up the main cover, and then we open up the dust cover, and you can see right up on top, it says "American Waltham Watch Company." This watch was made sometime around the late 1800s, 1887. Now, you know, what does this watch do?

GUEST

Um, it chimes, actually. It chimes, like, the hour and then, like, the quarter-hour, or tenth of an hour, or something like that.

APPRAISER

Right, it's a repeater.

GUEST

A repeater.

APPRAISER

Waltham made very, very few repeating watches, and this one is in like-new condition in a case that's absolutely perfect. Let's just show everybody how you activate the repeater. You take this slide over here, you pull it down... (watch chiming) And then you can hear it chiming. It's just extra-crisp. You can see all the engine turning is perfect. Any thoughts on the price?

GUEST

Um, probably a couple of hundred bucks. I mean, you see them in pawn shops all the time. So I, I wouldn't know.

APPRAISER

Get out of here.

GUEST

I, I really, I wouldn't know.

APPRAISER (laughs)

We figure this is probably, on the conservative side, at auction, $6,000 to $8,000.

GUEST

Holy smokes! (laughs) I'm going to have to give that watch back! (both laughing)

APPRAISER

You're a good man.

GUEST

Thanks.