Watch: 'Antiques Roadshow' tells veteran in North Dakota his Rolex is worth $700K
This is one of those amazing Antiques Roadshow moments, and it happened in West Fargo, North Dakota.
The show that aired on Monday featured a watch owner by the name of David, who bought a Rolex Oyster Cosmograph watch while serving in the Air Force for the price of $345.97 in 1974.
It was a limited edition watch and he kept all the documents and two receipts for it, and the paperwork that came with it had not been filled out, adding to its value.
Host Peter Planes then told David at the Bonanzaville history museum that his watch at auction could be expected to fetch between $500,000 and $700,000.
"You gotta be [expletive] kidding me?" was his response, quite understandably.
David had earlier fallen to the ground after Planes had suggested an auction price of $400,000 based on the watch, but this was revised upwards because it had never been worn and still had the original foil wrapper on the back of it.
The watch is highly sought after because it's nearly the same as the Rolex worn by Paul Newman in the 1969 racing movie Winning, but David's 1971 watch had the word "Oyster" inscribed on the clock face, which is something Rolex only put on the Cosmograph watches during a limited-time run.
"An absolute fabulous find, it's one of the rarest Paul Newman models, and in this condition I don't think there's a better one in the world," Planes said.
"You can't wear it though," he warned. "If you wear it, it drops down to the $400,000 value."
The video above has since been viewed more than 4.6 million times since it was uploaded by PBS on Monday.
The show featuring David will be repeated on PBS on Monday, Feb. 3 and 10.
