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4th December 2019, 05:17 AM
#1
Watch Out
This was posted by Richard Brown secretary to the N.S.W Vindi in our latest news letter.
When Roger Cooper was a young man in the British Merchant Navy, he bought a Speedmaster for 45 pounds in Hong Kong. That was in 1968 and he wore the watch sailing for the next 15 years. The Speedmaster was water resistant up to 200 feet, so why not.
If Cooper knew the future value of that watch, I'm sure he wouldn't have taken it any where near the water, but of course the Speedmaster wasn't an investment strategy or a rare collectable by any means.
It was just a watch to Cooper, and it needed to tell the correct time regardless of what he was doing. It was special because he spent an entire month's salary on it when he bought it in Hong Kong. In 1983 he switched to a Casio and tucked the Speedmaster away.
This wasn't any old Speedmaster, though, unknowingly, Cooper had purchased the Speedmaster "Ultraman" the one the speedy Tuesday folks drew inspiration from when designing this watch. The differentiating design point is the inclusion of an orange chronograph hand, as found in the Speed master MK ll, It earned the Ultraman nickname from it's TV screen debut on a popular show "The return of the Ultraman>" in 1971.
Now, in 2019, the Ultraman is once again a TV star, but this time it appeared on the popular TV show Antiques Roadshow. Cooper brought in the watch for appraisal on air, and specialist Richard Price surprised him when he pegged the value of the watch at 30,000 to 40,000 pounds ,
Cooper ended up selling the watch for 31,000pounds at Gardener Houlgate auction house, they say there are still roughly 50 still around .
Des. With Thanks to Richard
Last edited by Des Taff Jenkins; 4th December 2019 at 05:19 AM.
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