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Andy Richter shares the painful story of how his Rolex, gifted to him by Conan O’Brien, was stolen

Andy Richter shares the painful story of how his Rolex, gifted to him by Conan O’Brien, was stolen

Zach Blass

Watch theft has unfortunately become a dark cloud over the watch world of late. There’s been a noticeable rise in these robberies in recent years and, due to rising concerns, it has definitely had an impact on how and where people wear their watches.  One such victim of this crime was Andy Richter – the actor, comedia, and longtime talkshow sidekick of Conan O’Brien. On a recent episode of his podcast, Three Questions with Andy Richter, Andy shared a painful story with actor Randall Park (a known watch enthusiast) about the time a precious Rolex watch was stolen from his home.

 

 

 

When Conan O’Brien’s time as a network and cable talkshow host came to an end, Andy explains that to celebrate their years of working together, Conan gifted him a Rolex watch – which he describes as the “James Bond Rolex”. Now this could mean a few things. Firstly, it could mean Conan generously gifted him a ref. 6538 “Big Crown” Submariner – the model Sean Connery wore in Dr. No. Secondly, considering the enormous six-figure price tag of that watch, it could mean Conan gifted him a ref. 5513 which Roger Moore wore in his outing as James Bond in the film Live and Let Die. Lastly, it simply could have been any Submariner reference – vintage or modern. I certainly doubt Andy was referring to the Rolex Explorer ref. 1016.  But the specific reference is not the main point here. Nor is the fiscal worth of the watch, as Andy puts it – “it is just a thing”. Were it insured, Andy could have easily taken the insurance payout to purchase an identical model. What ultimately made the watch special, however was that it was one of a kind. It was the fact that Conan gave it to him, and that the caseback had an engraved message from Conan to Andy – making it irreplaceable.

In his recounting of the theft Andy explains: “Somebody swiped it from my closet, a box with three other watches. I didn’t look at it very often, you know. In fact, I barely ever wore it, only on like super special occasions. And it was two months probably before I noticed it was gone – after we fired the religious maniac that I think stole it. But it was inscribed and, over the years, I have looked if anyone has ever found a James Bond Rolex that says: “To Andy from Conan”.

Andy then proceeds to say to the listeners: “If you ever run across it, I don’t know, I’ll probably give you what you want for it – it may hurt my children’s education.”

The pair then proceed to have a more philosophical discussion about the nature of luxury goods and how, in the grand calculus of life, they are just things. But Andy also points out that while there are certainly more important things in life, this item certainly does have an emotional significance to him – enough to make just recounting the theft a painful experience.

You can watch the segment in full above.