£80k Omega spends 20 years in a drawer until this recent episode of Antiques Roadshow

Zach Blass

As watch collectors we all wish to one day stumble on a “barnyard” find. An old watch that’s dug up and sold at an estate sale by an owner who has no idea what it is actually worth. We hear the stories, and they always seem too good to be true. But they definitely happen and, fortunately, many anecdotes end with a buyer informing the seller of the watch’s real value and meeting them somewhere in the middle between asking price and market price. Sometimes though, programs like Antiques Roadshow are on standby to illuminate the owners of these hidden gems of their true value. And on a recent episode, one man discovered that his brother’s Omega Speedmaster Apollo-Soyuz watch was worth £80,000.

 

 

The watch in question is a rather rare Omega Speedmaster Apollo-Soyuz watch sold in the early months of 1980. The host/appraiser explained to the guest who brought the watch: “It is definitely an Omega Speedmaster Professional. But it doesn’t say that on the dial. It’s got something else very different that makes it unusual and rather special. We’ve got this mission logo, which is the Apollo Soyuz mission, that was three American astronauts and two Russians meeting up in the Apollo capsule, in the Soyuz capsule, in space, in 1975. Remember this was the height of the Cold War so this was an achievement to do this, and at the end of the mission, a particular distributor in Italy, a guy called Marchi, decided to order up a batch of these – some say up to 500, others say 400 now.”

On Omega’s own website, they explain that this special Omega Speedmaster Apollo-Soyuz ref. 1168/633 was created in 1975 for the Italian market, where at the time Speedmaster watches were particularly popular. “Made in a limited edition of 500 pieces to mark this famous American-Soviet space rendez-vous, this watch was the first of the ‘Patch’ watches,” Omega clarifies. “It has the mission patch at 12 o’clock in place of the Omega logo as well as longer markers on the dial, wider pushers, and a unique bracelet.”

This calibre 861-powered Speedmaster clocks in at a standard 42mm in diameter, with the crystal protecting the dial forged in outer space-friendly Hesalite. Its aluminum bezel is configured in the dot-next-to-ninety configuration, rather than the preceding dot-over-ninety. And based on the footage in the video, the luminescent tritium material has evenly aged across the dial.

The appraiser remarks on the exceptional condition of the watch and the provenance, which includes the original receipt upon purchase. When asked if he has ever worn it, the owner of the watch explained why it was in such good nick. “It’s not really my type of watch. I found it a bit heavy, a bit bulky. I’ve stuck it in the drawer thinking: ‘Well, it may come in useful someday’.”

It was then revealed by the appraiser that, in his informed opinion, the watch was worth a minimum of £80,000 – a far stretch beyond the original £300 paid for the watch in 1980. When the expert joked that the man would likely not own the watch for much longer, the owner of the watch confirmed without hesitation he now definitely plans to sell it. While highly sentimental due to its connection with his deceased brother, no one can fault him for wanting to cash in on a watch that he never wears.