Feature: These Missing Watches Could Be Worth Millions
The whereabouts of the most famous watch in the world and the one that could easily fetch the highest ever price at auction are unknown. Buzz Aldrin’s Omega Speedmaster, worn when he walked on the moon shortly after Neil Armstrong had taken his famous first steps (the latter left his own Speedmaster on the lunar module as back-up), went mysteriously missing on its way to the Smithsonian Museum where it was due to be displayed shortly after Aldrin’s return.
No ransom note emerged, the postman didn’t find it at the bottom of his sack, and it hasn’t been seen since.
In hindsight, at a time when ownership by a mere actor, never mind a world-famous astronaut, can add several zeros to a watch’s value, it’s astonishing that the security around Aldrin’s watch was so lax.
Today it would be delivered in a bomb-proof truck with an armed guard or two. But Aldrin, perhaps suffering from some kind of post-mission cosmic comedown, shipped it in a cardboard box by standard post. Big mistake!
Aldrin’s watch could turn up one day—Scott Carpenter’s Breitling Cosmonaute, the first wristwatch in space, recently resurfaced after going missing for sixty years—but until then we can only guess at the kind of figure it would bring.
Missing Moonwatch aside, there are a host of other watches with famous owners that have vanished over the years, pieces that would have wealthy watch collectors reaching for their cheque books faster than you could say ‘Newman Daytona’.
Here are five we’d love to see resurface one day.
Sugar Ray Robinson’s Patek Philippe
Back in the 1950s, before Muhammad Ali had swung his first punch, Sugar Ray Robinson was the king of the ring, achieving 109 of his 174 wins by knockout. Outside of the ring he was a flamboyant personality credited with being the first athlete to be surrounded by an entourage – friends, agents and sycophantic flunkies catering to his every whim.
A Patek 1518 in rose gold was stolen from boxing great Sugar Ray Leonard. Image courtesy of Phillips
Known for his unerring sense of style, Robinson purchased a rare rose-gold version of a Patek Philippe 1518—a perpetual calendar chronograph of which just 281 were made—at the official Patek boutique in Geneva in the 1950s. Alas it was stolen from his dressing room during a fight in Italy a few months later.
Given that an identical model (pictured) sold at Phillips for $2.3 million in 2019, it’s safe to say that if Robinson’s was discovered and came up for sale it would trump that.
Pasha of Marrakesh’s Cartier
Cartier’s Pasha line takes its name from the former Pasha of Marrakesh, Tami El Glaoui, a wealthy Moroccan royal and loyal Cartier customer who was once one of the world’s richest people. In the 1930s, with the wristwatch now de rigueur, he commissioned Cartier to make a one-off model that could withstand the demands of his active lifestyle—you know the kind of thing: swimming, horse-riding, possibly attending to his harem of concubines.
The Pasha of Marrakesh's bespoke Cartier possibly looked a little like this. Image courtesy of Bonhams
Little is known about the Pasha’s Pasha, other than the fact it had a protective metal grill over the crystal, much like some of the watches made for soldiers in World War I.
If the Pasha’s descendants could dig out this timepiece and wanted to sell it, they’d be in for a substantial windfall.
Hunter S Thompson’s Rolex GMT-Master
While the Rolex GMT-Master frequently worn by literary loose-cannon Hunter S Thompson is probably in the possession of his widow, Anita, it hasn’t been seen since he died in 2005. Should it ever show up for auction, it would attract serious interest from buyers and be a very cool watch to own, given its previous owner and his notoriety.
Literary wildman Hunter S. Thompson owned a Rolex GMT Master 16700
Thompson, who wore a 16700 ‘Coke’ version similar to the 'Pepsi' one pictured above, made several references to his Rolexes (he is believed to have owned more than one during his lifetime) in his writing. In one memoir he writes of being in Saigon at the tail-end of the Vietnam War and selling a Rolex for $200 so that he could pay his tailor.
Could that watch turn up in a Vietnam pawnshop one of these days? Even if it does, we’ll probably never know.
Rudolph Valentino’s Cartier Tank
The Hollywood sex symbol of his day, Valentino was so attached to his Cartier Tank that he insisted on wearing it when playing the lead in the 1926 silent movie The Son of the Sheikh. Cartier got the kind of free global publicity for their flagship watch that brands can only dream of today, and it set the watch on the path to icon status, later worn by everyone from Princess Diana to Muhammad Ali.
Imagine owning the very Tank worn by the man who put it on the map. Image courtesy of Bonhams
But what happened to Valentino’s personal Tank? Given his attachment to the watch and the fact that he had no children to bequeath it to, it was likely interred with him in his crypt in a Los Angeles cemetery.
Suffice to say if it ever does turn up it will be worth a six-figure sum, at least.
The Queen of Naples’ Breguet
Said to be the first watch designed to be worn specifically on the wrist, Breguet’s timepiece made in 1811 for Caroline Murat—aka the Queen of Naples—featured a strap made from Murat’s hair intertwined with gold thread. She is said to have purchased many watches from Breguet, whose pocket watches from the 19th century are still relatively easy to find at auction—many of them ticking along nicely—but this one would have been particularly special.
The Breguet made for Marie Antoinette, which also went missing for many years
Alas it hasn’t been seen for centuries. However a more famous Breguet pocket watch made for Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France, was stolen from a Jerusalem Museum in 1983 and, incredibly, recovered 24 years later. So you never know...
Shop pre-owned Patek Philippe watches
